Taylor Made

If you’re not familiar with the Dallas area, we have a football team called the Dallas Cowboys. They play in a 100,00-seat stadium in Arlington, Texas, halfway between Dallas and Ft. Worth. It looks like a spaceship:

Courtesy of ESPN.com

Since it opened last season, it hasn’t exactly been a place for fairy tales. The Cowboys are the Cowboys and even the Super Bowl game was not quite what the DFW area was planning for.

But last night, this oversized sports bar next door to the home of the AL West champions (and counting) Texas Rangers, transformed itself into a place where 55,000 young girls (and their moms… and me… and JB) were able to experience the dreamland theatrics of young love and heartbreak that can only be brought to life by one Taylor Swift!

I have already written about my adoration of this girl. And those who know me well have listened to my countdown to the concert since I purchased the tickets more than 7 months ago. It was only fitting that her show take place after I had spent the previous 24 hours observing the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. On this day, we atone for our sins and are forgiven for our transgressions of the past year. It is important to attend a Taylor Swift concert when you are at your most pure, because as my friend and fellow attendee keenly observed, there is something very Disney about her show and her fans.

Cowboys Stadium has a Giant Screen of Epic Proportions. If I wasn’t such a lazy blogger, I’d look up the dimensions, but trust me, it’s huge.

Portion of the crowd and the Giant Screen.

It takes an amazing set of pores to feel confident enough to have your face on this screen. There’s no make-up that can hide anything. But with her Hollywood-glam looks, including striking eyes and her signature cherry red lipstick, Taylor was always ready for her close-up. We couldn’t help but be distracted by her perfect teeth.

Perfect teeth, meet Giant Screen.

Taylor’s show was full of some of her greatest hits coupled with Broadway-like performances with a chorus of dancers and her high-energy band. If you have seen the movie Valentine’s Day, you probably already know that acting is not one of Taylor’s strengths. She’s a little awkward. But in the context of her concert, when music is the main focus, she could pull it off.

Sure, I had my jaded, I’m-too-old-to-be-here moments. Her constant looks of awe (amplified by the Giant Screen) at all the shrieking and cheering for her by her many fans got a little old for me. I have no doubt she is grateful, but I can’t buy that she is surprised. This isn’t her first rodeo. And floating over the crowd in a Juliet-esque balcony during the final number was perhaps taking the fairytale metaphor a little too far.

But then again, my friends and I did wear homemade matching t-shirts:

Thanks A!

And that’s really what this concert, and all others, are about. Sharing good (whatever that means to you) music with friends. The fiance, who doesn’t listen to any pop music, but misses a big night of college football to join three girls (in aforementioned matching t-shirts) because he knows it’s important to me.

And the moment the house music abruptly stops, the lights go out, and you know the show is about to begin. And so what if you shriek louder than the 11-year-old next to you?

What are some of your best concert memories? I’m sure this concert was the first for a majority of the crowd. What was your first concert? Mine was Lionel Ritchie. Oh yeah.