In June, I, along with many others, signed up for the Sabrina Carpenter pre-sale, joined with my code at 10am, and frantically chose the first two seats that I could find. After a half hour process of selecting seats, passing checkout, and then getting a pop-up telling me that those seats were no longer available, I finally found two seats that were available.

While that was three months ago, Sabrina Carpenter’s latest album, Short n’ Sweet was not released yet, and came out on August 23rd. My first problem with this tour was that you had to purchase tickets before hearing any of the album, which felt like a risk to me. It was hard to commit to a $150 ticket without knowing if I would like any songs on the album. That being said, I did purchase those tickets for my sister’s birthday, as she wanted to go more than I did.

When the album came out on August 23rd, I was kind of appalled at the transparency of her lyrics that hinted at double meanings about her relationships. But, like most albums, the songs grew on me very quickly. Also, I am someone who likes knowing every song going into a concert, and I only had one month to learn the lyrics.

September 23rd began approaching rapidly. Looking to shows like Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour, there are clear trends: People wear their fancy outfits that typically associate with an “era” or an album, trade friendship bracelets, and write a number 13 on their hands. Over time, these trends have been developed. Taylor Swift has been performing for a long time, so the trends have had a long time to develop.

On the other hand, Sabrina Carpenter’s popularity is a much more recent development. With Columbus being the first stop on Sabrina Carpenter’s tour, there was no information or trends already started. I wasn’t sure what to wear, but once I got there, it seemed like anything went. I saw people dress in outfits ranging anywhere from Sabrina Carpenter merchandise to their nicest dress and shoes. Some members of the audience even sported “Jesus was a Carpenter” shirts or shirts with Carpenter’s lyrics written on them.

I attended the concert with my sister, and we both decided that we would arrive during the opener and wait in line for merch, since we had never heard of Carpenter’s opening act before. Although we went during a performance and tried to find the shortest line, we still ended up waiting around 45 minutes. I felt as though the selection for merchandise was mediocre. It was nothing special. There were a few T-shirts, a hoodie, and a zip-up, along with miscellaneous items like buttons and socks.

We made our way to our seats at about 8:00. The opening act had finished about 20 minutes before, but we still had a half an hour to wait until Carpenter came on.

After the anxious wait, a surprising introduction began. A red heart on the large screen behind the stage began growing to the soundtrack of “I’m Coming Out” by Diana Ross. Once the heart covered the whole screen in red, an animated Sabrina Carpenter was seen walking across the screen, which seemed to be a mimic of an old sit-com, then was titled with “The Short n’ Sweet Show”.

I thought that the beginning of the show was very clever. As a part of the Short n’ Sweet Show, Sabrina Carpenter was pictured in a sudsy bath tub. The narrating voice prompts her, saying “Hold on a moment, aren’t you forgetting something? What day is it today?” On-screen Sabrina Carpenter frantically gets out of the bath tub and comes running onto the stage in a towel that later drops to reveal her first outfit, a pink bodysuit.

Throughout the show, snippets of the “show” were played between songs and during outfit changes. I felt like this was a great addition to concerts, which are typically just songs. The playfulness and vintage vibe of the cartoon snippets really gave Carpenter’s personality a chance to shine through.

Setlist

Taste

Good graces

Slim Pickins

Tornado Warnings

Lie to Girls

Decode (shortened)

Bed Chem

Feather

Fast Times

Read Your Mind

Sharpest Tool

Opposite (shortened)

Because I Liked a Boy

Coincidence

Mamma Mia

Nonsense

Dumb & Poetic

Juno

Please Please Please

Don’t Smile

Espresso (encore)

Overall, I felt like this setlist was a really great blend of touring for the Short n’ Sweet album, while also giving her second most recent album, Emails I Can’t Send, a chance at the spotlight, considering that it did not receive nearly as much publicity. I also really enjoyed unexpected songs such as Mamma Mia and even the snippets of Opposite and Decode.

Of course, I assumed she would play popular songs such as Feather and Nonsense that were not a part of Short n’ Sweet, but others were more of a surprise, such as Opposite and Decode.

It is important to note the newness of this show. As Carpenter shared herself, her show at Nationwide was her first sold-out stadium, on her first stadium tour, on her first night of that stadium tour. Also, songs that had their live debut include: Good Graces, Lie To Girls, Bed Chem, Sharpest Tool, Coincidence, Dumb & Poetic, Juno, and Don’t Smile.

Especially near the beginning, it was apparent that it was the first show. This is not a bad thing considering the new aspect of the show, but I noticed small things such as varying volumes of the microphone. That being said, I thought that the choreography was clearly well-rehearsed and each dancer knew exactly what they were doing.

So many of these performances stood out to me, but I would have to name Because I Liked a Boy as my favorite. During this song, there were no dancers on the stage. It was just an artist telling a story. I was shocked by the amount of emotion I felt from this performance, and I can confidently say that I am a much bigger fan of this song now.

One noteworthy adaptation from previous Sabrina Carpenter concerts was the absence of the notorious Nonsense outro. If you have ever seen clips of Carpenter on tour, you have probably seen her infamous Nonsense outros, where she changes the lyrics and provides a laugh to her crowd. She did not include the Nonsense outro in her concert this time around. For me and many others, this was certainly a disappointment. Multiple times, I thought it would just be a joke and she would come back around to her outro, but she never did.

My favorite part of this concert was the cartoon snippets that were utilized throughout. I thought these displayed Carpenter’s playful personality.

Another song that caught my attention had a live debut: Lie to Girls. During this performance, all of the female dancers appeared to be at a sleepover. It started off playfully, then transitioned into the girls appearing distraught because of the lies that the man had been telling them. It then ended with the girls looking civilized again, hinting at how girls will let an unhealthy relationship tear them up and then end up put-together at the end again.

Overall, I would give this concert a 9/10. I had a great time and thought that every part of it was thoughtful and playful. Carpenter’s personality was given a chance to shine through with the cartoon showings between songs and her comical lyrics. I was happy that she played some of her older songs, but I honestly would have loved to see some more. As a self-proclaimed number one fan of Bad for Business, I was hopeful that it would get played, but I was out of luck. That being said, I believe Sabrina Carpenter had an amazing beginning to a tour that is going to be very successful. I am excited to see how the set develops throughout her tour, and I am thankful to have been at her debut arena show.