Faxlandez Family Blog

The moment we had been waiting for since Christmas had arrived. It was October 6th and Loretta (my little sister) and I were in Arlington, TX for what would be an extremely fun night – the Taylor Switch reputation tour.

Let’s go back to October 2017 for a moment here. See, soon after the reputation album dropped Anthony and I purchased modest tickets to the tour stop in Washington, D.C. I could tell Loretta was a bit bummed when I told her we were going, but I knew something she didn’t: Chris had bought her SNAKE PIT tickets (aka the very best tickets you can purchase). The challenge at this point was to not spill the beans to Loretta before Christmas.

Christmas 2017 arrived and I got a call from a very excited Loretta in which “HE GOT ME SNAKE PIT TICKETS!!!” was quickly followed by “DO YOU WANNA GO WITH ME?”. My jaw dropped. I knew Chris had purchased 2 tickets, but I had assumed he would be going to the concert with her. Apparently he wasn’t really interested in going, he just knew she would love this as a gift (relationship goals). So he told her to bring a friend – AND SHE PICKED ME!

Anthony was a tad bummed because this meant we could sell our tickets to the D.C. show and use that to fund the trip to Dallas. He didn’t really want to see Taylor Swift again (he’d seen her with me twice before), but he had been pretty excited about one of the opening acts – Charli XCX.

Around this same time we were told that our company’s Grand Meetup in Orlando would be ending on exactly the same date as the concert. So we would be flying from Richmond to Orlando, Orlando to Dallas, then Dallas back to Richmond. What a whirlwind of a week and weekend!

The good news here is that meant Anthony and I would be going to Dallas together. Although he wouldn’t be coming to the concert, this meant he could hit up all his favorite comic book shops and restaurants while we were in town at least.

Once all the plans were in place, we played the waiting game. Loretta and I learned every word to every song on reputation, we made up our own dance moves, constantly sent videos back and forth of each other lip syncing to Taylor Swift music in public places (primarily at the grocery store), and created posters to hold up at the concert.

Then the day came – it was finally October 6, 2018.

Before the Show

As per usual, the minute we landed in Dallas Anthony and I hit up the first Whataburger we laid our eyes on – Anthony’s favorite indulgence.

Afterwards we headed across the highway to my favorite place – Torchy’s Tacos where we met up with Loretta and Chris!

We spent some time chowing down at Torchy’s then went to check into our hotel. Funny story: Loretta and I booked different hotels with very similar names. DFW airport is so large that there are actually two SpringHill Suites, one on each side of the airport. Oh well, not a super huge deal as we both had vehicles and we weren’t that far apart.

We freshened up then met up at Loretta’s hotel room to unbox our VIP packages! Check out all the amazing stuff we got in them:

Loretta’s still storing mine until she can bring it with her up this way since I couldn’t fit it in my suitcase (and even if I could it would have probably gotten damaged). I can’t wait to have more time to spend with the book, and to put my ticket in the display to place in my office.

After fangirling over the VIP boxes for far too long, we put on our final touches and headed to AT&T Stadium in Arlington.

When we arrived we took a few photos out front with Chris:

Then we headed inside where we were met with a security guard that told us we would need to remove the light pack from our posters 😦 No worries though, the posters were still super cute without the lights because they have Meredith and Olivia’s adorable faces on them.

Once we were inside it was like a scavenger hunt to find the entrance for the snake pit. We had to go upstairs and half way around the stadium to get to the entrance. Then we descended around and around and around until finally we were on the “field”. I say “field” because the ground is concrete, which was just great for our knees (sarcasm).

A dad and his daughter at their seats stopped us as we were on the way to the snake pit, and asked if we could take a photo of them. I remember the little girl’s skirt was self-designed, with photos of each of Taylor’s albums on it – it was super adorable! After we helped them out and chatted about her awesome skirt, we asked them to return the favor:

Directly behind us in this photo is the left snake pit where we were headed. It was comfortably full but not packed which was nice.

To entertain us before the show began, there was trivia on the big screens and of course great music. We took plenty of photos and videos before the show pointing out just how awesome our tickets were:

Before we knew it, it was time for an opening act – Charli XCX!

Charli XCX

She appeared on stage through a trap door situation, how fun! The stage was pretty simple other than these awesome green ball structures that she used to hide instruments and equipment.

Then, of course, right off the bat she went right into Boom Clap, which everyone knew the words to:

Her set wasn’t too long, but she managed to fit in many of the fan favorites such as Boys:

And of course Fancy (an Iggy Azalea song she’s featured on):

Before we knew it, Charli XCX’s set had ended and it was Camila Cabello’s turn.

Camila Cabello

I love love loved her outfit but I’m terrible and only got 2 photos while she was on stage as I was too busy taking videos of my favorite songs. So here’s the best photo I took so you can sort of see her outfit:

I probably have these all out of order, but here are some of my favorites that she performed:

Inside Out

In The Dark

Into It

Towards the end of her set, she was pretty emotional, including during her “thank you” message to Taylor Swift. While the reputation tour would continue on overseas, this was Camila Cabello’s final stop.

She exited the stage and immediately you could tell the atmosphere changed – we’re all getting pumped for the headliner!

But before we could get there (I know, I’m such a tease) we sang along to a lot of great music including Babe.

Taylor Swift

The wait between Camila Cabello and Taylor Swift was pretty short. There were a few songs relating to “reputation” and then came the intro video:

 

 

The arrival was amazing, paired with …Ready for it? of course.

I should note that the smoke that comes out of the stage gave off a horrible residue that would float down onto us in the snake pit… something they didn’t really think through I don’t think. It could have ended up in our eyes if we were looking upward! So I did end up dreading those after a while, but at least it wasn’t hot or anything.

I got his fun video of Loretta without her knowing (and you can also see the fire and fireworks that go along with the song) while Taylor Swift performed I Did Something Bad.

Since I took the video from the front camera (and Loretta was focused on the performance), she had no clue I was capturing her mini freak-outs and poster-holding on video 🙂

Look What You Made Me Do

The stage presentation for this song was my favorite, it had so much going on!

Unlike the 1989 tour, Taylor Swift didn’t have a guest performer at each stop, but for the very last stop in the US she did! The surprise guest was Sugarland!! This is the first time Taylor Swift had the chance to perform with them live, and of course they sang Babe.

Loretta and I both LOVE this song (as does like everyone in this stadium of course) so it was a huge surprise that they performed this together for us.

Gorgeous

I love her dancing in this one, especially when all of the dancers get really close to her because her “magnetic feel is a little too strong”.

Style

She sang right to us! You can see one moment where it looks like I almost dropped my camera… that was me shuffling so I could hold up my poster for her to see.

Love Story

A short monologue about reputations and preconceived notions

At the very beginning of Delicate, fans have inserted the words “ONE, TWO, THREE, LET’S GO” as you can hear in this first clip…

Delicate

The flying cage she was in went almost right over us, it was so beautiful. She landed in the far center stage so we didn’t see her for a while after that though, just on the big screen!

Shake It Off

I remember this song from the 1989 tour of course, it was just as good this time around. Just a great one to sing and dance to in general, we had a blast.

Taylor was sick with a bit of a cold, so she took a moment to blow her nose and everyone freaking loved it.

I should also note that shortly after this she went down and touch a lot of fan’s hands… and she didn’t wash her hands first! haha

Blank Space

The visuals on this 1989 song are fantastic! I love how she’s able to bring in older songs and make them cohesive in so many ways.

Dress

I absolutely loved the dancers and their costumes in this one, as you can see more clearly in the second video.

Don’t Blame Me

The dancers int his one were pretty creepy… but it looked really cool.

New Year’s Day

There’s always a piano song, and it should be no surprise that New Year’s Day was the piano song on this tour.

Just breathtaking.

Then there was a quick poetry and video break (no doubt for a quick costume change)…

Getaway Car

This is my favorite song in the album! I was slightly disappointed there wasn’t an actual car on the stage though, haha.

Call It What You Want To

With loads of confetti! Each confetti piece was a little newspaper-looking piece with Taylor Swift written all over it (similar to the album cover).

And then it was time for the finale – This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

Yes, that’s a fountain on stage with water going all over the place… just perfect for the finale.

Looking back at all of these videos and photos, I can’t help but smile big dorky smiles. I had such an amazing time and I can’t wait for the next tour.

Thanks Loretta so much for bringing me, it was a blast! I think next time it’ll be my turn to get us pit tickets. 🙂