An evening with Taylor Swift

A few days later, I still don't have the appropriate words to describe my evening with Taylor Swift. I keep trying, but I can't find a good way to sum it up.  Is it enough to say it was a blast? Probably not, but it seriously was one of the most fun concerts I've been to in a while.

Taylor mostly stuck to songs from her latest album (obviously, since that's the name of the tour), but also broke out a few past hits including, "I Knew You Were Trouble," "We Are Never Getting Back Together," "Love Story," "Enchanted," and "You Belong With Me."  I'm sure there were others, but I can't remember them at the moment.  She did several costume changes and made great use of the large stage set-up.  And the bracelets that lit up with colors and flashed in time with the songs were pretty awesome too.

Every now and then, she'd chat between songs and one thing she said really struck me.  She was talking about how it's hard to let people in, especially when we end up getting hurt. She said it's tempting to just shut down and keep people out, but that's not the answer.  "You can regret a lot of things in life, but never regret being vulnerable and opening your heart to someone."  Sigh.  I'll have to try and keep that in mind, as it has become increasingly tempting to just close myself off and become a hermit forever to avoid getting hurt.

I'm so glad I splurged on a ticket and went solo. My seat neighbor had done the same thing with one difference -- she was flying from Alaska to Tennessee for a high school reunion and decided to stop off in Des Moines for the show. Crazy, huh?  But that's something I totally would have done and will probably do in the future.

By the way, Vance Joy was the opener. I didn't fall in love with his first single, "Riptide," but he played a few other decent tunes during his set, so I'll probably be checking out his album soon.

The only thing that would have made this night better would have been meeting Taylor, but despite repeated contest entries, that did not happen.  Maybe next time?