It still seems impossible to me, as a Swiftie, that we have not one but two full-length concert films showcasing The Eras Tour to watch whenever we want with a Disney+ subscription. Getting to revisit both versions of the show (the original, pre-Tortured Poets Department setlist and the post-TTPD setlist) is a gift. What I really love about rewatching the concert films is noticing new things, which brings us to the thing I want to talk about right now. This is something that may seem obvious to some people, but I didn't catch it on my first viewing of The Eras Tour: The Final Show, and now it's one more detail to love about it. I'm talking about the colors of the light-up bracelets during Taylor's acoustic set.
When I saw Taylor Swift live for the Eras Tour in 2023, her acoustic set featured one song on the guitar and one song on the piano. For my show, it was "Gold Rush" and "Come Back, Be Here." (As a mega-fan of evermore and Red, I was thrilled). I don’t remember noticing the color of my bracelet during the set, so I can’t say with certainty that they matched the songs’ respective eras. Much later in the tour, though, she started doing mashups with some of the surprise songs. We get an amazing sample of that in The Eras Tour: The Final Show when Taylor sings "A Place in this World" and "New Romantics" for her guitar song, then brings "Long Live," "New Year's Day," And "The Manuscript" together for the piano song.
As Swifties are well aware, there's a specific color associated with each Taylor Swift era, so having the bracelets light up to match the color of the era of the song Taylor's performing makes total sense, but I didn't spot how the colors shifted through each of her acoustic performances during the new Eras Tour movie until I rewatched. I didn't actually notice it happening during her guitar performance, likely because the shift from green (Taylor Swift/debut) to light blue (1989) was so subtle. But when she performed at the piano and switched between the three songs, the change of colors is much more obvious.
The crowd was lit up purple for Speak Now as she sang "Long Live," and then it shifted to dark green for Reputation's "New Year's Day," and then white and gray for The Tortured Poets Department's "The Manuscript."
The shift in the color of the bracelets happens six times, by my count -- each time she transitions to one of the three songs in the mashup. And the color change doesn't happen in a blink, it's gradual enough to be subtle but quick enough so that once you recognize the verse she's switched to, the color matches perfectly. If you watch, you can see them twinkle from one color to another throughout the crowd as Taylor transitions from one song to the next. It's visually delightful and pretty impressive, especially when we consider that this was all arranged for one night’s performance.
In the picture below, you can see some of Speak Now's purple visible amidst Reputation's green.
Maybe this seems like a small detail to notice, or for some, an obvious one you can't believe I missed the first time. For me, it's really another example of how much attention to detail there was in the production of The Eras Tour, and why the experience made such a huge impact on pop culture and music during and since the tour’s run. And the more things I learn about it – like how the “22” hat recipient was chosen and how Taylor did the stage dive each night – the more amazed I am by it. As grateful as I am for the memories I have (like so many others) of the tour, both having gotten to attend a show and also following it online with many other Swifties, I’m just as glad we have these concert films to revisit and appreciate.
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