REVIEW: Taylor Swift shows off her ‘reputation’ at Houston show

Taylor Swift’s hit album, “reputation,” was brought to life at NRG Stadium on Sept. 29 for the “reputation Stadium Tour.” She brought Charlie XCX and Camila Cabello along with her as her opening acts. Fans trickled in during the opening acts, but when Swift herself went on, there was not an empty seat in the stadium.

She opened with a video of different visuals of herself throughout the years of her career, while different media personalities spoke about her and her literal reputation. She then proceeded to perform, her song, “I did Something Bad,” which was transformed for the tour. She began the song with a slow tempo, before singing it a regular speed. This performance was one of the best of the night, filled with all of her dancers on stage with her.

Her hit single off of “reputation”, “Look What You Made Me Do,” was a performance for the books. She came up from the floor and started singing. Tiffany Haddish made an appearance on the big screen when she said the famous line, “The old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now. Why? Oh, cause she’s dead.”

She performed four mashups during the show. One of the fan favorites was the “Long Live”/”New Year’s Day” mashup that she performed by herself on the piano. The Houston crowd was so into it, that she performed this mashup a little longer than usual.

One of my personal favorites was when she did “Bad Blood”/”Should’ve Said No” mashup. Swift was on one of the b-stages and proceed to get in a skeleton of a snake and float over the crowd to get back to the main stage. She had the big screens opened so you could see the band and the dancers propelled themselves from those openings.

There is a tradition that Swift has done on this tour in which she picks a surprise song from previous albums, or songs that she has written for other artists, and performs it acoustically. For the Houston show, she chose “Wonderland”, a song from the deluxe version of “1989.” Swift went on to say, “It always surprises me that you guys know songs from the deluxe versions.” This version of “Wonderland” was phenomenal. The crowd was very into it and love every second.

The final act included two of my favorite performances of the night. She performed, “Getaway Car,” with just her on the stage and the visuals of a desert and a motel in the background. Swift ended the night with another mashup, her hit single, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” from the album “Red” and from “reputation,” “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things.” She had all of her dancers and backup singers with her. It was a very colorful and exciting performance. Swift got really into this number, she even threw a fit when she sang the word darling.

Throughout the entire show, Swift had costumes that went with each song. She started out in a long sleeve black sequined unitard with a detachable hood. My favorite look of the night, was when she came out in a black and gold suit with knee-high black boots. One of the fan favorite outfits was when she would perform “Dress” and she put on a black see-through robe over a red and black bodysuit, then took it off when she sang the last chorus. The final outfit was also another favorite of mine. She wore a purple sequined dress with black lace-up boots.

Swift said she wanted to be as close to as many fans as possible for this tour. She had three stages. One huge main stage that was shaped like an x. She then had two smaller b-stages at the back of where the floor seats were. There was even a blocked off walkway for her to walk from each b-stage and see more fans than ever. Her stage is the biggest stage to date for any performer at any venue ever.

The Houston show was the second to last stop on the “reputation Stadium Tour.” Swift finished the tour in Dallas with two nights. She will be bringing the stadium tour to Australia, New Zealand and Japan in November. Swift is also set to release her seventh studio album sometime in 2019.