Taylor Swift's become a cultural hot-button, a go-to subject for sweet stories about young girls' first concerts, and a serious money-maker on her consistently sold-out tour. But Washingtonian staffers Erin Delmore and Jason Koebler reported back from her show at the Verizon Center and found some odd elements to her performance, some backwards messages in her songs, and some creepy dudes in the audience for the girl who claims to "loves Washington, DC as much as she loves burning her ex-boyfriends' pictures." But don't worry, folks. Erin and Jason still aren't giving up on "Love Story" when it comes time for karaoke.
Jason: Can I first preface this with saying I went to the concert with my ten year old sister, and it was her Christmas present, and she loved it?
Erin: And… you loved it.
Jason: I loved parts of it
Erin: Well, I'm a shameless 23-year-old Taylor Swift fan. No excuses necessary.
Jason: She's a little melodramatic. Actually, she's really melodramatic.
Erin: But I'd say I loved "parts" of her show last night, too
Jason: I actually really like her music, and I think she was fantastic while performing the songs
Erin: I believe my friend said some of the choreography and set design made her look "mentally unhinged"
Jason: My sister said "she really like spinning and flipping her hair," which I think is a valid point.
Erin: That's true; she can certainly sing while dancing. I'll give her that. She's made major strides since her Grammy performance.
Jason: Yes, to recap, I think she played basically every song worth playing in just over 2 hours, changed outfits like 7 times and had both confetti and fake rain involved.
Jason: I think if I was a 12 year old girl I would have enjoyed hugging her. I also think watching a singer hug about 100 people in the middle of her show was pretty boring.
Erin: As a 23 year old girl, I enjoyed high-fiving her.
Erin: Taylor's got this look, the way I'd describe it is "staged disbelief."
Erin:I mean, it's pretty endearing the first time.
Erin: But the stare-it's a slow head turn, left to right, and something of an "ohmygosh" expression on her face. Those stares might have totaled 30 mins of the show.
Jason: I especially loved when she put her hand on her heart, like she just couldn't believe this was happening to her, like it was a fairy tale.
Jason:Which, I guess, it is – but let's keep in mind this is the girl who has sold out almost every single one of the shows on this tour
Jason: Who has been doing this every single night.
Erin: for two years.
Jason: Yes.
Jason:Including once in Columbia, to most of the same people
Jason: So, the show really hammered something home to me that I had never thought about before
Jason: Taylor Swift is possibly the most under-the-radar creepy person in the world.
Jason: It's hard to think that a 20 year old girl could be so creepy, but you get the sense that any guy who looks at her wrong is going to have a song written about him.
Jason: Some of the videos they showed yesterday were just terrifying to watch, as a guy.
Jason: Teardrops on My Guitar, the one about Drew, the only guy who has enough of TayTay to break her heart, is about this Drew character, who wronged her by happening to have a girlfriend while they were in the same class
Erin: Then there's the biting "Forever and Always" about Mr. Joe Jonas
Jason: It's like she's training a bunch of 12 year olds to hate every guy ever.
Erin: You know, I was thinking about that last night
Erin: Taylor's is more centered around dragging guys down together
Erin: and, grated, some of those values are worthwhile– guys, don't break up with your girlfriends via text messages. Don't cheat on your girlfriends. And marching band uniforms are sexy.
Jason: Dear everyone, did you know that Taylor Swift loves Washington DC as much as she loves burning her ex-boyfriends' pictures?
Jason: And that is A LOT
Erin: Oh, yeah. Now THAT was something.
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