Taylor Swift Makes Strong Case for Gay Icon Status During Eras Tour
Photo Courtesy TAS Rights Management Full of queer energy, the show had one fan screaming ‘Happy Pride Month to me!’ Chris Azzopardi | QSyndicate On my way to Ford Field in downtown Detroit for the first night of Taylor Swift’s brilliant and breathtaking Eras Tour on June 9, I joked with my concert mate that he’d have to remember the show for me, even though that was my job.
That is if, of course, he wasn’t about to literally lose his mind, too. I’d read about the Taylor Swift “amnesia” phenomenon — Swifties reporting that the experience was so overwhelming they felt guilty they couldn’t remember more of it — and I wondered, would the pop magic, all 44 songs, go poof at 11:15 p.m.
when Taylor popped off stage? Should I interview 20 Swifties about what happened just in case my mind went blank? What if they couldn’t remember all too well, either?
Would we all wander around like Dorothy in Taylor’s Oz, Technicolor-dazed and too far from home? This is how three hours and 20 minutes of Taylor Swift live in Detroit all started — my wild, out-of-body experience during what has been called “the tour of her generation.” Based on the light research I’d done before the show, I knew the first Detroit Eras Tour stop I attended would serve Big Taylor Energy with a stylish, over-the-top pageant feel that rivaled anything I’ve seen before (including decades of big pop spectacles from gay icons like Madonna, Cher, Janet and Mariah), so overwhelmingly massive and magical that I could barely take notes.
