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MSU 'Swift Squad' members reflect on Eras Tour experiences

June 14, 2023
Taylor Swift performs at Ford Field in Detroit on June 10, 2023. Photo courtesy of TAS Rights Management.
Taylor Swift performs at Ford Field in Detroit on June 10, 2023. Photo courtesy of TAS Rights Management.

Even with The Eras Tour featuring a marathon 44 songs, spanning nine eras, over the course of 180-minute shows performed two nights in a row, members of MSU's Taylor Swift Club were ‘Ready for It’ and left wanting more of Taylor Swift’s performance in Detroit. Swift brought the highly anticipated tour to Ford Field on June 9 and June 10, attracting a combined 130,000 concertgoers

Criminal justice sophomore and Taylor Swift Club member Kathryn Solowczuk was among the thousands of attendees at Ford Field during the second Detroit performance. She said that her high expectations for the concert “were definitely met.” 

Swift came on stage performing a shortened version of "Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince," subsequently kicking off her show with songs from the "Lover" album

As the tour’s name suggests, Swift performed songs from each of her albums, referred to as eras. Each era was accompanied by respective set designs, performances by her team of dancers and musicians and, of course, costumes worn by Swift

Mechanical engineering sophomore Jack Hughes said that his favorite Era of the concert was "Midnights," due to the pyrotechnics used during the performance that “added to the whole effect that wasn’t during the other Eras.” 

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The Eras Tour was Hughe’s first large-scale concert, which he said was “pretty incredible.”

Since Swift kicked off the tour in Glendale, Arizona in March, fans of the pop star, also known as ‘Swifties,’ established a myriad of traditions to celebrate the artist’s return to touring after a five-year hiatus from live performances, including proposals during "Love Story" and the exchange of homemade friendship bracelets displaying the names of her songs. Since the Reputation tour took place in 2018, Swift has released four new albums and two re-recordings of her previous work

Hughes said that many of the traditions stem from Swift's lyrics or the meaning behind her songs

“The whole bracelet thing came from ‘You're On Your Own Kid.’ There's a lyric in there talking about friendship bracelets,” he said. “A few other traditions, the whole snake symbol, and the certain things you see through songs that come from Taylor herself really, little things that are dropped in music videos."

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The Taylor Swift Club’s group chat, named the "MSU Swift Squad," has served as an outlet to discuss all facets of the show leading up to, and throughout, the tour, according to Solowczuk

“A lot of us have just been talking about the songs that we want, or the outfits that we're wearing,” she said

Swift’s surprise songs serve as one of the one of the most anticipated aspects of each show for particularly devoted Swifties. During this part of the concert, she performs two acoustic renditions of songs from her discography that she normally does not play on tour, with just her and her guitar or piano.

Swift set a goal of not playing the same song twice, making this portion of the concert particularly exciting, or devastating, for Swifties who follow along with her tour and make predictions about which songs she will play next.

The surprise songs are performed after her performance of songs from the "1989" era and the finale performance of songs from "Midnights," her most recent album

On the first night in Detroit, she played "Haunted" from the album "Speak Now" and "I Almost Do" from the album "Red." On night two, the songs were "All You Had to Do Was Stay" from "1989" and "Breathe" from "Fearless." 

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Solowczuk said that trying to predict in the club group chat which songs Swift would perform in Detroit was an especially enjoyable experience

“It’s really fun to just have people in a group chat that you can talk about it with, especially when it comes to it being time for the surprise songs. It’s really fun to freak out with each other,” she said.

For Solowczuk, the surprise songs portion was the highlight of the performance. "All You Had to Do Was Stay" and "Breathe" were her favorite songs from each of their respective albums.

“I was really excited because both of them were my favorite songs from the albums that they were from,” Solowczuk said. “So I was very, very pleased with them.” 

Hughes said that he is excited for Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) to be released July 7, as well as being excited to see what she does next without scouring for the "easter eggs" that many Swifties look for in everything she does.

“I'm along for the ride,” he said. “I'm not trying to decipher anything.” 

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