Author Archives: Samuel Tjuatja

Taylor Swift Speak Now World Tour…A Fans Perspective

Last night was the culmination of almost a year in the making.  I remember the excitement when I first heard the announcement that Taylor Swift would be coming back to Staples Center to do another tour, Speak Now World Tour.  Finally I would get my chance to see her live!  I was admittedly more excited back then and the excitement tapered off…

I didn’t know what to expect as I walked in and sat down.  This being my first big concert experience, there was definitely more of an audience to the female teen crowd but there were also the scattered male counterparts as well as females of other ages.  I saw self made signs and lights from all parts of the venue.  I also learned something new, I had no idea what the “13″ meant from Taylors perspective so I asked the nice lady next to me and she explained that it was her lucky number.  I’m going to dedicate this line to her and say that she was a pleasure to talk to, and wish I had caught her name.

After a pair of opening acts, by Josh Kelley and Need To Breathe, and a brief stage set up behind the curtain, the lights dimmed.  Audio plays and a text montage appears on the monitors, she rose up from center stage and the excitement had returned!  You could hear all the screams from albeit mostly female teenagers with probably their moms enticed by their kids.  That didn’t bother me, I was way too excited to finally see her live.  She started with “Sparks Fly”, one of her hits from her Speak Now album that was released in October of 2010.  Once the intro song completed, she welcomed the crowd and thanked them for spending the evening with her even though there were plenty of other things to do.

As the concert proceeded, she continued on to sing a total of about 16 songs from her latest album Speak Now as well as her previous album, Fearless.  I had read on the internet Taylor would be doing covers from “local bands” at the venues she would be playing, after reading this I was definitely excited to see who she would choose to cover.  The covers were of Jason Mraz with “I’m Yours”, Beach Boys with “God Only Knows” and Gwen Stefani with “Sweet Escape”.  In my opinion, she definitely came through with the covers with her added touch.  She also added a small bit from One Republic in one of her songs “Back To December” which was a nice addition.

Apparently the biggest highlight, judging by the crowd volume, was when Justin Bieber was introduced to sing a duet of “Baby” with Taylor.  I’m honestly going to say I am not a Bieber fan but there was definitely a crowd for him there.  The moment he was introduced, my ears started piercing from all the screams of teenage excitement.

After her set of 20 songs, she concluded with “Love Story” while introducing her stage / band members and a final bow.   As the curtains went down the audience cheered, or I should say screamed, and applauded.  At that moment, I was excited, yet sad.  I truly did not want the concert to end.  From start to finish, she delivered.  I came in as a fan and came out as a an even greater fan.

 


You can contact Samuel Tjuatja, the author of this post, at sam@wu-e.com