Jenn, the kids and I were back in Canada this summer for a little vacation – when we were planning out the all-important itinerary for our trip, we did a quick search to see if there was anything interesting happening concert-wise in either Vancouver or Edmonton / Calgary during the time we were going to be back. We usually have a look and typically there is never anything of note that works in with our schedule. But not this time!
Turned out Taylor Swift was playing in Edmonton on the 4th and 5th of August – we were due to fly to Vancouver on July 30th, hang out with Wendy & Co for a few days then head out to Alberta by the 2nd, so it had potential to work out… but in the end we had to scrap it as we wouldn’t be near the city on the 5th. Out of curiosity I checked Vancouver and it turned out there was a concert on the 1st, which ultimately worked perfectly!
I asked Jenn if we were going to bring the kids (“no way!”), so instead of two kids we got a ticket for Jenn’s sister Wendy and spent a little extra to get better seats… and ended up right up close to the stage; we were on the floor, about 20 rows back from the main stage but only about 10 seats away from the catwalk that Taylor would utilize throughout the performance. (And yes, we’re on a first-name basis.)
The first opening act was Shawn Mendes – hadn’t heard of him before, he’s a Canadian singer, very young – he was decent. The second act was Vance Joy, who’s name I couldn’t place but did actually recognize a song of his from the radio (“Riptide”). Again, good performance. Jenn, Wendy and I were happy to listen but not glued to our seats enough to not go and grab a beer or two before Taylor came on.
Here we go!
The stage setup was pretty cool – nothing too elaborate mechanically (at least it seemed that way at first…), she had a long catwalk that took her deep into the middle of her 45,000 fans packed into BC place. There were tons of lights on the main stage that produced some really interesting effects – like rain – which was oddly realistic feeling. The best lighting effect, though, was actually these LED wristbands that every single person found on their seat upon arrival – they had a bright blue, red, and white light inside and they were controlled by the lighting system, so during parts of the show there would make them all shine the same color (sometimes they were all red, sometimes all blue, etc.)… think modern day version of holding up a lighter except everyone has one! Very awesome.
Her seemingly conventional catwalk actually tipped up at one end during part of the show, which was pretty cool…
One of her big things during this tour is to have a surprise guest performer who (as she explained before they came out) came and played for free and each one got to choose the city they would perform in. Vancouver’s guest was Nico & Vinz, who’s song “Am I Wrong?” you may have heard… I was a bit disappointed with this selection (was hoping for some of her supermodel friends or maybe her buddy Ed Sheeran or something), but beggars can’t be choosers, so enjoy the song we did!
She played a few instruments during the show – as she should – those are the songs that I like the best! The acoustic guitar came out for a song or two and she played the piano for a few as well, but I think my fav song on the night was her Joan-Jett-esque rock re-make of her earlier hit “We Are Never Getting Back Together”, which was pretty awesome. Electric guitar, leather outfit, good song – it just worked.
Sparkly!
Taylor finished the night with “Shake It Off”, and during this number the entire catwalk was vaulted in the air and ended up twirling around… fairly impressive. We were close enough that when it turned around it went over our heads…!
It was a great concert (not that we have a lot to compare it to!), she put on a really great show. We had been enjoying her “1989” album at home since it came out, and seeing it all performed live was fantastic – no doubt she has a ton of talent.
Might just be a closet Swiftie. Maybe.
I took some video of the concert as well, of course the mic on the camera wasn’t up to the challenge but I did a brief 4+ minute recap of the show…
(The walk back to Tim & Wendy’s was pretty nice as well, Science World was all lit up and there was a deep orange full moon to gaze at on the way…)