Sound Advice: CityBeat Predicts One of Taylor Swift's Surprise Songs at Paycor Stadium

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Photo: Gilles Dufresne, Flickr Creative Commons

Taylor Swift is performing at Paycor Stadium on June 30 and July 1.

This story is featured in CityBeat's June 14 print edition.

Taylor Swift is reclaiming her girlhood one sold-out stadium show at a time, and she’s coming to Cincinnati’s Paycor Stadium on June 30 and July 1. The Ticketmaster-breaking sale for “The Eras Tour” perfectly foreshadowed the record-breaking craze that has been the “Eras,” um, era. Fans unearth Swift’s lore in the form of hyper-specific costumes, creating a fever dream masquerade ball themed around a singular millennial woman’s life. Swift’s 10 wildly successful albums have cemented her as the world’s best self-portrait artist, but her methodology of re-recording her masters has revealed her to be just like us – unafraid to admit she’s not always over the distant past.

A track on Swift’s latest release, Midnights, hints at the emotional toll of re-recording tracks about John Mayer from 2010’s Speak Now, which comes out July 7. In “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve,” Swift writes, “God rest my soul, I miss who I used to be. The tomb won't close, stained glass windows in my mind. I regret you all the time.” The song’s Nashville performance in the pouring rain alongside The National’s Aaron Dessner flooded Swiftie algorithms for weeks. Swift walks the “Eras” tour audience through the stained glass windows of her past loves, fights, victories and growth like a one-woman show, but with the razzle-dazzle of an all-encompassing Vegas residency. The viral fascination with a tour about her past is brought to the ultra-present under the looming context of her recent breakup from longtime boyfriend Joe Alwyn. Fans dig for clues about her feelings on the breakup like kids in a sandbox, interpreting every wink, eyeroll and hair flip as code.

Now, Cincinnati “Eras” passengers are preparing for Swift to visit the Queen City for the first time in 13 years, her famously lucky number. One can predict Swift’s nostalgia for 2010, the year Speak Now was released, has inspired a set list with a surprise track from the album not performed yet during “Eras,” of which there are usually two per show. Audiences may just stand before a stained glass window from Swift’s mind in the shape of “Dear John.” If this writer’s prediction comes true, the entire Tri-State will hear the sound of bloodlust from more than 60,000 Swifties screaming for baby Taylor, but also, screaming for the “John” that hurt them.

Taylor Swift plays Paycor Stadium at 6:30 p.m. June 30 and July 1. Info: ticketmaster.com.