When I saw the Eras Tour in person my brain chemistry was altered by moments like the Reputation set, and, of course, the surprise songs. It turns out, Jason Kelce is a big fan of the acoustic set too! While his little brother Travis Kelce has been dating the pop star for quite some time, the former Philadelphia Eagles center went to his first Eras concert in London over the weekend, and he loved it. However, the part that really stood out to him was the surprise songs, and I couldn’t agree more with his reasons.
Among all the projects Swifties have to look forward to, we are also always getting hyped up about the surprise songs, because they change for every single show. As her boyfriend Travis Kelce said on the latest episode of New Heights, she “makes every show unique with the acoustic set,” and fans love it. So does Jason Kelce, and he shared his reasons why on the brothers’ podcast, starting with:
But, the acoustic set, first of all, I just love acoustic [music]. When it’s just a musician, dude, it’s just her, a guitar and 90,000 people. And obviously, the 90,000 people are all singing the songs like she does have some support, a lot of unison vocals going on, and she’s blending from one song to another and going through it.
Jason was at the first two shows Swift did in London. So he witnessed her mashing up “Hits Different” and “Death By A Thousand Cuts” on guitar and then “The Black Dog,” “Come Back, Be Here” and “Maroon” on piano during night one. Then, on night two, he saw her put “thanK you aIMee” with “Mean” and he got to see her perform “Castles Crumbling” with Paramore’s Hayley Williams. All around, he got excellent surprise songs. However, the thing is, this portion of her show is always excellent.
The football player went on to explain why he loved this part of the show so much by noting how challenging it is to do consistently. He said:
To be good in front of 90,000 people with just that, I think you have to be amazing. And you have to, one, have great songs and great lyrics, which she has obviously written and made. And then two, to be able to perform those seamlessly, on the spot, with nothing else to hide it, that was the highlight of the evening for me.
Travis then explained how much the Swifties look forward to that section, and he said that this part of the show “puts everybody in a room with Taylor.” Jason elaborated on that point, saying it felt like an intimate concert, not a massive, massive show at Wembley:
Dude, you’re with 90,000 people, but for some reason, it feels like you’re in a bar just listening to somebody play on the piano. It was amazing.
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I passionately agree with Jason Kelce. While Swift’s entire show is a feat, especially considering the changes she’s made since The Tortured Poets Department release, the fact that she plays two new songs every single night is incredible. The woman has well over 200 tracks, and she tries to do something the Swifties haven’t seen before each time she performs, which is part of the reason why she’s started consistently doing mashups.
You never know what you’re going to get when she grabs her guitar for this part of the show, and she truly never misses with it either. It’s incredible to watch, and as Jason said, you feel like you’re just “in a bar” listening to her play, because she’s able to make it so intimate and personal.
Overall, great points were made, and I love that Jason Kelce had so much fun at his first Eras Tour concerts. He’s always spoken highly of Taylor Swift, and now that he’s seen her doing what she does best, I’m sure that respect and admiration has only grown.