Swift triumphs in first headlining tour

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For many of the young girls in the audience, it was their first concert.

After seeing Taylor Swift's "Fearless Tour" at EnergySolutions Arena Tuesday, they will soon come to the innocence-ending realization that 99 percent of the concerts they will see in their lives will never come close to matching their first.

In front of a sold-out arena, the 19-year-old Swift exhibited the showmanship that eludes many fellow performers twice or three times her age, and brought a spectacle that pulled off the rare feat of being a feast for the eyes while never overshadowing the important part: the music.

The 17-song, 130-minute concert drew from Swift's two albums, her 2006 self-titled debut and last November's "Fearless," an album with pop-country songs that will be lodged in both the pop and country charts for a long while. Both albums were either written or co-written by Swift.

The best parts of the concert were when Swift would stand at the end of a catwalk that extended from the main stage into the crowd, looking in awe at the adoring crowd, taking it all in, with what appeared to be tears in her eyes. Maybe she is a great actress, or applied eye moisturizer, but she acted if was as if she was living a life that had occupied much of her dreams. After a long, rapturous applause that followed "Tim McGraw," Swift giggled, stared out at the audience in amazement and remarked, "I promise you, I will never forget that."

Swift was an amiable frontwoman who wore many costumes and dresses (and twice changed costumes mid-song), and in between trading off on the piano, acoustic and electric guitars, led off each song with the story behind the songs. And when each well-played song began, each had its own theme or storyline played out; for example, the show's opener, "You Belong With Me," began with Swift in a drum major's outfit perched on top of school lockers, watching the jocks and cheerleaders carry on mating rituals, ignoring her. Fourteen dancers and musicians crowded the stage during that one song alone.

Mating rituals -- and the fiery wrecks that inevitably result for teenagers -- are the focus of Swift's songs. "If you break my heart," Taylor said at one point, "or of you hurt my feelings, or of you mess with my friends in Salt Lake City, then I'm going to have to write a song about you." (If a large number of boyfriends in Utah get dumped this week, we'll know why.) Because of that topic, Swift connected with the audience throughout, as you could sense the emotion and turmoil that inspired her songs.

While there were brief appearances by a banjo, some fiddles and a few songs when Swift wore cowboy boots, this was an unabashedly pop show, though Swift showed off her ability to arrange some of her best-loved songs in different arrangements, which the arena's acoustics lent themselves to. One highlight was when she segued from "You're Not Sorry" into a ferocious version of Justin Timberlake's "What Goes Around ... Comes Around," with some of her dancers switching from the courtly medieval dances they performed during "Love Story" to free-style hip hop stylings.

Swift headbanged as much as any metal god, and moved around not only the stage but the arena -- she performed one song up in the bleachers, as well as two other songs at the rear of the arena. And just when you thought she couldn't pull off any new tricks, she emerged from the encore in a Utah Jazz uniform and ended the encore under a deluge of water that drenched her from the ceiling.

At one point in the evening, Swift told the audience that because this was her first headlining tour, she wanted to make a good first impression. She succeeded, and now only has to worry about how she can ever top herself when she comes to Utah next.