Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour - Nashville Night 3

The rain came pouring down

On November 15th, 2022 I was lucky enough to score a pair of tickets in the infamous Ticketmaster presale disaster that left fans waiting hours to access tickets to the hottest summer tour - Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour. After 7 hours of waiting in an online queue, I was lucky enough to get tickets to the venue closest to my location on the only day I was able to go - and at an affordable price. I cried. It was hectic. It was chaos. It was in true Swiftian fashion - emotional.

I had been looking forward to this day for months! I couldn’t wait for my pilgrimage to Nashville to see the artist I’ve been a fan of since I was 15 years old with one of my best friends. The outfit planning, and the playlist creation all led to this moment. I originally had tickets to see Taylor in 2020 at Lovefest (RIP), but sadly due to the pandemic, the show was canceled. 4 albums later - so I was more than ready to finally sing my heart out in a stadium full of fans just like me. After a treacherous 5 hour's drive from Indiana to Nashville through a torrential downpour, we arrived. We were ready for it. And of course, the rain came pouring down.

Shortly after arriving at the stadium in our sequin dresses - a shelter-in-place order was released and we huddled in the concrete hallway outside of our section. For the first hour spirits were high. Songs were sung, friendship bracelets were traded, and we all still had hope. Unfortunately, the shelter-in-place continued on for hours and hours as the city of Nashville with hit with a lightning storm of the ages. After nearly 5 hours of sitting in puddles on the concrete floor, we experienced a rollercoaster of emotions. Spirits were saved by bottles of water and stadium pretzels. And at 10 PM CST - a roar came from the crowd. ALL CLEAR. The show would go on.

Taylor would come on at 10:30 PM to play the full 3-hour show, with two special guests and three surprise songs through the pouring rain. It was miserable. It was magical. It was the best concert I’ve ever seen in my life. Below are my five favorite songs from the now infamous Nashville rain show - a night I know I’ll never ever forget.

1. Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve - Taylor Swift

We knew that Taylor had something special up her sleeve for all her fans who stuck around in the rain for the show, but damn were we lucky.

Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve is easily one of my favorite tracks off of Midnights, and one I never thought she’d ever perform live. The song is about regret - a feeling we all have experienced but rarely ever want to fess up to feeling. In a society where we often reflect on lessons learned, it can feel weird to admit you actually regret a decision. In WCS - Taylor admits she regrets a relationship all the time and the everlasting hurt it caused her. She admits that if she never followed the path she followed, she may have been able to hang on to her girlhood for just a little longer. I can’t help but think of a few situations of my own that have changed my life forever that I regret. This song is so comforting in taking the hurt and pain from a common and less talked about human emotion and crafting those feelings into a masterful song. Easily one of Taylor’s best. Singing (let’s be real, screaming) this song in a stadium full of other fans with Aaron Dessner on guitar felt like a group healing moment, and one I’ll never ever forget.

Favorite Lyrics: “Living for the thrill of hitting you where it hurts/ give me back my girlhood it was mine first”

2. my tears ricochet - Taylor Swift

When Taylor Swift released folklore in July 2020, it quickly became a defining album for me. It was haunting, beautiful, and life-saving. A bright spot through the dark days of the pandemic when everything seemed uncertain and doomed. It’s no surprise that my tears ricochet became my favorite track - if not my favorite Taylor Swift song ever. We were blessed to see Taylor perform this emotional ballad in the pouring rain. She gave us her all belting this track out alongside us all singing it right back at her.

When I first heard my tears ricochet, the lyrics helped me overcome getting laid off from a job I really loved during the pandemic. Today it helps me overcome the pain of walking away from a toxic job in hopes of finding something better. When you can go anywhere you want, but you can’t go home you have t pick yourself up and charge forward. Hope that what you left behind isn’t the end, but the beginning of something better. Sometimes you don’t have it in yourself to go with grace, you just have to go.

Favorite Lyrics: “And I can go anywhere I want /Anywhere I want, just not home/ And you can aim for my heart, go for blood/ But you would still miss me in your bones.”

3. Nothing New - Taylor Swift ft. Phoebe Bridgers

Looking back on the whole rain delay ordeal, the thing I'm most upset about is the fact that I did not get to see Phoebe Bridgers perform. I have been a fan for so long and longed for the day I was able to scream I Know the End in a crowded room - that dream remains just a dream, but how sweet will it be when it’s achieved?

Phoebe still came out to sing her Red (Taylor’s Version) duet of Nothing New in the pouring rain. This was one of the most wholesome moments of the show as you watched Phoebe gaze over the crowd proud and happy to be there with all of us. Nothing New is a song about growing up and fearing losing relevance. This feeling is new to me as I enter my 30’s, and it’s comforting to know that other women (even Taylor freakin’ Swift) confront those same feelings.

Favorite Lyrics: “I’ve had too much to drink tonight, how did I go from growing up to breaking down?”

4. tolerate it - Taylor Swift

Admittedly, tolerate it as a skip song for me until this tour. It’s a dark song confronting the really uncomfortable feeling that your lover is just tolerating the things you do in an attempt to make them feel special. Maybe uncomfortable isn’t the right word for it, it’s downright devasting.

During the performance of this song, Taylor sets a very long table for her lover only for them to arrive and be nonchalant and not acknowledge the effort she put in to lay the table with the fancy shit. It’s devasting for love to just be tolerated, not when it should be celebrated. I thought the performance of this song on tour was incredibly beautiful and haunting - and it made me fall in love with the evermore track.

Favorite Lyrics: “I wait by the door like I'm just a kid/Use my best colors for your portrait/Lay the table with the fancy shit/And watch you tolerate it”

5. Don’t Blame Me - Taylor Swift

When I say Taylor took us to church during Don’t Blame Me - I really really mean it. The vocals on this reputation era track have only gotten better with age and Taylor delivered an incredible performance. As a self-proclaimed reputation era girlie, I love the theme of falling in love while the rest of the world falls away and falls apart. I don’t care what anyone says, reputation walked so Lover could run.

Don’t Blame Me perfectly encapsulates what it’s like to fall deeply in love, real love, and have it completely take you over to a point of beautiful insanity. During this performance, the spotlights lit up the stormy sky in a mesmerizing pattern. This song was easily a top song from the reputation stadium tour and has only been cemented as an iconic Swift track by The Eras’ Tour. And of course, the transition from Don’t Blame Me to Look What You Made Me Do was flawless and has been stuck in my head since the show/

Favorite Lyrics: “I get so high, oh/Every time you're, every time you're lovin' me”

PS. I’m beginning my Europe trip this week so the newsletter updates will be sporadic. I’m looking forward to taking you all along on our journey!