Our weekly podcast includes in-depth analysis of the music we find extraordinary, exciting, and just plain terrible. This week Editor-in-Chief Puja Patel hosts Executive Editor Amy Phillips and Associate Editor Cat Zhang to break down Taylor Swift’s epic Eras Tour concert film, after watching it in a theater alongside a sold-out crowd of very excitable Swifties. Topics include the best and worst moments from the nearly three-hour screening, and what the movie’s massive success could mean for the future of concert films.
Listen to this week’s episode and read an excerpt from it below. Follow The Pitchfork Review here.
Puja Patel: Amy and Cat, you went to see the film together. What was the vibe like?
Amy Phillips: I think we have different takes on what the vibe was like.
Cat Zhang: We should talk about the crowd first. In the theater, there were girls absolutely losing their shit. They cheered when Taylor came on the screen. There were periodic screams of “I love you” and “Go Taylor!” And then there were a bunch of tweens and teens gathered in front of the screen who were just bopping around and singing their hearts out.
And people were really singing. At some points, they were singing so loud that they drowned Taylor out. It was an immersive activity. And I actually think that the crowd’s performance made the experience better for me, because at least there was a little bit more amusement.
Patel: You could watch other performers besides Taylor.
Zhang: Yes. And I like to dance—if there’s any live music that’s playing, I will bop around. So it aligned with my spirit.
Phillips: I will say the crowd was pretty homogeneous. It was mostly white women, but they were of very varying ages. The row in front of us was all senior citizens. They were not up and dancing so much.
