Live Review: Taylor Swift. Charli XCX, Broods

Broods are the first up tonight and they bring the stage to life with bursting neon-coloured visuals on the huge screens behind them. Singer Georgia Nott is wearing a peach outfit with a fluffy trim to match their latest single of the same colour. “I love how many people are sparkling,” comments Nott, as they fire up the crowd and dominate the stage with some of their biggest hits including Bridges and Free.

“I feel like you Australians know how to party,” says Charli XCX before launching into her popular collab with Icona Pop, I Love It. She brings a huge energy to the place as she jumps around the stage uncontrollably and tries to find out which area of the crowd likes to party the loudest by encouraging an audience to scream as loud as possible. Charli XCX shows us why she is the future of pop music with her endless hits with experimental sounds that make us want to dance. She performs her latest track 1999 as the sensational video clip plays in the background featuring everyone’s favourite ‘90s nostalgic pop-culture moments. “Every night there’s not one, not two, but three badass woman standing on this stage and that’s girl power,” she shouts.

A video montage builds up the excitement right before Taylor Swift makes a grand entrance. Smoke cannons ignite and flames shoot up into the air as she welcomes us to the Reputation Stadium Tour. The bracelets we were given upon entry light up our wrists with flashing colours so that Swift can see every single one of us in the sold-out stadium. She joins in with her entourage of dancers to perform a hard-hitting choreographed routine for the opening track ...Ready For It? And we are so ready for what she has in store for us. “I’ve been here twelve times to play for you. I always remember Melbourne crowds to be loud, passionate, bouncy and incredible and tonight’s no exception,” she exclaims.

A live band comes out to the stage for a mash up of some country-toned early favourites including Love Story and You Belong With Me. We then watch an interlude video of Swift’s transition from good girl to bad girl before one of her most different songs to date. Look What You Made Me Do strikes up complete with a tilted stage and gigantic golden cobra snakes rising up from the stage. “I approached my latest album a bit differently. I came up with a concept and a theme (reputation) before I started writing,” she reveals. Swift tells us how the idea of people saying things about her behind her back is something that scares her because it can result in something fake getting in the way of finding something real.

Swift steps into an illuminated podium, which elevates her into the air and transports her to the middle of the stadium crowd. Shake It Off begins to play and she brings out her gal pals Charli XCX and Georgia Nott for a sing-along and a dance. Swift has been making music and putting out albums since she was 16, now at 28, she tells us she feels liberated to try out new experimental sounds. “I write all of my music with an instrument and I want you to care about the melody and the feeling behind it no matter what production is layered over the top of it,” Swift explains. She continues to re-interpret one of her latest dance-pop heavy songs Dancing With Our Hands Tied as an acoustic guitar version that goes back to her folk roots. A tradition that has developed on this tour is that her fans have requested her to play older songs acoustically that she hasn’t played in forever. I’m Only Me When I’m With You is one of these songs and she comments, “A lot of people in the room weren’t even born when this came out.” She laughs.

She hitches a ride back to the main stage on a skeletal snake podium for Bad Blood and moves through the levels of the impressive transforming stage. A grand piano appears and she slows things down for a moment as she plays a medley of songs including Long Live and New Year’s Day dedicated to all her fans. “Going somewhere so far from home you’d think it would feel isolating but we have the most fun in Australia, so thank you for that,” Swift shares. After two hours of non-stop jaw-dropping entertainment, the show comes to a close with This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things – an unexpected final song but a great way to go out with a bang. Confetti cannons explode over the stadium and we reach for the bits of newspaper headlines falling from above to keep as a memento of this unforgettable show.