【TSC的13号报刊亭】 02.Concert Review by Variety

Taylor Swift Brings Her Epic Empath Energy to SoFi Stadium for a Grand Six-Night Stand: Concert Review

《Variety》杂志The Eras Tour观后评论：泰勒丝带来史诗般的六日演唱会体验

 

Chris Willman

August 5, 2023

Source: Variety

 

导语：the eras tour美巡第一轮落下帷幕，这篇评论从多个角度回顾了这场“史诗级别”的巡演，巧妙地在编排中遵循了巡演的时间顺序，对karma的讨论也饶有趣味。看完之后或许更能体会作者在结尾的感叹：这是她的时代，也定义了你我的时代。

 

One of the questions raised by Taylor Swift’s recent single “Karma” is whether the titular force is something that can be, like, aggressively courted. And, if so, is writing out $100,000 bonus checks to one’s tour truck drivers a form of metaphysical insurance payment? These are the deep thoughts that may woozily cross your mind on the Eras Tour, as the clock nears midnight while Swift is bringing things to a close by performing “Karma” at the end of a 3-hour-and-25-minute marathon set. It’s a weird, funny finale that leaves an audience with the idea that virtue is even better than revenge, or that maybe these can amount to the same thing. And who’s to argue any of this when you’re witnessing the insane success of the soon-to-be-billion-grossing Eras Tour?

泰勒丝最近的单曲Karma抛出了一个问题：行善是否真的可以积德？如果答案是肯定的，那么给巡演中的卡车司机开出10万美元的奖金支票是一种形而上学的“积德”？（注：泰勒丝在美巡结束后给每位卡车司机发放了10万美元的奖金，所以作者这么说。）这会是在观看 Eras Tour 的过程中可能浮现在你脑海里的万千想法之一——当午夜将近，而泰勒丝正在一场长达3小时25分钟的演出行至末尾时演唱karma。整场演出至此迎来了一个古怪而有趣的收尾，让观众们不由得相信行善比复仇更快意，或者也许这两者根本就是同一回事。当我们目睹着即将获得数十亿美元票房的eras tour获得难以置信的成功时，谁能不同意这一点（即泰勒丝的善举为自己带来了善果）呢？

 

Swift is paying her good fortune forward with an exhaustive, exhilarating show that is making millions of international fans justifiably joyful. As re-witnessed in Thursday night’s performance at the L.A. area’s SoFi Stadium — the first of a six-night stand in Inglewood, Calif. — the Eras Tour represents the apotheosis of what a pop superstar tour can be. It’s massively overscaled, oddly intimate and even, at its heart, extraordinarily musical in a way we don’t expect, much less demand, out of pop extravaganzas. It feels generous and sweet, and it absolutely flexes like a goddam acrobat.

周四晚在洛杉矶地区的SoFi体育场的演出（加利福尼亚州连续六场演唱会中的第一场）让我们再次见证，泰勒丝正用一场激动人心的超豪华演出，将她的幸运回馈给数百万国际粉丝，使他们感到真真正正的快乐。the eras tour代表了流行音乐巨星巡演的最高境界。它在保有豪华规模的同时拥有一种奇迹般的亲密感，更深入、登峰造极的音乐造诣，这是我们对流行歌手的演唱会从未敢妄想的。一切都行云流水，绝对“像一个专业杂技演员一样灵活多变”。（此处化用了karma的歌词）

 

“I can’t believe I’m saying this,” Swift told the crowd early in Thursday’s show, “but this is the last city on the U.S. leg of the Eras Tour, and we really wanted to spend it somewhere special.” Flattery will get her everywhere, but there’s an asterisk she could have put on that statement and didn’t, which is that the SoFi run marks the end of just one U.S. run for the tour, as she announced earlier in the day that she is adding North American dates for fall 2024, albeit more in what looks like a regional mopping-up exercise than a full-scale return after the Latin American, Asian and European globetrotting to come in the next year. No matter — Angelenos do like to believe we’re special, and were happy to treat it as a closer to what began in Phoenix four and a half months ago, even if, in the overall picture, she’s only just begun.

“我简直不敢相信我在说的话，”斯威夫特在周四的演出中告诉观众们，“但这是the eras tour美国巡演的最后一个城市了，我们真的很想把这一站留到一个特别的地方。” 大家的欢呼让她有点飘飘然了，不过我还是要说，这句话有一个漏洞：这其实只是美国第一轮巡演的结束，因为当日稍早时她宣布了2024秋天北美的二轮巡演，只不过更像是区域性的查漏补缺（把一轮巡演没去的地方补上），而不是在结束明年拉丁美洲、亚洲和欧洲的全球巡演后的全面回归。不管怎么说，我们洛杉矶人愿意相信自己是特别的，很乐意把SoFi体育馆的这六场演出视为她在四个半月前从凤凰城开始的巡演的终结。即便，从更长远的图景来看，这一切才刚刚开始呢。

 

Any of the fans who’ve already caught the tour — which, if you count people watching shaky,  illicit livestreams, means almost all of them — will know not much has changed about the set since the March opening in Arizona. The most overtly autobiographical song about a love affair now known to be broken up, “Invisible String,” was cut months ago, in favor of another great “Folklore” song with nearly the exact opposite viewpoint, “The 1.” “Long Live” was added to the set upon the release of the “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” re-record. Just a week or so ago, “Tis the Damn Season” was dropped from the “Evermore” portion of the set to make room for “No Body, No Crime,” thanks to that song’s featured artist, Haim, coming on for the last stretch of the tour.

任何已经看过巡演的粉丝——如果你算上观看摇摇晃晃的非法直播的人（嗯其实几乎就是所有人）都会知道，自三月在亚利桑那州开幕以来，巡演的编排其实没有太大变化。invisible string，这首关于一段现今已经be的恋情的、极为张扬的自传式歌曲，几个月前从巡演歌单里被踢掉了，取而代之的是另一首主旨几乎完全相反的、伟大的、同样来自folklore的歌曲“The 1”。霉国国歌long live在有屁重录后被添加到巡演歌单里。就在大约一周前，“Tis the Damn Season”从Evermore era中剔除，让位给“No Body，No Crime”，这要归功于这首歌的合作乐队Haim，她们在美巡的最后几场作为嘉宾前来助阵。

Otherwise, the map remains the same, apart from the two surprise songs that arrive as the penultimate section of the show. Thursday, the first of these was the very much anticipated live debut of a Vault track that became her latest single, “I Can See You,” treated in concert as a real rocker, even if performed as a solo acoustic guitar number. The other was a “Midnights” track that hadn’t previously made the grade, “Maroon” — even better on piano than enmeshed in Jack Antonoff’s booming co-production on record.

不过除了这些之外，巡演的一切大体相同，除了倒数第二部分出现的两首惊喜歌曲。周四，其中的第一首是饱受期待的Vault（宝库）曲目“I Can See You”的现场首秀。尽管是吉他伴奏独唱曲目，却在演出中呈现出真正的摇滚风格。另一首是来自midnights，未能入选常驻歌单的曲目——“Maroon” ，这首歌用钢琴伴奏甚至比Jack Antonoff原版咚咚咚咚的制作还好听。

 

The biggest changeup for L.A. might have been something as seemingly basic as the glowing wristbands left on all 70,000 seats or so prior to gates opening, making for a light show far beyond anything seen at the beginning of the tour. When Swift launched into her abbreviated version of “You Need to Calm Down,” perhaps needless to predict, the SoFi audience became a huge, blinking rainbow flag in surround-vision. It would probably not be a spoiler for the remainder of the run to reveal that red gets some special consideration, but clearly a lot of thought as well as expense and effort went into the color-coding for each of the nearly 45 numbers that bring the audience’s wrists into the picture, above and beyond what will seem like glorified glow sticks the next time you see an artist passing these trinkets out. It has a particularly startling effect on the senses at SoFi Stadium, which, built deep into the ground, has such an extreme rake in its medium and upper seating areas that it’s almost like being surrounded by canyon walls, now set aglow by benign alien forces.

洛杉矶场巡演最大的变化或许是一样看起来十分简单的东西：于巡演开始前被放置在约70000个座位上的发光手环。这些手环共同铸造了一场熠熠生辉的、远超任何之前一场表演的灯光秀。当泰勒丝开始唱缩略版本的YNTCD时，整个体育场的观众席理所当然地变成了一面环绕立体的、巨大闪烁的彩虹旗帜。告诉你们红色得到了特殊对待应该不算剧透吧？（毕竟有同名曲在这里。）不过很显然，45首歌曲中的每一首歌所对应的腕带颜色都费了很多心思编排，比其他歌手演唱会发的荧光棒炫酷多了。这些手环使得SoFi体育场的视觉效果更上一层楼。因为这座体育场深深地嵌入了地下，其中上层区域的坡度极大，现在被炫彩的光海笼罩，犹如峡谷岩壁被外星力量照亮一般。

 

Swift does her very capable best of making sure the crowd feels part of the show, and not just because of what’s been handed to them: “Is there anyone here tonight who put in an extensive amount of effort to be with us at the Eras Tour?” she asked. And then, even more solicitously: “Did anyone here tonight put a lot of thought and preparation into one of these two things: lyric memorization, and your cute outfit?” As is customary on the tour, only one audience member is allowed near the actual proceedings, typically a tyke brought onto the B-stage for the gifting of a hat during “22.” On Thursday, it was Bianka Bryant, the 6-year-old daughter of Kobe and Vanessa, getting the bestowing.

泰勒丝尽其所能让观众们能有参与感，她所做的绝不仅仅是给每个人发手环而已。“今晚有没有人是费了大劲，好不容易抢到票才来的？”她问道。接着，她更热切地问：“今晚在座的各位，有没有人是花了很多心思来记歌词，或是用心打扮的？”按照惯例，巡演中只有一名幸运观众有机会靠近舞台，在“22”这首歌期间于B舞台被泰勒丝赠予帽子。周四获得这份荣耀的是科比·布莱恩特和维纳莎的6岁女儿，比安卡·布莱恩特。

 

Sadly, Taylor Swift doesn’t sing “Mean” on her Eras Tour. Even in a set that now encompasses 45 songs, certain greatest-hits sacrifices must be made. But the show might make you think of that song anyway, because if it proves nothing else — and it proves plenty else — it’s that Swift… can… sing. And that she can provide bravura interpretations of her own deep catalog for a concert that lasts 205 minutes, only about five minutes of which, tops, find her offstage for costume changes. (Many of the outfit transformations happen on-stage, before the crowd’s eyes, saving the band from doing any more instrumental vamping than absolutely necessary.) Few pop stars at her level aren’t giving in to at least a little lip-synching during the heavy choreo moments, but there’s little doubt she’s bringing it all live, even if there are numbers that incorporate some of her own background vocal stacking alongside the in-house vocalists. It’s easy enough to get distracted by how much she puts into visually acting out each number — not to mention the ever changing production design — that you might forget the acting that goes into actually singing this material, flawlessly, across three-plus hours.

可惜的是，mean不是eras tour的常驻歌曲。即使巡演歌单有45首之多，也不得不舍弃某些大热单（因为好歌太多了）。不过，这场巡演或许还是会让你想起mean这首歌，因为它起码有力地证明了泰勒丝是真的很能唱。（注：发布于2010年的单曲mean回击了在前一届格莱美演出后指责泰勒丝“不会唱歌”的乐评家，因此作者引用了这首歌。）在一场持续整整205分钟的演唱会中，她为自己的艺术作品进行了大胆而深刻的诠释，在此期间，顶多花了5分钟更换服装。（许多换装的过程就发生在舞台之上、人群眼前，使得乐队不必通过演奏一些间奏来填充这段时间。）很少有像她这种级别的流行巨星，一边完成繁复的舞蹈动作，又一点都不偷懒、不假唱；可泰勒丝就做到了，除了有时候四大护法会为她伴唱之外，她整场都是真真切切、亲力亲为。我们的注意力很容易被eras tour精致独特的视觉效果与异彩纷呈的演出设计所吸引，但请不要忘了，三个多小时的时间里，泰勒丝片刻不停、完美无瑕地唱好了每一首歌。

 

It all adds up to an athletic feat a fan might undervalue just because the audience is busy being self-impressed with its own athleticism — getting into the stadium, walking down those ramps for another 10 minutes if the ducats are floor seats, and then standing from 6:30 p.m., when opening-opening act Gracie Abrams first goes on, until 11:45, when Swift has finally finished her last karmic duty for the night. (Seats, at a Taylor Swift concert, are ways of marking out personal space, not something really intended to bear weight.)

所有这一切形成了一项体育壮举，粉丝可能自己都没有发觉，（泰勒丝的累就不必说了，）观众自己都会不自觉地发掘出自己的运动潜能：进入体育场，如果票是内场前排座位，再花大约10分钟走下那些斜坡，然后从晚上六点半Gracie Abrams的暖场演出开始一直站到泰勒丝唱完最后一首歌，此时已经五个多小时过去，到深夜11:45了。（在泰勒丝的演唱会上，座位只是用来给人定位的，而不是真正用来坐的。）

 

Sitting alone at the production’s mossy piano, Swift explained in the most basic terms, accessible to even the fans Brianka Bryant’s age, what exactly her mojo is. “The reason we didn’t tour for five years — that was not a normal or scheduled thing. We had a global pandemic; we had much more important things that we had to worry about. But I’ve been playing shows sort of as a coping mechanism my whole life, since I was about 12 years old. I go through this process where I feel things, I write a song about that thing, I show it to you and I go, ‘Do you like it? Did you ever feel this way too?’ And so when you guys are at at a show, if you even nod your head or make eye contact with me or sing the words to a song during a show, that to me validates that emotion and makes me feel like I wasn’t alone in feeling it. It’s sort of my coping process in life — so all of a sudden that was gone. And so I decided,” she continued, “in order to keep that connecton going, if I couldn’t play live shows with you, I was going to make and release as many albums as humanly possible.”

泰勒丝独自坐在长满青苔的钢琴前，用最简单的词句解释了她自己的魔力，即使是和科比女儿的年纪相仿的霉粉也能理解她的话。“我想和大家解释我们整整五年没有巡演的原因。要知道，这绝非寻常，我们事先也没想到会这样。因为我们经历了一场全球大流行；因为在这期间我们有更重要的事情要操心。但我从12岁开始，就一直把演出作为一种（面对情绪/问题的）应对机制。当我日有所思时，我就会将我的情绪与经历写进歌曲。我会把它放给你们听，然后我会说'你们喜欢它吗？你们也有过这种感觉吗？'所以当你们来看我的演唱会，甚至愿意在演唱会中点头啊、与我进行眼神交流或跟唱啊，对我来说，那是对情感的验证，让我觉得我不是唯一一个有这种感觉的人。这就是我（面对情绪/问题的）的应对机制。但这一切突然被掐断了。所以我决定，”她继续说，“为了与你们保持这种联系，如果我不能演出，我将在人力所能及的范围内尽可能多地发专。”

Hence, she explained, touring behind four new albums instead of one. The thought that kept driving her toward an eventual tour, Swift explained, was: “How cathartic would it be to get to sing ‘Champagne Problems’ with you?” She was even kind enough to call out “Bridge!” just before getting to one of this decade’s oddest pieces of sing-along bait — the forceful reading of a passage describing the spurning of a marriage proposal, including the shout-along line “What a shame she’s fucked in the head!” This is not the portion of what Swift does that she would explain for the pre-teens in the audience, necessarily, but the 30-and-up crowd that’s grown up with Swift certainly recognizes the value in the songwriter being outrageously free in sharing her neuroses, probably most of all in “Anti-Hero.” The day that “Midnights” came out last fall, we confidently predicted that it would be deeply cathartic to hear an entire stadium chanting “I’m the problem, it’s me,” and, dear reader, it feels like as blissful a moment of mass self-effacement as anyone could have hoped.

因此她解释说，这正是她在四张新专辑发行后才巡演，而非（像以前一样）发一张巡演一次的原因。而一直驱使着她最终走向巡演的动力，她说，是“和你们一起唱‘Champagne Problems’ 该有多愉快啊！”她甚至还在本世纪最古怪的合唱段落来临前好心地叫了一句“转折要来了！”这首歌的桥段描述了女主人公拒绝求婚的过程，包括大叫那句“只可惜她脑子有病！（What a shame she’s fucked in the head!）”。当然了，这句话她肯定是不会和来看巡演的小朋友们解释的。但对于与泰勒丝共同成长了这么多年的大龄霉粉来说，他们一定能体会到你霉有在公开地、不掩饰地通过歌曲分享自己的脆弱、担忧与焦虑。在anti-hero中，这一点体现的尤为明显。在midnights于去年秋天震撼发行之时，我们就可以预见到整个体育场回响“是我，我是麻烦本身（I’m the problem, it’s me）”的那一刻，该会是多么畅快宣泄。亲爱的读者啊，这样坦诚的自我剖析、勇敢的直面自我所造就的幸福时刻，实在是大家都梦寐以求的。

 

What’s startling about the Eras Tour setlist is how many climaxes it has along the way — and with the recent addition of “Long Live,” a song that never did anything but close shows prior to now, it wouldn’t be surprising if some members think that is the lead-in to an encore break, rather than just a casual halfway point in the proceedings. But what’s especially fulfilling about that is, by the time Swift closes the show with seven selections from last fall’s “Midnights” album, the obvious career bangers are already well out of the way. It feels for that last, looser stretch like we’ve joined the artist at an after-hours joint, with music that happens to feel clubby, even if it includes some of her most sophisticated lyric-writing. The after-party has been built into the fabric of the show. And how many superstars would end a hits-packed extravaganza with “And now here’s a solid half-hour from my new album”— and make it feel like a welcome and even deliriously appropriate conclusion, not a forced one?

时代巡演还有一个惊人之处在于它的高潮迭起——最近高潮点又多了long live，一首此前巡演中一直作为收尾曲的歌曲。因此，如果有观众把这首歌当作返场的前奏而非一个普通的中场，也就不足为奇了。但关于这一点，特别令人满意的是，演唱会伴随着midnights era进入尾声时，我们终于不用声嘶力竭地吼叫、进入一个又一个高潮了。感觉就像是我们和泰勒丝一起小憩，耳边放着夜店歌曲（即使这些歌也有着相当精致的词句创作）。midnights歌曲造就的afterparty也成为了整场演出的一部分。还有，有多少明星能用“现在距离我的新专辑还有整整半小时”的宣告来结束一场盛会——并使它显得十分恰当、引人入胜，而不是草草收场呢？

 

At the point she kicks into the “Midnights” material, Angelenos may feel tempted to act like Angelenos — i.e., to start running for the car to beat the traffic, like Dodgers fans confident that it’s in the bag and nothing important could really happen in the final couple of innings. But that’d be a mistake at this show: Yes, the show has already climaxed 25 times, and this is the wind-down. But “Karma” — and karma — demand seeing it out to the finish. Chances are we won’t see a life-flashing-before-eyes tour like this again, not even from Swift. The memory of that epic-length bonding will be more than just a relaxing thought, if her Eras are the ones that help define yours, in the way that only great pop can.

当泰勒丝在演出末尾开启midnights篇章时，洛杉矶人们可能想要发挥一些传统艺能——比如跑上大街发大疯，像是确信自家赢定了、最后几个回合乾坤已定的道奇队（美国职业棒球大联盟球队）的球迷们。但eras tour可不是这样：是的，整场演出已经有了25个高潮，正在进入收尾阶段。但是最后一首歌是“因果循环（karma）”——是的，Karma，你可得认真看好了。我们很可能再也看不到像这样在我们眼前闪闪发光的伟大巡演了，泰勒丝自己也不一定会再开这么宏大的巡演了。对这场史诗般伟大的巡演的记忆，可不仅仅是放松消遣那么简单（再次化用karma的歌词，很美的首尾呼应）。

毕竟，这是她的时代，也定义了你我的时代。只有最伟大的流行艺术家才能做到这一点。