Live Review: Taylor Swift, Charli XCX, Broods

Although we’d only just hit November, Sydney produced typical summer behaviour – a stinking hot day followed by a storm. A charged atmosphere in the sky matched the excitement of the crowd tonight.

Broods got the early arrivals moving in the sapping late afternoon heat. Playing what frontwoman Georgia Nott said was their largest gig yet, they were comfortable on the big stage, with Nott strutting from one end to the other with confidence and ease. The deep rumblings of Free jolted the crowd alive, while during Couldn’t Believe Notts encouraged the crowd to clap along – with a very audible “yes!” of excitement when thousands of hands acquiesced. Finishing with Peach, there was a video accompaniment on the big screen, unusual for a support act.

Charli XCX too knows how to work a crowd, even one this size. By the time she played the crowd was a bit more populated and she was getting a bigger reaction – her finale of Fancy was particularly well received. She even got her own stadium moment when she asked the crowd to turn the lights on their phones and wave them around – and as always, the fairyland light effect was spectacular. It was during her set that the rain started to appear and she made a prophetic statement – “You know what’s better than Taylor Swift? Taylor Swift in the rain. She kills it.”

With constant rain and flashes of lightning, the start of Taylor Swift was delayed – but the soaking capacity crowd (well, those of us in the open on the arena floor at least) didn’t mind one bit when the lights dimmed and the intro video started before Swift emerged silhouetted from behind the giant video screen.

It being the Reputation stadium tour, the opening salvo was from said album with …Ready For It?, I Did Something Bad and Gorgeous following in quick succession, replete with an ensemble of singers and dancers – at times there was up to 20 extra people on stage. And following from that, most of the focus was on the latest album (damn near all of the songs off it getting a run), with most of her older songs that made an appearance in the set being confined to just a part of medleys. Mind you, they flowed seamlessly, like they were almost meant to fit together.

When fireworks and firejets come out by the second song, you know you’re in for quite the stadium spectacular. At various points throughout the night there were multiple costume changes and props ranging from a see-sawing throne, oversized Taiko drums, giant snakes and a fountain (yes, a motherflippin’ fountain on the stage). The giant screen moved around and opened up (revealing the band powering away there most of the night) and she even had her own mini cable car cage (fancily decorated of course – one carrying the contestant snake motif) to float over the audience to make her way to a stage in the middle of the floor to perform a few numbers out amongst the crowd (here it was still teeming down mind you, which it did for about two-thirds of the show). Included in these were Shake It Off where Charlie XCX and Georgia Notts came back out on stage to join her, and what was the portion of the set where Swift got to play whatever the hell she wanted on just an acoustic guitar – the crowd tonight was treated to 22 as Swift said it reminded her of being in Sydney.

The Reputation songs were tailor-made (Taylor-made even?) for a stadium environment, especially in their presentation with a full ensemble. And it only struck this reviewer right at the end when credits and outtakes were coming up on the big screen as the crowd exited that this was very much almost like a made for TV spectacular – the performers hit their marks, looking right down the barrels of cameras which captured every important moment, plus there were video montages throughout, dividing the show into acts. It was slickly produced and as such there was no impromptu encore – just a prolonged farewell during a medley of We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together and This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, where the dancers, back-up singers and the band got a shoutout and everyone went around the stage waving goodbye. This farewell outro almost went for as long as the song itself. And as Swift pirouetted down as a stage elevator whisked her out of sight, again that perfect camera work caught a flash of a smile as she descended and that was the final glimpse we had of her. She looked a little exhausted, sodden but still the smile reflected that she’d just had one hell of a night – exactly like the crowd.