LITTLE ROCK — Kanye West better beware.
Taylor Swift might usually seem cute and cuddly, but the 19-year-old country music sensation is a fierce force to be reckoned with. Especially if you're a man who has ticked her off (as West did two weeks ago, interrupting her MTV Video Music Awards acceptance speech).
At times during Saturday night's sold-out Verizon Arena show, Swift looked like a woman possessed as she sang about the surplus of cheaters, liars and losers she's encountered in her short dating span. She engaged in a rage-filled primal drum-off. She hurled a prop chair. And she told the crowd of 14,328 more than once that she's not afraid to name names.
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"I really do try to be a nice person," she said with a storm brewing behind her liner-exaggerated cat eyes after concluding a kiss-off medley that melded her song "You're Not Sorry" with a cover of Justin Timberlake's "What Goes Around."
"But if you break my heart ... I'm going to have to write a song about you."
Swift also showed her sunny and sensitive sides during her two-hour set that began with her in drum majorette garb (ripped off to reveal a sexy fringed dress) and dancers dressed as cheerleaders for her spirited school-set single "You Belong With Me" and featured hit ballads such as "Teardrops on My Guitar" and "Fifteen." She and dancers donned period costume for her retelling of Romeo and Juliet, "Love Story."
The Fearless Tour being her first headlining gig, Swift paused several times to soakin the audience's shrieking, like she didn't believe it was happening or didn't want it to end.
No one screamed louder than the people seated in the back of the arena who got the ultimate surprise when, after a long costume change break, Swift appeared in the stands to sing "Hey Stephen" and, after making her way to the floor, stayed in the back for several songs.
If she ever tires of music, Swift could always enter politics the way she shook hands and hugged children and smartly wore a hometeam football jersey (although no hog call). Or she could be a shampoo spokesmodel.
Constantly shaking and flipping her curly blonde locks about, she played her hair like it was another instrument in addition to her electric and acoustic guitars and piano.
Swift was joined for one song by her two opening acts, the winsome foursome Gloriana, best known for its hit "Wild At Heart," and Kellie Pickler, the spunky past American Idol finalist.
Swift ended the evening posing a question to an unfaithful ex-boyfriend during the driving "Should've Said No": "Was she worth me?" Water that rained down on Swift answered her, forming the word "No."
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 09/28/2009