The End of an Eras: Saying Farewell to the Eras Tour

It’s been a long time coming…

Two years ago today, our Eras tour journey began in Nashville for Night 2. It was a long time coming indeed…

The Story Of Us

A long time ago, in a significantly different world, in September 2019, Taylor Swift announced LoverFest, a series of bicoastal music festivals in LA and Foxborough, to celebrate her album Lover. This was a simpler time and a simpler era. For everyone. After 13 brutal hours on Ticketmaster, I somehow secured tickets to both shows in California. (the first Great War?) Amazingly for my family, Loverfest was slated around Comic Con, and they also announced the Hella Mega tour. Proximity to Disneyland made this a unique opportunity for a once-in-a-lifetime trip for our family, covering all the things we love. We secured tickets to ALL the events, hotel rooms, flights, everything.

This trip was Christmas that year. My kids were blown away by the serendipity of all of these events converging at the same time. Their excitement was off the charts. Then…

On March 13, 2020, the United States declared a national emergency in response to the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. We’d been hearing news stories about this new disease, a cold of sorts with extreme respiratory symptoms and sometimes deadly results. It started in China, followed by a few US cases, and then began ravaging senior living communities. Soon, it was everywhere. Eventually, LoverFest was canceled.

Stop Everything Now

On November 1, 2022, two years after LoverFest should have happened, Taylor Swift announced The Eras Tour, "a journey through the musical eras of my career.”

Rumor had it that if you HAD held tickets to LoverFest and HAD NOT requested a refund before the cancellation, you were given priority access to tickets for the Eras Tour. I have no idea if that is true, but we secured amazing tickets to both Cincinnati shows, June 30th and July 1st, 2023, at a reasonable face value price.

After the dust settled from The Great War with Ticketmaster, we were also given an opportunity to purchase tickets for Nashville, and we were able to obtain great seats for Night 2 on May 6, 2023.

Things were good…

I Can Do It With A Broken Heart

In March of that year, after some health challenges, I discovered I had massive blockages in my heart and would require quadruple bypass surgery. It was the scariest moment of my life. And my first question was, “Will I be able to take my daughter to a concert in May?” My doctor assured me that as long as things went as planned, I would. My surgery, recovery and rehab were a success setting the stage for Emily and I to see The Eras Tour.

Oh Boy, This is Genius! Nashville Night 2

For our first show, there was added excitement as my favorite singer, Phoebe Bridgers was opening for Taylor. We arrived in Nashville, got settled and headed to Nissan Stadium. As we got to our seats, we realized they were incredible! We had an amazing view of the entire massive stage!

We had made the decision to avoid spoilers at all cost, meaning two months and 17 shows worth of spoilers. Emily deleted Instagram from her phone. We had NO IDEA what to expect. We had wild theories, but nothing prepared us for what we were about to see.

Phoebe opened the show and was incredible. She opened with her hit Motion Sickness setting the stage for an amazing night. A few songs in she went to the center of the stage and said “where are my boys at?” A query that brought our boygenius bandmates Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker out to sing Cool About It from their recently released debut album. We were losing our minds. They then joined Phoebs and Taylor’s boyfriend at the time Matty Healy for the rest of the show.

After the openers, Taylor hit the stage. Again, keep in mind we had NO IDEA what was coming. And then it happened. The best concert in history. I’ve been to a lot of shows but never experienced anything like this. Weaving through her entire career in block themes for a total of 3 hours and 40+ songs was incredible. During the Red era, Phoebe joined Taylor for Nothing New (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault). This, coupled with the surprise boygenius performance with Matty Healy, made this, IMHO, the most unique show of the tour.

Cincinnati N1, N2

For Cincinnati Night 1, we had a few surprises. First, a local TV station did a news story on Emi and I then, Emi was surprised that we were in the FRONT ROW. The show of course was incredible and culminated with TAYLOR SWIFT POINTING AT ME.

Cincinnati native, and Taylor Swift collaborator Aaron Dessner of The National joined Taylor on N2 making Cincinnati another success.

One More Thing…

Taylor would later add a handful of shows to the Eras tour AND release a new album which would add a whole new era to the Eras Tour. We scored fairly inexpensive but nosebleed seats to N1 and N2 in Indianapolis, the last stop of the US Eras Tour.

The Eras Tour captured the imagination of the world. Swifties watched grainy live streams of every show on TikTok and haters spent all their time disregarding Taylor, the tour, and her fans. But for 3 hours every weekend for two years, we had joy.

I am so fortunate to have been able to make incredible memories with my daughter. Taylor Swift is a singular artist and the Eras tour is entertainment for the ages.

Take me back…