Sabrina Carpenter is one busy woman and she’s taking the industry by storm on her new tour. Carpenter performed her hometown show in Philadelphia, PA on Oct. 8 at Wells Fargo Center (that’s the home of the Philadelphia Flyers NHL team, for my sports fans out there). Being there for her homecoming was certainly bittersweet, especially having been a fan since I was 12-years-old. If you’re like me, then you remember the “Eyes Wide Open” and “Can’t Blame a Girl for Trying” era.
Now, before I could actually step foot in the same vicinity as Carpenter, my cousin, brother, and I got all dolled up. I recreated Carpenter’s “Taste” music video, teal blue dress she wears while she hides in the bushes, stabbing the Jenna Ortega voodoo doll, before being set on fire. I was equally shocked and thrilled to see that other girls picked out the same outfit to recreate for the concert. Great minds truly think alike.
Originally, my tickets were supposed to be an obstructed view on the left side of the arena. But, after a traumatic StubHub ticket experience, we secured tickets with a full view in a suite. A piece of advice, if you haven’t received your tickets the day of the concert, you should most definitely find backups.
When we finally made it to Philly, there were signs on the screens outside the area with Carpenter’s face on them and read, “Welcome Home, Sabrina Carpenter…Sold Out.” When Carpenter took the stage after her interesting (nicest way of putting it) opener, Amaarae, there wasn’t an empty seat to be found.
I would be a fool to not mention the set design and production of this concert before I dive into her performance. Between the video intros before each “act” of the concert and the stage design of Carpenter’s “penthouse” this wasn’t just a concert, it was a musical theatre production.
The show opened with a roughly 45 second video of an animation called, “The Short n’ Sweet Show.” After the audience interrupted Carpenter’s on-screen bubble bath, she ran onto the stage where she revealed a new sparkly red bodysuit. A very fitting color for the city of Philadelphia whose MLB team colors are red and white. She opened the show with her Billboard Hot 100 hit “Taste,” my favorite performance of the night. “Good Graces” was next followed by everyone’s new country favorite, “Slim Pickins” where the crowd screamed, “This boy doesn’t even know the difference between there, their, and they’re.” Carpenter then led into slower songs, “Tornado Warnings” and “Decode” from her album “Emails I Can’t Send” and then “Lie to Girls.” Throughout each song she sang, she had the audience captivated and reciting every word.
The last song in this act was the highly anticipated, tongue-in-cheek provocative number “Bed Chem.” Carpenter performed the entire number in her “bedroom” on stage with her backup dancers. “Bed Chem” is one of my favorite songs on the album, but I couldn’t help but feel awkward being in a suite with a young girl and her parents. Clearly, they didn’t know what they signed up for. Nonetheless, Carpenter’s performance was not only vocally perfection compared to the record but her provocative sexual nature was done so tastefully.
The next act was “Sabrina After Dark” where Carpenter performed “Feather,” “Fast Times,” “Read your Mind,” “Sharpest Tool,” and “opposite.” “Feather” wasn’t done in original track fashion but, in an up-tempo jazz intro leading into the original beat. The crowd ate up the rendition and it wasn’t long before everyone was jumping up and down singing, “I got you blocked, excited to never talk / I, I’m so sorry for your loss.” And who could forget the song that gained the blonde raction, “because I liked a boy,” where my ears truly rang from the crowd singing.
The most nostalgic girlhood-esque part of the concert was the “slumber party” aspect where Carpenter got up close and personal with the crowd, sitting downstage in her giant heart stage. She tested the crowds audiation skills by having us repeat after her for the “na, na, na’s” of “Coincidence.” The entire vibe felt like we were all having a gossip session where we giggled and kicked our feet.
This vibe carried over into the “spin the bottle” part of the show. Instead of doing her famous “Nonsense” outros, Carpenter is keeping it fresh for the new tour and performing a different cover song in every city. I went into this thinking that Carpenter wouldn’t let the city of Philly down and she sure didn’t. The bottle landed on “Busy Woman” an exclusive bonus track that was offered for a limited time on her website. Lucky for me, I knew every word and screamed it proudly in my cousin’s ear.
Carpenter ended the act with “Nonsense,” a known crowd favorite which lead into the “Don’t Touch That Dial!” act. Carpenter slowed things down with “Dumb & Poetic” letting us get out all of our anger and aggression through this heartbreaking ballad. To lighten the mood, Carpenter “arrested” a man in the pit for being “too hot” and awarded him fuzzy pink handcuffs. The brilliance of this moment led into “Juno,” where Carpenter tried out a new position (wink, wink). She also yelled at the crowd and told us all to get down on our knees for the bridge of the song. An iconic moment and surely one Philly fans will never forget.
To close out the show she sang “Please Please Please” with subtle dance references to ABBA. Then, in true Carpenter fashion, she sang “Don’t Smile,” a very fitting end of concert song with its lyrics, “Don’t smile because it happened baby / Cry because it’s over.” You don’t think it ended there did you? No, no, Carpenter had one more song in her repertoire that fans couldn’t exit without, “Espresso.” Holding a lipstick-stained coffee mug and wearing a sparkly Phillies jersey, Carpenter strutted the stage, ending the show with confetti and yelling “I love you, Philly!”
Carpenter truly puts on a good show and this isn’t the last time the singer will sell out arenas, next time expect stadiums.
