Event Guide – Indianapolis Monthly
Five Years Ago The Answer Were Out In The Cold: Now They've Made Their Sticky Fingers
The Answer studio portrait
'Soul-destroying' is the term Paul Mahon opts for when recalling how the band to which he'd dedicated all his adult life faded meekly, almost apologetically, into the shadows in the winter of 2017.
The guitarist is revisiting The Answer's final run of shows promoting 2016's Solas, the four-piece's acclaimed sixth album. It's a bold, experimental record, with its hard-rock foundations augmented by Irish traditional music and subtle electronic flourishes. Hopes back then that it might broaden the Downpatrick group's increasingly selective appeal dissipated when it failed to make it into the Top 40. Closing out the tour as special guests on Mr. Big's UK theatre tour, a booking he regarded as "a dead rubber", Mahon was acutely aware that The Answer were nearing the end of the road in more ways than one.
"When you've been around for a while, you start to recognise when things have run their course," he reflects quietly. "I was definitely of the mind that that was it."
Fourteen months earlier, when they were talking to this writer on the eve of the release of Solas, their mood was upbeat and decidedly bullish. While acknowledging that the group's career trajectory had dipped below industry projections – "You need the stars to align," frontman Cormac Neeson observed sagely, and without bitterness, "and sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't" – they still exhibited the confidence and swagger of a band secure in the belief that their day would come.
"We're not yet at the stage where we're sitting in our armchairs drinking Guinness and reminiscing about the good old days," Neeson insisted. With hindsight, though – and we take no joy in pointing this out – Classic Rock's perceptive review of Solas foreshadowed the sense of disillusionment to come. Ian Fortnam wrote: "The Answer are established as a band whose albums reliably stall in the UK chart's mid-40s. When Classic Rock's Best New Band of 2005 picked up their award they expected more than this. We all did."
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On the Mr. Big tour, The Answer's uninspired 40-minute sets indulged with polite applause served as nightly requiems for the four men's shared dreams. And, as Mahon now admits, the hollowness of the experience only added to a deepening and inescapable sense of bathos.
"We scaled some great heights, but after twenty years we were kinda left with nothing at the end of it," is his brutally honest assessment. "It felt like everyone was already looking to what the next thing might be. It was a bit of a wake-up call: welcome to the real world."
Alt
"Mate, these fuckers are going to come back with an absolute bang!" It's May 27, 2020, and Mark Alexander-Erber, president and founder of Golden Robot Records, home to Frank Carter And The Rattlesnakes, former Whitesnake/Thin Lizzy guitarist John Sykes, Rose Tattoo and more, is talking to Canadian music writer and podcast host Mitch Lafon about the label's newest signing.
By their own admission, no one was more surprised by the Australian label reaching out to The Answer with the promise of a new worldwide deal than the band themselves. But Alexander-Erber is a long-time fan – the label boss talked of listening to their debut album Rise during his gym workouts a decade ago – and the offer prompted frank and open-hearted discussions among the band, completed by bassist Micky Waters and drummer James Heatley, who all now have children and independent businesses.
"One of the reasons we needed to take a break was because The Answer has always needed to be 'all in'. It doesn't work unless all four members are fully committed," says Neeson. "Personally, to go from The Answer being such a massive part of my everyday life to it being put on the back burner was a really weird sensation. And it was kinda scary, because it was very much uncharted territory, insomuch as we had never really taken a break from when we were eighteen years of age, so it took a lot of readjustment, from a head-space point of view as much as anything.
"But it wasn't like we took a break because we were throwing beers at each other's heads, it wasn't a case of 'I can't stand the sight of you any more'. The very deep friendships we've built up over the years weren't ever going to go away. I'm pretty sure that there was never a point where Ithought there wouldn't be a seventh record from The Answer. But life changes, and obviously I would have understood had one of the others decided that, for whatever reason, they couldn't commit as before."
Their decision, however, was unanimous: let's do this.
The Answer's first studio jam in three years took place in August 2019, the same month as their new record deal with Golden Robot Records was formally announced. Perhaps understandably, the session was initially "pretty slow going", as Mahon recalls – "We were at this for twenty years non-stop, and you quickly realise that after you take a long time out, momentum doesn't build again overnight" – but there was excitement and energy in the room from day one.
Another session was held in October 2019, and a third in February 2020. Which meant that when the world shut down one month later, The Answer were in good shape, and Alexander-Erber had already been sent a clutch of work-in-progress demos he regarded as "bangers".
"It felt like the chemistry was really back," says Mahon. "Maybe better than ever." Work resumed, sporadically, over Zoom calls. And looking back, Neeson, Mahon and Waters all recall the process being more "efficient" than the band's traditional rehearsal-room jams.
"In some ways," says Neeson, "even though the process was weird because of lockdown, the lack of time-pressure meant we could let things develop organically. It sorta felt like we were writing our first record all over again, back when we didn't have a record label and we didn't have management in our ears or have any of the pressures that come with being a working band."
"We've been playing together since we were teenagers," says a smiling Micky Waters, "so we know what we're doing."
That much is evident from a first listen to the band's new album. Put simply, Sundowners, produced by Dan Weller (Enter Shikari, Those Damn Crows) at Middle Farm studio in Devon and released (in the UK) by 7Hz Productions on Saint Patrick's Day, March 17, is the definitive Answer album; the most cohesive, impactful and best collection of songs they have ever put their name to. Neeson says the 11-track record is "the album we've been waiting to make our whole lives", and that sense of excitement runs right through the record from top to tail.
You may already be familiar with some of the singles – like the dirty-groove blues rock of Blood Brother or the hard-funk stomper Want You To Love Me – but they only partially hint at the majesty of the record as a whole.
The atmospheric Zeppelin/Stones hybrid title track rolls out with a filthy bass line, greasy slide guitar and Neeson in full-blooded voice; California Rust, a sublime retro groove accented by female gospel vocals; Living On The Line is a kissing cousin of The Black Crowes' Sting Me ("a chance for me to live out my wildest Paul Rodgers dreams," Neeson says with a laugh) and another single; Get On Back channels Curtis Mayfield; and unity anthem All Together takes it cues from Stevie Wonder and Stax Records soul.
The album closes with the fabulous Always Alright, which opens with a rootsy Americana feel (not unlike the highlights of Neeson's criminally underrated solo album White Feather), then shifts gears entirely ("moving from Chris Stapleton to The Who", reckons Neeson) with stacked gospel vocals, a killer keyboard vamp and stunning guitar playing from Mahon. Sundowners might well be the best new hard rock record you'll hear in 2023.
"A good friend of ours listened to it with Cormac, and he texted me and said: 'Congratulations, you've finally made your Sticky Fingers," Mahon says, with understandable pride.
"Thinking about it, that makes sense, because Sticky Fingers is the album where the Stones really distilled everything they'd learned, and everything that defined them. It's also my favourite Stones record. So I'll take that all day long."
"I think this album has greatly benefitted from us having made Solas," Neeson adds. "Because with this record we sorta set out to re-establish our core values, but at the same time not play it safe.
"Going left-field with Solas has given us a really clear idea of where those core values lie, but also gave us a really good taste for the experimental and given us even more trust in our gut instincts. When we said that we were coming back, we could really tell that people had no idea what kind of record was coming, because of Solas. And we love that, because one of the things we wanted to achieve with that was to shake ourselves out of any pigeonhole. It's good to keep people guessing, because what we have here [with Sundowners] is going to surprise a lot of people in the best possible way."
On December 3 last year, The Answer took to the stage together for the first time since November 2017, playing as special guests to Black Star Riders at the Planet Rockstock weekender in Wales, where they previewed four new songs from their forthcoming album.
"That was… pretty weird, to be honest," Micky Waters says, laughing. "It was like: 'Oh, yeah, this is what we do!'"
"We went through every emotion," Mahon admits. "It was nerve-racking, it was emotional, and it probably took us about five or six songs before we could look at one another and think: 'Right, okay, we're back in business.'"
"There was such an outpouring of positive energy for the band that night," says Neeson. "It felt special. And the album feels special. With where we're at in the world right now, hopefully it can provide a release, and energise and empower people the way it has energised us.
"I think we need this album more than anybody else does," he says plainly. "But it feels like there's a lot of love out there for the band, and hopefully we've done people proud with this record. Right from the outset, from the first writing sessions, you could feel that all four members of the band were deeply passionate about what we were doing, and you can feel the collective soul of the band in every song. It's an explosion of positive energy created by four brothers who just really missed each other."
Ask Neeson, Mahon and Waters what success will look like with Sundowners, and all three are united in the answer: "To us it's already a success," says Mahon.
"We just want to get out and play it now," he adds, admitting to feeling just a little frustration that the world has yet to hear why The Answer are so buoyant once more. "Hopefully when we get back out in front of people properly again we can conjure up some of that excitement and energy that we all felt on Rise. Right now we're all fired up and excited again, and if we still have the same hunger and desire and optimism at the end of this cycle, who knows where we can go from here."
All The Surprise Songs Taylor Swift Has Performed On The Eras Tour (So Far)
Taylor Swift's Eras Tour serves a surprise song (or two) at every stop.
Taylor Swift performs onstage for the opening night of The Eras Tour at State Farm Stadium on March 17, 2023 in Glendale, Arizona. Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
Taylor Swift's Eras Tour set list features a surprise song (or two), so far performed during a mini acoustic set, on each date of the the superstar's 2023 trek.
Guitar in hand and making her way to the end of the stage's catwalk at March 17's Eras kickoff in Glendale, Arizona, Swift revealed her intentions for the acoustic portion of her long-awaited live show. She'll perform a surprise song that will not be played again on this tour — probably.
"The plan, the goal, would be to play different songs every single night and never repeat one. Right? So that when you heard one on this tour, you would know it's the only time that I was going to play it in the acoustic set, unless — caveat — unless I mess it up so badly," she said with a small laugh, "that I have to do it over again in some other city. Send your best wishes towards me that I don't do that."
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Here Are All the Celebrities Who Have Attended Taylor Swift's The Eras Tour
05/29/2023The Eras Tour is her first real tour in five years, and the first time the prolific songwriter is getting to perform selections from Lover, Folklore, Evermore and Midnights to sold-out stadium crowds.
Eras Tour night one introduced a career-spanning, whopping 44-song setlist with a runtime of more than three hours, with Swift playing anywhere from one to eight tracks from all 10 of her full-length studio albums. The show's nightly surprise is sure to keep her fans on their tallest tiptoes, waiting to hear what gem will be unveiled at their concert.
Below, check out the list of all the surprise songs she's brought to The Eras Tour, courtesy of social media live streams and post-concert clips uploaded by Swifties in attendance. Bookmark this page, as the list will updated regularly as the tour goes on.
Image Credit: Courtesy Performed at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona (March 17, 2023)
"I was thinking about the first one I would play for you," Swift said at the very first Eras Tour concert, to a crowd of fans who were still gloriously spoiler-free about what was in store for the rest of the show. "I was thinking about what song to play first, and I was thinking about how one of the songs that I wrote with you in mind during the pandemic was one of the first songs I wrote for Folklore, and it was me writing about how badly I craved the connection that I feel from the care that you have directed in my way. I'm trying to tell you I love you, and I'm babbling," she noted. Swift tried again: "I was trying to think of sort of an eloquent way to say that I love you and I need your attention all the time, and I came up with 'I'm a mirrorball.'" After the wordy intro, Swift begins singing "Mirrorball" at the 2:17 timestamp in the video above.
Image Credit: John Shearer/GI for TAS Rights Management Performed at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona (March 17, 2023)
"I was thinking about tonight and how special this is," Swift explained on the opening night of The Eras Tour, and then added, "So I thought it might be kind of fun to play the very first song I ever put out." The crowd gladly sang along to her pretty piano rendition of her debut single, nearly 17 years after it was first released. "Tim McGraw" was the only track from her first album to make the Eras setlist in Arizona.
Image Credit: Courtesy Performed at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona (March 18, 2023)
"I keep forgetting what key it's in — one second. It's lost all concept to me," Swift joked before launching into the emotional Folklore track as the first of two surprise songs, at the second show of The Eras Tour.
Image Credit: Courtesy Performed at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona (March 18, 2023)
Swift brought the Red album opener down to its roots as a piano ballad in Glendale. Her delicate vocals were echoed by a stadium of thousands joining in, making for a chilling moment of connection between a singer-songwriter and her fans.
Performed at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas (March 24, 2023)
"I do get ideas from places. I actually saw an interview that Beabadoobee did — who is our amazing, brilliant opening act tonight — and they were saying, 'Oh, you're going on The Eras Tour. What song might you want to hear?' And she was like, 'I grew up listening to songs on her first album.' And she named a specific song. So I figured, you know what, for her first show with us, I'll play the specific song that she said she would want to hear. So this is a song I wrote for my ninth-grade talent show. It's called 'Our Song.'"
Performed at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas (March 24, 2023)
"Lana Del Rey put out a new album. It's called Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd. Guys, it's so good. You probably already know that, but it's just extraordinary. I just think she's the best that we have. I think we need to make it a priority as a group to stream, buy, support this album and this artist. She knows I'm obsessed with her, and she was kind enough to make a song with me on Midnights called 'Snow on the Beach' because she's a generous king. She did that for me, and I'll never forget how nice she's been to me. It's so cool when you have favorite artists and they turn out to be so nice to you. I wanted to just do some promo for her, and also, in honor of this brilliant album that she just put out, I wanted to play 'Snow on the Beach.'"
Performed at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas (March 25, 2023)
"Las Vegas, Nevada, you are so lucky, because we do have a special guest with us tonight," Swift told the sold-out crowd when introducing Mumford & Sons frontman Marcus Mumford. "Would you sing 'Cowboy Like Me' with me?" The duo paired up for the 2020 Evermore duet.
Performed at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas (March 25, 2023)
Performed at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas (March 31, 2023)
Swift worked in "Sad Beautiful Tragic" from Red to the setlist during her acoustic portion of the Arlington show. Strumming it on just an acoustic guitar, she introduced the song saying, "I love this one. When I love a song, I don't care what anyone says."
Performed at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas (March 31, 2023)
Performed at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas (April 1, 2023)
Performed at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas (April 1, 2023)
Performed at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla. (April 13, 2023)
"I've been thinking a lot about one of my albums recently. One of my albums has been on my mind a lot … lots going on in my brain about it. So I thought I might play the title track of that album."
Performed at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla. (April 13, 2023)
Performed at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla. (April 14, 2023)
"This song really took on a new meaning when you guys made enough jokes about how you trying to get tickets for this tour felt like surviving the great war," Swift joked prior to the debut live performance of the Midnights (3am Edition) track.
Performed at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla. (April 14, 2023)
Performed at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla. (April 15, 2023)
"I have a really, really, really wonderful, incredible person in my life who I've been making music with," Swift said, bringing Aaron Dessner out on her stage for a second time this tour and joining him at the piano bench. "…We wrote this song that I really love because it allowed me to get a lot off my chest, and now we're gonna sing it for you — 'cause who doesn't love a mad woman?"
Performed at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla. (April 15, 2023)
Swift picked up the guitar for surprise song No. 2 of the night, complimenting the particularly loud Tampa crowd. She explained that she thought she'd play a song they might know and want to sing along with. "Just thought that would be nice, which is the opposite of mean," she quipped.
Performed at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas (April 21, 2023)
Performed at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas (April 21, 2023)
Performed at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas (April 22, 2023)
Going way back to her very early songwriting days, Swift introduced "A Place in This World" as a song she penned around the age of 13 — noting that she might relate to its lyrics even more 20 years later.
Performed at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas (April 22, 2023)
"You make every day on this tour feel like a fairytale," Swift told her fans before performing the song, originally featured on the soundtrack for the 2010 film Valentine's Day, on piano. (At the second of three Houston shows, she admitted that The Eras Tour has basically become her "entire personality.")
Performed at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas (April 23, 2023)
"We've come to the acoustic era," Swift said as she set up for the two surprise songs of the evening at the end of the catwalk. Before launching into the Red track, she told the crowd, "I hope that if you know it, you sing along" — and they did.
Performed at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas (April 23, 2023)
"No shade to the other songs on the album," Swift joked, expressing an utmost love for the emotional ballad from her debut album, which she played at the piano for the night three Houston audience. "Cold as You" immediately trended on Twitter while she sang the song live on tour for the first time in a decade.
Performed at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia (April 28, 2023)
"This is one of my favorite moments in the show because it kind of keeps me on my toes," Swift said to a wild crowd in Atlanta.
"When I was rerecording my album Fearless, I looked back and I was listening to this one … I remember when I wrote this one I was so obsessed with this sort of, like, rant I put at the end of the song," she said, hinting at the deep cut that was to come. "And I never, I don't think I really got to perform it live. If I ever I ever did, it was not enough times, so I'd really love to play the song. It's called 'The Other Side of the Door.'"
Performed at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia (April 28, 2023)
A pretty long speech came before the first-ever solo (and first-ever at all) live performance of the heart-wrenching Evermore highlight, originally a duet with with Matt Berninger.
"Any time I'm gonna talk about or even reference another artist, I feel inclined to tell you that if they're not here, they're not here," she warned the crowd. "No one else is here. You are stuck with me. It's only me. But I am gonna talk about another artist. I just feel like, you know, stadiums are huge and it's important to really communicate, so that's what I'm doing. I'm gonna talk about another artist who has an album that just came out that is so incredible. The National just had an album come out. This band has influenced me beyond my ability to verbalize how much they've influenced me — just lyrically, their ability to set a scene, their ability to tell a story. And obviously, Aaron Dessner is in The National and he has completely changed my life. I was lucky enough to be able to write a song with them for their new album, which is called the First Two Pages of Frankenstein. Check it out, stream it, buy it on vinyl. I love them so much. They've been so kind to me. So, I'm not gonna sing the song that we have on this new album — it's called 'The Alcott' — check that out, though. But I am gonna sing 'Coney Island.'"
Performed at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia (April 29, 2023)
"Do you really wanna know where I was April 29th?" Swift improvised before beginning the actual song. "Atlanta, Georgia."
Performed at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia (April 29, 2023)
For her second surprise song of night two in Atlanta, Swift made "Gorgeous" the first Reputation track to get the acoustic treatment this tour.
Performed at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia (April 30, 2023)
Performed at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia (April 30, 2023)
Performed at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee (May 5, 2023)
"I've been planning something for a while. You know how I love to plan things. You know how I love to surprise you… It's my love language with you," Swift teased during her first night in Nashville on The Eras Tour. "I plot, I scheme, I plan."
"Rather than me speaking about it," she said with a grin, "I thought I would just show you — If you would direct your attention to the back screen." The screen announced that Speak Now (Taylor's Version) will be released on July 7, and Swift then launched into the album track "Sparks Fly" on acoustic guitar.
Performed at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee (May 5, 2023)
Before playing the next surprise song at the piano, a selection from her debut, Swift reflected on her early years in Nashville, noting that she'd moved to the city while in eighth grade. "I'd been writing songs since I was 12, but when I think about Nashville I think about writing all the songs that would end up on my first album," she told the crowd.
Performed at Nissan Stadium in Nashville (May 6, 2023)
"I think I saved a really good one for right now," Swift, acoustic guitar in hand, teased the Nashville night two crowd. "You be the judge based on how loudly you scream. This one's from 1989."
Performed at Nissan Stadium in Nashville (May 6, 2023)
Sitting at the piano, Swift joked, "I feel like if I give you one piece of information you'd know exactly what song I was about to play," before singing the Fearless classic "Fifteen" for her high school best friend Abigail, who was at the show.
Performed at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee (May 7, 2023)
Swift welcomed "kind, wonderful genius" Aaron Dessner to the stage on a stormy night in Nashville to join her on the surprise song from the 3AM version of Midnights. "He was warned about the rain, and he did accept the challenge anyway," she said.
"Would've, Could've, Should've" was "one of our favorites when we made it," Swift noted.
Performed at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee (May 7, 2023)
"I want to play a song that when I wrote it, I was writing about all these relationship things that hadn't happened yet," Swift said from her seat at the piano. She described how "it's crazy" to go back and listen to songs that at the time were rooted in "fantasy" but at her age now are relatable, and then introduced the Speak Now track that was coming next: "This is called 'Mine,'" Swift said.
Performed at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (May 12, 2023)
"I wanted to start out with this one in Philly because there was sort of a — I don't know how large the debate was, but I did see the debate," Swift told the audience, referencing the "Eagles T-shirt hanging from the door" lyrics from "Gold Rush."
"I saw some people wondering if it was the band the Eagles or the team the Eagles," the singer added. "And I love the band the Eagles, but guys, like, come on, I'm from Philly."
Performed at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (May 12, 2023)
"I take requests if they are polite and decently worded," Swift told the sold-out crowd, adding that the request came from special guest Phoebe Bridgers.
Performed at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (May 13, 2023)
"I have a request that I'm gonna do," Swift teased the crowd before playing the first of two surprise songs on May 13.
"My friend Lena, it's her birthday today," she said, explaining that "she wanted to hear 'Forever & Always.'"
Performed at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (May 13, 2023)
Heading over to her piano, Swift said she loved this night and didn't want it to end, and then — without an introduction — played the emotional 1989 song "This Love."
Performed at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (May 14, 2023)
"I had a few really nice, fun people ask me to do this one," Swift said, and then took the crowd back almost 15 years to a Fearless classic, "Hey Stephen."
Performed at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (May 14, 2023)
Tears had to have been aplenty throughout the stadium on Mother's Day as Swift told the story of "The Best Day" and performed it on piano.
"I secretly recorded a song on Fearless," she told the crowd, recalling being 16 or 17 at the time and explaining that it was very tricky to get this project done without her mother knowing. "It was very sneaky and fun," she said.
"I wrote this song just compiling these sort of core childhood memories I had of not just her as a mother but her as a friend," Swift said. After playing the sweet song for her mom for the first time, while showing her the video of personal family footage set to the track that she edited together herself, she asked her mom, "Did you like the song?" "It's such a beautiful song. Where did you find it? It sounds exactly like the things we went through" Mom replied, not even comprehending that her own daughter would write a song about the two of them. "I wrote it and recorded it secretly," Taylor told her. "It is our memories. That's about us." Needless to say, there were plenty of tears that day, too.
Performed at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. (May 19, 2023)
Performed at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. (May 19, 2023)
Performed at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. (May 20, 2023)
Before giving this Midnights track its live debut, Swift got candid with fans about how her life's going behind the scenes.
"I kind of just feel like telling you … I've just never been this happy in my life, in all aspects of my life, ever," she gushed. "And I just want to thank you for being a part of that. It's not just the tour, I just sort of feel like my life finally feels like it makes sense. I thought I'd play this song which brings me a lot of happy memories."
Performed at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. (May 20, 2023)
Performed at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. (May 21, 2023)
Performed at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. (May 21, 2023)
For the first time in Eras Tour history, Swift performed both surprise songs on guitar. That's because her piano took on a life of its own after getting damaged by rain during the show the night prior, causing Swift to last-minute switch over to guitar for "Red."
"Literally, it was like a water park under the stage," she recalled to fans at the May 21 show. "This has clearly broken my keyboard. It was literally underwater — I don't know how any of the instruments were working last night."
Performed at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. (May 26, 2023)
"I know you've wanted to hear this song," Swift teased before her first surprise acoustic offering. And she wasn't exaggerating. The pick was "Getaway Car," a beloved fan fave, and for the song, frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff joined her on stage. "He's been one of my best friends — he feels like a family member," Swift said while welcoming "Jersey's own" Antonoff. In addition to singing lead on a few lines, Antonoff aided Swift with some forceful acoustic strumming on the Reputation highlight.
Performed at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. (May 26, 2023)
Midnights is the most recent album to drop before Taylor's Eras Tour, so it's no surprise that it takes up a good portion of the setlist. Even so, the standard Eras Tour setlist doesn't include one of the album's absolute best songs — but the evening's night's crowd was in for a treat. "This is one of my favorites off Midnights, but I haven't played it yet," Swift said, before performing a gorgeous rendition of "Maroon" while seated at an upright piano festooned with a floral design.
Performed at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. (May 27, 2023)
"I'm gonna do one that's one of my favorites, and hopefully you like it too," Swift told the MetLife crowd of Red track "Holy Ground" Saturday night (May 27). "I feel like this is a pretty good choice for tonight. I'm pretty confident about it."
Performed at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. (May 27, 2023)
Without any introduction at all, Swift launched into Lover's "False God" on the piano.
Performed at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. (May 28, 2023)
Performed at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. (May 28, 2023)
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