An Enchanting Evening

I got so see Taylor Swift perform live! In person! I had been waiting over seven months since I won the tickets on the radio, and the night finally arrived for us to go to her concert! Oh, you better believe I came prepared with a nice, sparkly poster!

Brad was a great sport. He not only allowed me to let my crazy soar, but he also stood up with me for the entire show, and even sang along with the songs that he knew.

After waiting through two opening acts, one of which was decent, and the other of which was awesome (Needtobreathe), Taylor finally rose up through the stage floor amongst fog and thousands of screams and cheers.

Her show is so incredible! Just completely awesome. She is such an amazing entertainer! The show seemed like a Broadway musical that she was singing the soundtrack to. Nearly every song had a different costume and a different set with her, the band mates, and lots of dancers acting out each story. There was so much going on that I didn't even know where to look at times. She even had aerialists doing stunts from the ceiling at one point! And Taylor played so many different instruments, including multiple guitars, a banjo, a ukulele, and a piano. 

She looked like she was having a great time on stage, and talked about how nice it was to be "back home" in Nashville. She did such a fantastic job of engaging the crowd, and seemed to genuinely appreciate the love and applause from everybody. She humbly thanked us for "choosing to hang out with her" on a Friday night, and said "I love you" to us fans multiple times. I'm pretty sure she was mostly talking directly to me, though.

One thing is for sure about TSwift: she definitely connects with her fans. There's a whole segment of her show that she performs from the back of the auditorium, in an effort to make the "worst seats in the house, the best seats for a while." She walks through the crowd on the floor to get to the small rear stage, shaking hands, hugging fans, and even kissing children on the cheek the whole way there and back.

At the base of the slowly spinning tree (enabling everybody to get a great view), she sings an acoustic set. It was at this point that Brad leaned over to me and said, "Okay. Seriously, she's good. That girl can sing." {In your face, mean critics! Brad Mehaffey says she's the real deal!} She also uses this opportunity in the evening to sing a location-specific song. For our show, she chose to sing David Mead's "Going back to Nashville." Very fitting, huh?

She performs the final song of the evening, her classic "Love Song," in a beautiful ball gown from a floating balcony as she moves around the arena, soaring above the crowd and hovering close to all of the higher seats.

Seriously, she loves her fans so much that she even has crew members set out to invite about thirty random people in the crowd to join her from the T-Party after the show (T for Taylor) where they hang out with her and the band in their "living room," and eat pizza, drink soda, play air hockey, take pictures together and get autographs. A friend of mine and her young daughter actually got to go! I would have loved to have been picked, but I still had a great time in the crowd just watching the show! Besides, I'm pretty sure she looked right at me and my sign when she was sitting under the tree. So, we're basically officially best friends now.

I walked into the concert already completely loving Taylor Swift. But, honestly, I walked out just absolutely adoring her. She's so sweet, and funny, and kind, and humble, and relatable, and genuine, and talented, and outgoing, and pretty, and just plain wonderful. I still can't believe I was so blessed to win tickets. What a sparkling night. ♥

(All the Concert Pictures)