New GOAT at Gillette: Taylor Swift scores high with fans in Foxborough

FOXBOROUGH - Tom Brady is no longer the only GOAT to be cheered on by legions of fans at Gillette Stadium. That club welcomed a new member Friday night, pop sensation Taylor Swift.

When it comes to the concert arena, Swift is the undisputed GOAT - at least her rabid (and often high-pitched screaming) fans think so. And her sixth headlining tour, the “Eras Tour,” is not only the tour of the summer (even if a month early), it’s easily the tour of the year and might possibly go down as the tour of the millennium.

A whirlwind joyride of her 10 studio albums - or which Swift calls “eras” - the “Eras Tour” is an eye-popping, jaw-dropping, hip-swiveling tour de force that is unlike any concert you have ever seen by Swift or any artist, and is like 10 mini-concerts in one.   

Not only was she a busy beaver since the last time she was allowed to tour by releasing four albums and rerecording two, the 33-year-old superstar has reemerged from a five-year hiatus of the concert stage as the female equivalent of Bruce Springsteen.

Playing one minute shy of 3 ½ hours Friday night, Swift performed 45 songs, including six songs from 2019’s “Lover,” five songs from 2020’s “evermore,” seven songs from 2020’s “folklore” and seven songs from last year’s “Midnights,” for 25 songs she never played before at Gillette, plus two tour debuts, “Should’ve Said No” and “Better Man.”

Nothing we have seen, heard or dreamed of from Swift in the past could have prepared us for the extravaganza that unfolded Friday with dates through Sunday at Gillette. Personally, I feel bad for any pop divas or veteran rockers who play an arena, ballpark, stadium or backyard barbecue this year if their fans have already seen Swift. For showmanship, songwriting, stamina, slinky outfits and star power, she has no equal.

With her backup dancers parading around with pastel-colored parachutes, Swift kicked off the show in high gear and knee-high go-go boots for “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince,” the first of a half-dozen tracks from 2019’s “Lover.”

70,000 at 'Foxy Foxborough'

Then Swift revealed her true intentions to crowd that she said numbered a staggering 70,000 at Gillette, a place she fondly referred to as “Foxy Foxborough” and “the most joyful place on Earth” during the night.

“We’re gonna go on a grand adventure together through 17 years of music that I’ve been lucky enough to make and you’ve been kind enough to care about,” Swift announced before strumming a pink acoustic guitar. “By the way, I’ll be your host this evening. My name is Taylor.”

Sporting a fringy gold flapper dress that seemed to sashay, shake and shimmy to every one of her whims and fancies, Swift made a frisky and playful return to her doe-eyed daydream youth with three tracks from 2008’s “Fearless,” including the hook-laden gem “You Belong With Me” and Swift’s musical reimagination of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” with a happy ending, “Love Story.”

In the guise of earth mother and wood nymph that would make Tori Amos and Kate Bush envious, Swift emerged from the heart of an enchanted forest for the five songs that made up the “evermore” segment. During “champagne problems” Swift tickled the ivories on a moss-covered piano buried underneath the roots of a massive oak tree. Blown away by the crowd’s reaction, Swift flicked off her earpieces and paused for several minutes to soak up the crowd’s applause and chanting of her name.

“That was insane! Thank you!” Swift gushed. “That was so loud and it was so long. Oh my God. You’ve always been awesome but you never done that!”

Wearing a one-legged, snake-adorned red bodysuit, Swift was at her serpentine best on the four-song segment that made up her “Reputation” era, the last tour she did before the pandemic. On the unapologetic, venom-spewing “Look What You Made Me Do,” Swift donned her scariest and coolest persona to date, a cruel prison guard keeping watch of glass booth cells with versions of her old video and stage personalities locked inside.

With a beautiful ball gown, Swift looked like a Disney princess come to life on “Enchanted,” from 2010’s “Speak Now.”

Dressed down in a black bowler and white T-shirt, Swift provided plenty of infectious fun on the hipster-dissing party anthem “22” and the deliciously dissing breakup ditty “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” (the title of which was also inscribed on her shirt), both from 2012”s “Red.”

Singing about a lover who was “so casually cruel in the name of being honest,” Swift painfully reminisced (allegedly about Jake Gyllenhaal) with an alarming intimacy and urgency during the 10-minute-long epic, “All Too Well (Taylor’s version).” By the time Swift reached the final harrowing cry of “I remember it all too well,” this became a stellar performance that the packed audience will remember all too well for years.

Marking the era in which the pop phenom was no longer pretending to be country, Swift embraced pristine pop for all its worth with five tracks from “1989,” including the irresistible slumber-party anthem “Shake It Off” and “Blank Space,” the latter featuring Swift swinging a neon golf club.

Evening's 'surprise' song

As for the evening’s big “surprise” song, Swift slinked onto a small secondary stage at the end of the runway and delivered “Should’ve Said No” from her 2006’s self-titled debut. Taylor belted out the song with heart and conviction and the crowd belted the lyrics right back at her. One of the evening’s best subtle moments was when Swift was asking her two-timing boyfriend the rhetorical question, “Was it worth it?” and with a knowing look, she shook her head back and forth stating the obvious, as the crowd cheered her on.

Swift ended her mammoth set with seven tracks from her latest album "Midnights." In addition to probably being the first recording artist to play all the tracks from a new album last, Swifties enthusiastically greeted the new material with open arms.