The Eras Tour kicked off March 17 in Glendale Arizona with so many amazing moments.  Today, I am sharing my top 5 takeaways from this epic concert. 

Now, before the tour kicked off I made some predictions.  I fully plan to go over my hits and misses in a separate video, but first let’s review what happened!

Take Aways From the Eras Tour

The Eras Tour Opening Song:  Miss Americana & The Heart Break Prince

The opening song no one saw coming.  With Anti-Hero at #1 for weeks and the Lavender Haze music video recently dropping, everyone was expecting Taylor to take the catchy lines from these Midnights hits:  It’s Me, Hi!  Or Meet Me at Midnight to open the tour.  But nope, instead she basically told us what it was going to be and we chose to ignore all the signs. 

When the ERAS Tour was announced on social media.  Taylor posted this: 

Now, read the last line:  It’s been a long time coming. 

Exactly.  The line from Miss Americana & the Heart Break Prince.  Which fits absolutely perfectly for the first tour after you had to cancel your last tour because of a global pandemic and you’ve written 3 more albums since. 

I mentioned in my predictions that with Lover Fest completely baked as a tour, she would probably pick up some elements to use in the Eras Tour.  I just completely missed that she would open with it! But it makes sooooooo much sense. 

The lesson learned here is that Taylor Swift plants subtle Easter Eggs and we all make them into planet sized theories. 

Taylor Swift Eras Tour official set list

1. “Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince”
2. “Cruel Summer”
3. “The Man”
4. “You Need to Calm Down”
5. “Lover”
6. “The Archer”
7. “Fearless”
8. “You Belong With Me”
9. “Love Story”
10. ” ‘Tis the Damn Season”
11. “Willow”
12. “Marjorie”
13. “Champagne Problems”
14. “Tolerate It”
15. “Ready For It?”
16. “Delicate”
17. “Don’t Blame Me”
18. “Look What You Made Me Do”
19. “Enchanted”
20. “Long Live” (added July 7)
21. “22”
22. “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”
23. “I Knew You Were Trouble”
24. “All Too Well (10 Minute Version)”
25. “Invisible String” / “the 1”
26. “Betty”
27. “The Last Great American Dynasty”
28. “August”
29. “Illicit Affairs”
30. “My Tears Ricochet”
31. “Cardigan”
32. “Style”
33. “Blank Space”
34. “Shake it Off”
35. “Wildest Dreams”
36. “Bad Blood”
37. surprise song
38. surprise song 
39. “Lavender Haze”
40. “Anti-Hero”
41. “Midnight Rain”
42. “Vigilante Shit”
43. “Bejeweled”
44. “Mastermind”
45. “Karma”

All the Surprise Songs Taylor Swift has played on the Eras Tour

• “Mirrorball” (March 17: Glendale, Arizona, State Farm Stadium)
• “Tim McGraw” (March 17: Glendale)
• “This Is Me Trying” (March 18: Glendale)
• “State of Grace” (March 18: Glendale)
• “Our Song” (March 24: Las Vegas, Allegiant Stadium)
• “Snow on the Beach (March 24 Las Vegas)
• “White Horse” (March 25: Las Vegas)
• “Cowboy Like Me” (March 25: Las Vegas) performed with Marcus Mumford
• “Sad Beautiful Tragic”(March 31: Arlington, TX)
• “Ours” (March 31, Arlington, TX)
• “Death By a Thousand Cuts” (April 1, Arlington, TX)
• “Clean” (April 1, Arlington, TX)
• “Jump Then Fall” (April 2, Arlington, TX)
• “The Lucky One” (April 2, Arlington, TX)
• “Speak Now” (April 13, Tampa, FL)
• “Treacherous” (April 13, Tampa, FL)
• “You’re On Your Own Kid”(April 14, Tampa FL)
• “The Great War”(April 14, Tampa FL) performed with Aaron Dessner
• “Mean” (April 15, Tampa FL)
• “Mad Woman” (April 15, Tampa FL) performed with Aaron Dessner
• “Wonderland” (April 21, Houston, TX)
• “You’re Not Sorry” (April 21, Houston, TX)
• “A Place In This World” (April 22, Houston, TX)
• “Today Was a Fairytale” (April 22, Houston, TX)
• “Begin Again” (April 23, Houston, TX)
• “Cold As You” (April 23, Houston, TX)
• “The Other Side of the Door” (April 28, Atlanta, GA)
• “Coney Island” (April 28, Atlanta, GA)
• “Gorgeous” (April 29, Atlanta, GA)
• “High Infidelity” (April 29, Atlanta, GA)
• “I Bet You Think About Me” (April 30, Atlanta, GA)
• “How You Get the Girl” (April 30, Atlanta, GA)
• “Sparks Fly” (May 5, Nashville, TN)
• “Teardrops on my Guitar” (May 5, Nashville, TN)
• “Out of the Woods” (May 7, Nashville, TN)
• “Fifteen” (May 6, Nashville, TN)
• “Mine” (May 7, Nashville, TN)
• “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” (May 7, Nashville, TN)
• “Come Back, Be Here” (May 12, Philadelphia, PA)
• “Gold Rush” (May 12, Philadelphia, PA)
• “Forever and Always” (May 13, Philadelphia, PA)
• “This Love” (May 13, Philadelphia, PA)
• “The Best Day” (May 14, Philadelphia, PA)
• “Hey Stephen” (May 14, Philadelphia, PA)
• “Better Man” (May 19, Foxborough, MA)
• “Should’ve Said No” (May 19, Foxborough, MA)
• “Question…?” (May 20, Foxborough, MA)
• “Invisible” (May 20, Foxborough, MA)
• “Red” (May 21, Foxborough, MA)
• “I Think He Knows (May 21, Foxborough, MA)
• “Getaway Car” (May 26, Meadowlands, NJ)
• “Maroon” (May 26, Meadowlands, NJ)
• “Holy Ground” (May 27, Meadowlands, NJ)
• “False God” (May 27, Meadowlands, NJ)
• “Welcome to NY” (May 28, Meadowlands, NJ)
• “Clean” (May 28, Meadowlands, NJ)
• ” I Wish You Would” (June 2, Chicago, IL)
• “The Lakes” (June 2, Chicago, IL)
• “You All Over Me” with Maren Morris (June 3, Chicago, IL)
• “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever” (June 3, Chicago, IL)
• “The Moment I Knew” (June 4, Chicago, IL)
• “Hit’s Different” (June 4, Chicago, IL)
• “Haunted” (June 9, Detroit, MI)
• “I Almost Do” (June 9, Detroit, MI)
• “All You Had To Do Was Stay” (June 10, Detroit, MI)
• “Breathe” (June 10, Detroit, MI)
• “The Last Time” (June 16, Pittsburgh, PA)
• “Mr. Perfectly Fine” (June 16, Pittsburgh, PA)
• “Seven” (June 17, Pittsburgh, PA)
• “The Story of Us” (June 17, Pittsburgh, PA)
• “Paper Rings” (June 23, Minneapolis, MN)
• “If This Were A Movie” (June 23, Minneapolis, MN)
• “Dear John” (June 24, Minneapolis, MN)
• “Daylight” (June 24, Minneapolis, MN)
• “I’m Only Me When I’m With You” (June 30, Cincinnati, OH)
• “Evermore” (June 30, Cincinnati, OH)
• “Ivy” (July 1, Cincinnati, OH)
• “Call It What You Want” (July 1, Cincinnati, OH)
• “Never Grow Up” (July 7, Kansas City, MO)
• “When Emma Falls in Love’ (July 7, Kansas City, MO)
• “Last Kiss” (July 8, Kansas City, MO)
• “Dorthea” (July 8, Kansas City, MO)

SET LIST UPDATES: 

At Arlington, TX Taylor swapped out “Invisible String” for “The 1” to open the folklore era.  Additionally, she told the crowd that she “messed up” Clean and DBATC, which means she’ll probably repeat those songs.  From this, I would expect to see more and more changes and surprises to the setlist.

At Nashville, Taylor surprised the crowd to announce Speak Now TV will be out July, 7.  Also, Pheobe Bridgers joined her on stage to sing “Nothing New”.  This looks like it will be part of the setlist when Pheobe is the opening act.

She Neatly Took Us Through Her Era

Again, the Midnights album really had everyone focusing on her last body of work, while Taylor clearly called this and told us it was the Eras Tour.  She didn’t even sing Midnights songs until the end!

Instead, we pick up right where we left her.  Ready to perform Lover.  She neatly kept the setlist in each Era/album.  There were no mash ups.  No jumping around from era to era. No telling us which Midnights song corresponded to a previous era.  Just simple and straightforward. 

And this makes sense because I’m sure in some way Taylor thinks of her albums as children.  She loves them all and the idea that Lover, Folklore and Evermore never got the attention they deserve, she’s going to give them their moment. 

The All Too Well Strategy

Now, I completely theorized that Folklore and Evermore would be downplayed on this tour as these songs were not created with a stadium tour in mind.  These were slower, more intimate songs for similarly described venues.  But then I thought of the All Too Well Effect and now I know why she played so many of these songs. 

All Too Well is a Track 5 song off her 4th album Red.  We all now know the song very well, but not so much when it was released in 2012.  It was never a single, but Taylor included it on the set list for her Red Tour and from there it developed a cult-like following. 

So the All Too Well Effect, is of course Taylor is going to draw you in and entertain you with #1 hits and chart topping bops.  But she’s also going to make you slowly fall in love with the songs she poured her heart into.  

The second piece of that is her move towards directing, filmmaking and storytelling. When introducing Betty, she gave the backstory of creating characters,  writing their script of how to apologize and escaping with other people’s dramas. I think that’s why we also got the song The Last Great American Dynasty.  Taylor is introducing us to these stories so maybe one day we not only recognize but love them when they are films or even movies one day. 

She’s Always Watching

Taylor for years has told us that she knows everything that people say about her.  I mean, just listen to the song Blank Space. I even theorized in a TikTok post that her true “reputation era” was beyond just the album but she was addressing her reputation still in Lover and with Folklore/Evermore. 

During the opening weekend, she addressed the crowd with the rumor that ‘she hates Evermore’.  Which she said is completely untrue.  But this 1, shows us that is always watching and listening so I can’t even imagine how much she knows.  And 2: she deliberately called this rumor out.  She has the platform to address any rumor or misconception she wants. So it’s interesting to see if she’ll do this more. 

We’re getting all the re-records!

Taylor explicitly said this while talking about the 4 new members of the family since she last went on tour.  Swifties have been theorizing when these will drop.  Or even if they will even come at all if she potentially owns her masters.  But now Taylor has put those theories to bed. 

One observation with that is the small roles that Speak Now and Debut played in the official set list with only one song each.  SN had six singles and I’m surprised we didn’t even get The Story of Us.  And Debut we could have also gotten Our Song and Should’ve Said No”. So wondering if there is more in story for albums 1 & 3 (yes, I know that you mash them together and get 13!). 

The Eras Tour Final Thoughts…

After this first opening weekend, I expect more to come as the tour moves on.  Not only is Taylor a mastermind and an amazing storyteller, she is brilliant at Marketing.  She’s going to keep people interested beyond the first weekend.  For example, there were no surprise guests so I predict that will happen going forward.  Also, I need to see this all for myself to better understand the lover house. 

Also, now that we know the official set list, I made a workout playlist that you can find HERE. You can also check out more Taylor Swift posts on the blog like my Question..? song breakdown. 

Have an amazing day!