Sorta Random Sunday: My ERAS Tour Review

Nope, this is not my review of the Electronic Residency Application Service. This is my review of the Taylor Swift, once in a lifetime, ERAS tour!

As many of you will recall, Selenid and I went to Pittsburgh about a month or so ago to see Taylor Swift in concert. This was Selenid’s ultimate intentional spend. And, despite the fact that I was not a huge Taylor Swift fan, it was a really cool experience.

So, I figured I’d give my review of my ERAS tour experience. Especially since it’s been called the biggest tour of the year and generational by some.

So here goes!

My ERAS tour review

I’ll break it up

The city

Amazing. Pittsburgh is a really cool place. I’ve only been once before for my brother’s college graduation. I enjoyed it then and I liked it even more this time. We stayed in a nice hotel, ate at great restaurants, enjoyed the skyline, and the people were nice.

A win.

The food

Pittsburgh is very much like Buffalo in terms of food style. It’s not fancy. But it’s really good.

We ate at a few places including an Argentinian steakhouse that was our favorite. But we didn’t have a single bad meal there.

The stadium

This was the first concert that I’ve ever been to in an outdoor football stadium. I worried that it would feel impersonal or faraway or something like that. But I actually like it. Pretty amazing to see that many people to see a concert. Plus, security was easy to get through. Ushers, including the octogenarian collecting fan-made bracelets in our section, were fun and helpful.

And getting out was actually not that bad since we just walked to our hotel.

The people

This was really maybe my favorite part. Because you had just about every walk of life at this concert.

Age ranges from an 8-9 year old girl who knew the words to every song to teenagers (obviously), millennials, gen whatever, and older adults as well. Men and women. Straight and queer.

And everyone was super nice. Selenid had fun making bracelets and got to walk around giving them away and talking to other fans. Which was really fun to see. Even though I stayed in my seat.

The concert

Ok, ok…I know, this is the main thing to review. But honestly for me, it was about the whole experience. It’s something different from what I normally do, see, and listen to. Plus it was an awesome weekend away with just Selenid.

But the concert…was insane. Honestly. It was worth the cost of tickets. Which is saying something. I knew Selenid would feel they were worth it. But I wondered if I would value them the same. And I did…

First, it helped that we had an awesome opening act that I am a big fan of, girl in red. And she killed it. Live, her songs had a more punk rock quality which I liked even better than her recordings.

But then, Taylor Swift was on stage singing for 3 1/2 hours! That’s an athletic feat. Plus the singing was really great and obviously live and not lip synced. Which in this age is unique.

Selenid prepped me on all the songs and their behind the scenes stories on the drive from Buffalo to Pittsburgh, which we took in my beat up doctor car by the way. This made me enjoy the songs even more. I also appreciated that even with however many people were in the stadium, that she seemed to connect well with her fans throughout the show.

If there was one downside, she sings two surprise songs in every concert. But I guess the ones we got were not the most exciting according to Selenid. But this was a very minor thing. Overall, it was great!