I hinted around to see what she was into (or still into from when I last talked music with her). In her typical teenager way, though, she didn't give me a lot to go on... 'she just liked music.' Which I got - I'm that way. So I started seeing what acts were touring, and what would really be worthwhile. I narrowed it down to a few, but the dates weren't panning out with either my ability to get down to FL (which made more sense to take her to one there), or the timing of ticket sales didn't happen in time for Christmas. So I ended up punting the idea for a Christmas gift, but the idea never left my mind.
Fast forward to this summer. I have a few concerts of my own to go to, and in particular, had awesome seats for Dave Matthews on my Birthday. I became inspired again. So I started searching again and talking to people. It didn't take long to narrow it down... Taylor Swift in Tampa. It was, of course, sold out... well, as far as seats together, it was. So I knew I'd have to go to a broker site. And there's SO many of those now... quite frankly, it's kind of scary. So I started watching a few of the site and checking on occasion. Finally, a couple of months into my watching, I see some seats I like, and first check with my sister if she'd be okay with me 'kidnapping my niece' for the weekend. I wanted it to be a surprise, so I didn't want Darian to know details... but my sister had to tell her I was coming to take her somewhere, just so she wouldn't make plans - it was on Halloween, after all! So I got the tickets, and the surprise was on... as an early birthday gift for her.
Fast forward, again, to Friday - I fly into Jacksonville because I did NOT want to risk flight cancellations or delays. Plus, it was a good chance to spend some time with my parents - it's been since last Christmas! Saturday morning, I drove down to Palm Bay to pick up my niece and let her in on the surprise. Her reaction... priceless! It was the full jaw dropping, near tears, excited as all could be reaction! I couldn't of imagined a more perfect reaction to witness.
The plan was to drive over to Tampa for the concert, and to make life easier, stay overnight there and come back Sunday. Now that she knew what to pack for, she could finally pack appropriately - she had been hesitant to pack before because her mind was running wild with what the surprise might be. She was thinking Halloween part of some sort, maybe a soccer game... the Taylor Swift concert wasn't even on her radar from the sounds of it.
We got to Tampa with plenty of time. We checked into the hotel, freshened up, and headed out. It was at Raymond James Stadium, and it was sold out (55k fans). So, as you can imagine, traffic was a little heavy. But it was not issue, in my mind, and we got inside the stadium with time to ohh and ahh from our seats. I splurged - I got field seats. I figured if I'm going to do it, I was going to do it right. Besides, I think I was just as excited to see Taylor Swift as Darian was. So I wanted good seats for me, too!
There were actually two opening acts for her. The first was Shawn Mendes. I think Darian was almost as excited to see him as she was to see Taylor! He's one of the new cuties on the scene... all the girls were screaming. Then there was Vance Joy. He didn't get as much screaming, but he was good, too. And he had a fun Australian accent to listen to between songs. But finally... it was time.Taylor took the stage and opened with Welcome to New York. This is a song I've recently started to really like on my song list when I fly - which is often. I was actually surprised that I was able to sing along with just about all the songs - guess I'm a bigger fan that I realized! And Taylor Swift puts on a good show... it may be more show (scripted) than some concerts I got to, but it didn't make it any less of a good show. I think I came away from this thinking that you can't sell out a football stadium unless you put on a good show. I've only been to two stadium shows - U2 and Taylor Swift, but those two shows have been phenomenal! Granted, not in the same category... but there are a lot of acts out there that can't, and will likely never sell out a crowd that large!
The show continued, as she hit just about all her songs from her 1989 album. Of course, she had a few of her other big hits in there, like Love Story, which was the song that Darian first like of Taylor's. She did a more hard rock version of We are Never Getting Back Together that was interesting - she even played an electric guitar for that one.
And she had this really cool 'catwalk stage' down the center of the audience that actually lifted up and could spin (slowly) like a helicopter blade. It was actually pretty cool! She had a couple of special guests for this show (her last for the U.S. leg of the 1989 World Tour). The first was Alessia Cara, which I didn't recognize until they started singing her song, Here. Then later she came out dressed like Olaf from Frozen, and all her dancers were dressed like reindeer. Yes, it was Halloween, but I called it... Idina Menzel then came on stage and they sung Let It Go and it was A-MAZ-ING!!
The entire show was spectacular, as she capped it off with Shake It Off as her encore. She and all her dancers were on the spinning stage for that. Perfect ending to the show.
Anyway... I think the best part was actually just watching Darian. She had this look of pure joy on her face the entire night. That look you have when you experience something for the first time that is seemingly pure magic. Nothing will beat the memories made from this little road trip to a concert, my niece's first concert.
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