Taylor. Swift.

November 2

Some of you know I love music. Some of you know I love music I can sing to. Some of you know I love music I can dance to. Drawing the obvious conclusion – I love Taylor Swift. Warning: there are a ton of videos in this post. I’m sorry. Every one is essential.

I have loved Taylor Swift since 2006 when her first album came out. I loved her when she wrote/performed country music and I loved her as she transitioned to pop.

That said, I have never seen Taylor Swift live in concert. As Michael and I have traveled this year, we have been constantly watching some of our favorite artists to see if there was any time that we’d be able to catch a show while traveling. When I found out that TayTay was going to be performing in Australia around the same time that we were going to be there, I reached out to Leigh to see if he had any interest in going. He already had tickets! Perfect! From there, Michael and I organized the end of our trip around the Taylor Swift concert.

As we got closer to the big day I found out that Craig wasn’t going to be able to make it back from his trip abroad in time for the concert which meant I was going to be living large with Leigh and Mietta at T Swift. Reminder: we met the delightful Mietta, Leigh’s daughter, in Capri earlier this year.

A bunch of stuff went wrong on this day. It was a comedy of errors really, but as one thing went wrong, it opened up some extra time to adjust for another issue. It started with the Sydney Bridge climb. We booked the long climb on accident and then couldn’t adjust to the express climb. This meant I was going to miss my departure time from the hotel with Leigh. But Mietta was flying in from Melbourne for the concert and her flight was delayed, so our departure time got pushed back which allowed us to still do the climb. Then her flight got delayed a bit more so instead of picking her up from the airport she was going to meet us at the concert. This change in plans meant that it wasn’t that big of a deal when we had car trouble the entire way to the concert and had to drive at about 20 kph out to Olympic Stadium. Since the car had a major transmission issue, we left it in the parking lot to be towed to a mechanic the next day and had the good fortune of being able to take public transportation home. It was probably faster, PLUS we got to see the clever way that they renamed the station stop:

So we made it to the concert despite Leigh’s frustrations with the car and waited (as patiently as possible) for Mietta’s Uber to arrive. Then another terrible thing happened that ended up being wonderful: it started to rain. Not just a little. It rained a ton! Torrential downpour. This postponed the concert and gave us ample time to collect Mietta, stow her bag at the hotel next to the stadium, and grab food and a few drinks before settling in to our incredible seats.

Insane seats!!!!

After being settled in we had another hour or so before Taylor finally went on stage. They didn’t wait for the rain to stop – they just played right through it. It was incredible. Her stage had no overhang, so Taylor was drenched in a matter of seconds. But her and her team put on an amazing show making me love her even more than I did at the beginning of the night.

And she loves us too because we’re real friends:

https://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/img_5905.mov

Reputation Tour:

https://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/img_5907.mov

Michael’s favorite:

https://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/img_6835.mov

Some of you may have noticed that Michael isn’t mentioned in this post. He wasn’t invited. Michael likes some of T Swift’s music. But not all of it and he has a way of letting others know his opinion of music in real time. Basically I was worried he was going to ruin it for me. He was also worried about that. So we decided together it would be better if he not attend.

Snake.

https://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/img_6836.mov

My favorite song from the album:

https://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/img_6837.movhttps://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/img_6839-1.mov

Please notice the awesome drummer and the snakes above.

Here you can see just how insane the rain is:

https://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/img_5909.mov

Also note the glowing wrist bands. They are all coordinated so they glow in time to the music and change colors. They’re amazing.

To say I was having fun would be the understatement of the year.

https://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/img_5910.mov

With all the rain, the people working at the venue basically just gave up on any type of order. People were standing on chairs and just basically going wherever they wanted. It gave us some great dancing space.

But it did start off fairly well organized:

That time Leigh went for drinks and instead just got really close to the side stage:

https://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/img_4974.trim_.mov

Snake.

https://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/img_5915-1.mov

This is that time that Taylor Swift ripped her fake eyelashes off mid-song. I saw it happen and thought it was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen on stage. Then I saw that Mietta was recording at the time and was completely jacked that we had that great moment memorialized!

https://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/img_6962.trim_.mov

Some piano time:

https://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/img_6908.mov

https://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/img_6913.movhttps://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/img_6914.mov

To say it was a spectacle would be the second biggest understatement of the year.

https://www.thatsonourlist.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/img_6948.trim_.mov

In case you’re wondering what TayTay thought of the concert, she had an awesome time as well:

The biggest thank you to Leigh and Mietta for letting me tag along. I had an absolute blast. I will definitely be making it to all of Taylor Swift’s shows in the future. Maybe this is my calling in the next phase of my life: groupie!