After four months in the grave it would appear that the site’s best days are long day. The domain is still ours, however, so here’s a quick post to tide you over until, I guess, next year’s tax season is complete? and the GA has time to contribute.
I recently had the pleasure of attending a TSwift concert in the Queen City. 🚨 Hot take alert 🚨 – 1989 in 2015 was actually a better show (higher % of time spent on bangers vs the Grimm music she’s been making lately) but Eras did not disappoint. Among many great songs these stood out as the top five:
- Bad Blood – I’m as surprised as you are. Despite being one of the weaker tracks from 1989, Bad Blood S L A P P E D in Cincy. If I had to guess it was the combination of a sweet fire show and a finally setting sun (see Cruel Summer write-up). Much like the 2016 election I did not see this coming and much like the 2020 election some losers are going to question the legitimacy of the outcome but it happened.
- Are you Ready for It? – as far as I’m concerned this track marked the beginning of the concert, even if it didn’t get played until about an hour in. Absolute banger*. A favorite of mine since ESPN used it in the initial montage for ND vs. Clemson in 2018. Let the games begin, indeed.
- Don’t Blame Me – do yourself a favor and listen to this immediately if you are unfamiliar, as I was until the show. Wow, what a treat. It’s big and haunting and fills up the entire stadium. A strong case can be made that, even if Fearless and Red were the most fun Eras of the evening, Reputation walks away as the golden age.
- Enchanted – cheating slightly with this one. It’s a fine song but probably would not be a top track on the merits of the Cincinnati performance alone. Instead, listening to it from Mount Washington during her PGH performance alongside thousands of other non-ticketed fans made me appreciate the gravity of the tour and set into motion the forces that would send me down the river to the Queen City (“this night is flawless” — chills). Without Enchanted, the rest of this list does not exist.
- Cruel Summer – I could not fucking wait to hear her play this. Easily the most anticipated song on the setlist for me. Unfortunately came out a bit flat – weather moved our tee time up an hour to 7pm, and I fear the earlier start suppressed some of the initial energy (Cruel Summer is the first complete song that gets played). Still a banger but alas! will not go down as the song of the summer.
* LBaby has argued that the verses are a little lame and that’s probably fair. Still bangs.