On October 16, 2024, Sabrina Carpenter performed her 12th show on the Short n’ Sweet tour in Nashville, Tennessee. She performed in front of around 20,000 people in Bridgestone Arena, the home of the Nashville Predators. I attended this concert, and here is my honest opinion of the night. It is important to note that this concert is not intended for younger audiences, and this article contains some inappropriate references. Viewer discretion advised, and spoilers ahead.
Getting to the Show
Getting tickets was by far the worst part of this experience. I originally intended to attend the opening night in Columbus, Ohio, but that was practically impossible. Even though I had obtained the Spotify presale code and had waited in the queue for one and a half hours, the only tickets left were out of my price range. However, Sabrina is not to blame for this issue.
Another issue that Sabrina had no control over was the ticket formatting. When I got to the front gate of the arena, my tickets declined. They sent us to the customer service booth and apparently our tickets did not have the correct format required to get in. This was very frustrating because we added our tickets to Google Wallet directly from Ticketmaster. We were eventually able to get in.
Leading up to the Show
After our ticket issue got fixed, things ran very smoothly. We bought merch, which was fairly expensive, but of amazing quality. Afterwards, we headed to our seats in section 201 of Bridgestone Arena. Our view was solid, the only thing obstructing it was a thin pole, but it did not interfere with our experience at all.
The opener was Griff. Hailing from London, England, this was her first night opening for the tour. And she was absolutely phenomenal. Her positive energy was infectious, and the vocals were jaw-dropping. Her outfit was beautifully creative, and the lighting work made the performance even more energetic. I highly recommend checking out her work.
Afterwards, we went back to waiting for Sabrina. I will admit it took her longer than expected to come out, but we were able to pass the time fairly easily.
The Show
The premise around her show was a late night TV show. I think it’s a creative concept, and it really added to the overall vibe of the concert. The set-list consisted of 21 songs, including one surprise song. Each song had a new unique idea behind it, and I believe it is only right to separately rate them in order to get the full review.
Taste: The opener was none other than “Taste.” One of the singles off of “Short n’ Sweet,” it did not disappoint. She came out in only a towel, but opened it up to reveal a stunning red bodysuit. The performance was fun and light-hearted, and her backup dancers really stole the show.
Good Graces: The choreography for “Good Graces” was very energetic, and I think it suited the song well. Sabrina really showed off her natural song presence in this song too. It was fun screaming the lyrics.
Slim Pickins: This was the song that Sabrina forgot the lyrics to in Nashville. However, she played it off by just letting her background vocalists take over, and it caused a good laugh in the audience. I think this shows that even professionals have their mess-ups.
Tornado Warnings: “Tornado Warnings” is the first song on this tour that is not from “Short n’ Sweet.” The lyrics to this song are amazing. The staging for this song complemented them perfectly–she used her background dancers to set up a pretend therapy session, for example, to complement the lyrics “lying to my therapist.”
Lie to Girls: The lighting for “Lie to Girls” was by far my favorite. It was a gorgeous shade of purple. The dreamy atmosphere combined with Sabrina’s vocals and the choreography made this song a breathtaking experience. The bridge is also phenomenal, especially in this performance.
Bed Chem: In “Bed Chem,” she was on the right side of the stage for a majority of the performance. The camerawork was phenomenal, the quick movement really reflected the playful mood of the song. She was lying in a bed with a camera facing down, but towards the end it changed to a spinning motion and it was exceptional, I think it worked with the song perfectly.
Feather: “Feather” was, as always, really fun to listen to. The choreography suited the song perfectly, and I think this was by far the best song to dance to on the tour.
Fast Times: The instrumental for “Fast Times” is highlighted in her performance of this “emails i can’t send” hit. I also really liked the choreography and props for this song. The main prop was a piano, which was mainly used to wheel Sabrina around the stage.
Read your Mind: The stage concept for “Read your Mind” was very similar to some of the previous songs in this show, but the song is so good that I didn’t mind.
Sharpest Tool: The vocals and staging was phenomenal for “Sharpest Tool.” The atmosphere suited the instrumental of this song flawlessly. It was relaxed and somber, which fits the vibe of the guitar especially in this song. This is one of my favorites to sing during the show.
opposite: The staging for “opposite” was personally my favorite. She faced a mirror, and we could see her reflection on the big screens. I think this concept is wondrous, and really paints light on the fact that even celebrities have their insecurities.
because i liked a boy: The vocals on this song were by far the most impressive of the night. She was able to belt the high notes towards the end of the song out beautifully. Even though the lyrics are a little vulgar, I think that it compliments the meaning behind the song. She definitely did this song justice on the tour.
Coincidence: The audience interaction from Sabrina during “Coincidence” was amazing. She was sitting in center-stage with her backup dancers, and had a tambourine in hand. We were all chanting the background vocals to her song, and the energy was overwhelmingly positive. It was one of the most fun parts of the night.
Surprise Song: For our surprise song, we got none other than “9 to 5” by Dolly Parton. Before she sang this song, she played a game of spin the bottle, and whatever number it landed on she would sing a different song. She even added lyrics to the big screens, and everyone in the arena was singing along. The energy was immaculate.
Nonsense: “Nonsense” is the most popular from her prior album, “emails i can’t send.” A common tradition on previous tours and performances was to change the outro to the song each night. However, she discontinued this tradition for the Short n’ Sweet Tour. She played this off wonderfully. During the transition into the next song, we could hear her yelling at somebody for cutting her microphone off during the “Nonsense” outro. It was hilarious.
Dumb & Poetic: This is probably one of, if not the, most emotional song in her catalog. And the staging for “Dumb & Poetic” gave it justice and then some. The lighting was a dreamy shade of purple, the backdrop reminded me of the stars, the outfit was sparkly just like the backdrop, everything about it was just perfect.
Juno: “Juno” was by far the most inappropriate performance of the night, but it was also one of my favorites. To start the song, she pointed out an extremely good looking man from the pit, and said he was under arrest for being too hot. She handed him some fuzzy pink handcuffs, a reference to a lyric in the song. The choreography of the song was bold to say the least. A tradition she started during this tour was to do a different position each night right before the second chorus. For us, she mimicked a cowboy lassoing something. I was shocked (in a good way, obviously).
Please Please Please: I loved the intro to “Please Please Please.” The lighting was an amazing shade of a mix of warm tone, the choreography was groovy, it was genuinely wonderful. Her backup singers really shined with this one. This entire performance was gorgeous.
Don’t Smile: “Don’t Smile” was surprisingly emotional. I, including many others, was under the reflection that this was the last song of the show. Her vocals were beautiful on this song, and the blue lighting reflected the sorrowful mood of the song.
Espresso: Little did we know, “Don’t Smile” was not the last song of the night. After a small break, the stage lit up again. And finally, the lead single from “Short n’ Sweet” closed out the night. It was crazy.
Overall Rating
Overall, this concert was an amazing experience that I would highly recommend to all fans of Sabrina Carpenter. It is a little pricey though, and all remaining shows on the tour would require you to travel pretty far to get to them. If you have the money and the time though, it’s worth it. The quality of this show is extraordinary. I would rate this a 9/10 overall, as the ticket issues were pretty disheartening. It was also really late at night, though the sleepiness that comes from this could be avoided with some espresso.
