By Daniel Kreps
Taylor Swift revived “The Archer” at her July 4 show in Amsterdam for the first time since March, when the Lover track was one of the setlist sacrifices to make room for songs from The Tortured Poets Department.
For upwards of 80 Eras Tour shows spanning the first year of the trek, “The Archer” (Swift’s 23rd best song) featured in the Lover portion of the setlist — from the first-ever Eras Tour gig in Glendale, Arizona, in March 2023 through Swift’s three-night stand in Singapore in March 2024.
However, when the tour picked back up after the release of The Tortured Poets Department, “The Archer” — along with Folklore/Evermore songs like “Tolerate It,” “The Last Great American Dynasty,” “Tis the Damn Season,” and “Cardigan” — were among the casualties.
When “The Archer” reemerged Thursday at the Amsterdam show, it was relocated to the Surprise Songs portion of the concert and not its previous perch in the Lover section. And as per custom with the Surprise Songs on this leg of the tour, the track was mashed up live with another track from the Swift songbook, in this case Midnights’ “Question…?,” which had only been performed one other time, at an Eras Tour stop in Foxborough, Massachusetts back in May 2023.
The Eras Tour continues in Amsterdam on Friday and Saturday, after which it’ll head off to Zurich, Milan, and a trio of German cities. The European leg itself will conclude on August 20, the last night of a return five-concert stand at London’s Wembley Stadium; Swift previously played three shows at the venue in June. After a two-month break, the Eras Tour will then kick off its reported final North American leg on October 18 outside Miami.
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