Taylor swifts performs at the RBC Center

Scott Sharpe - ssharpe@newsobserver.com

Taylor Swift performed a 19-song concert Thursday, starting with "Sparks Fly" and capping a three-song encore with "Love Story."

The 14,000 fans who occupied the RBC Center Thursday for the Taylor Swift "Speak Now" tour were as passionate as the Occupy Wall Street movement protesters.

Mostly female teens and 'tweens, and some overs and unders, they were there not to protest but to demonstrate their pro-Taylor enchantment with hand-crafted signs, glow sticks, full-house sing-alongs and screams. Lots and lots of thrill-filled screams.

Swift, country music's 21-year-old wunderkind, felt the love and returned it unconditionally throughout the two-hour-and-20-minute, 19-song lovefest.

The concert began as Swift, attired in a gold, fringed dress, was lifted to the stage by elevator singing "Sparks Fly," as sparks showered the stage from overhead. It was a crowd-pleasing opening to a concert that was equal measures Busby Berkeley, Broadway, Disneyland and MTV.

Barely a week after being named country music's Entertainer of the Year - only the second female to win the award twice - Swift proved worthy.

Never before has a country artist brought to the stage such an entertaining array of effects: ballet dancers, Cirque du Soleil-like acrobats somersaulting from ropes beneath large bells (eat your heart out, Garth Brooks), fireworks, set designs and enough costume changes (six) to make Reba's closet seem like Cinderella's.

For the set list, Swift drew heavily upon her latest CD, "Speak Now." Ironically, there wasn't much "country" in Swift's repertoire. A notable exception was "Mean," which was acted out as a skit featuring a cabin porch, a banjo, a jug of moonshine and a plastic goat on roller skates.

But genre is not as important to her fans as the messages in her autobiographical, self-penned story so! ngs. She writes about romance, she told the crowd, identifying herself as a hopeless romantic. Suggesting that most in the audience were hopeless romantics, as well, she announced, "This is a song I wrote about the best first date I ever had." Then she launched into "Fearless," with nearly the entire audience singing along.

Other favorites included "Better than Revenge," "The Story of Us" and "Dear John," which concluded with an explosive burst of fireworks and sparks.

Swift's gift is her ability to identify with her audience. Not much older than her core fans, she understands adolescent angst and the urge to grow and change. With songs such as "Fifteen" and "Mean," she puts to music what her fans feel but can't easily express.

Confident and charismatic, Swift frequently paused between songs to thank her fans for coming to the show and for helping her to realize her dreams.

Sure, there were plenty of her trademark "I can't believe this is happening to me" poses, head snaps and hair tosses. But that's part of the game. Despite her success, Swift seems genuinely humble and grateful. Best of all, perhaps, she is a valued role model.

The evening's most poignant moment came when, sitting upon a tree-like prop at the rear of the hall, Swift announced that her parents were in the audience. Then she sang a softly acoustic rendering of "Never Grow Up," bringing tears to the eyes of many young mothers of Swift's young fans.

Her three-song encore ended with the Romeo and Juliet-inspired "Love Story," Swift soaring above the audience in a balcony.

By 10:50, when she and her entourage of eight band members and eight dancers took their final bows, the audience was emotionally and physically spent, with many of the youngest asleep in the comforting arms of mother or dad.