Sabrina Carpenter Made her 26th stop of her 32-date “Short n Sweet” tour in Seattle this past Wednesday night. She sold out the Climate Pledge arena and performed for a little over 90 minutes for her adoring 17,000 fans. This is Carpenter’s 5th headlining tour and her biggest to date. Sabrina dropped her hit song Espresso; Pat Gow (11) stated, “Oh! Espresso was the song of the summer.” In late August, she dropped her accompanying album “Short n Sweet,” which went number 1 on the Billboard charts. After all of this success, Carpenter was destined for a sold-out arena tour across North America.
Carpenter had an amazing opener, Declan Mckenna, who took the stage around 7 p.m. and played some of his most popular songs, including “Brazil,” which has gained much traction on social media. He had an amazing band that helped set the stage for his amazing opening performance that had all attendees hooked in. He played for around 45 minutes and made sure the crowd was excited and ready for Sabrina to come on! After his set was finished and the crew had come out to set the stage, the anticipation for Sabrina could be felt throughout the room.
At around 8:30 pm, Sabrina took the stage with an outfit reveal and her hit song “Taste.” Britta Nelson (11) stated, “The opening when she came out was my favorite part.” You could hear the crowd screaming along to every word she sang, and you could feel everyone dancing around! For the rest of the first set, Carpenter danced around her stage, which is set up like a house, with bedrooms, bathrooms, a balcony, and multiple staircases. She could go to all sides of the stage and still be visible to the audience. The stage also featured a catwalk that led to a smaller stage in the shape of a heart. Carpenter had amazing background dancers and vocalists that filled the stage, danced, and sang along with her all night. My favorite song of the first set was when Carpenter got close to the side of the arena I was in and played “Lie to Girls” on guitar. It was a nice change of pace from the pop songs she’s best known for.
Six songs in, and Carpenter went back for an outfit change and for stage shift, as now it was the second act of the night! She opened this act with a fan favorite “feather” off of her previous album, “Emails I Can’t Send.” This set featured lots of songs from her previous album. The throwback songs are the ones that made her popular, and it’s incredible to hear how much the audience loves those songs. Towards the end of the act, Carpenter made her way down the catwalk, where she performed two songs, “Coincidence” off “Short n Sweet” and a cover of “Mama Mia” by Abba. She ended the set back on the main stage and performed the fan favorite song “nonsense.” Carpenter then exited the stage in preparation for her last set!
To open up the last act of the night, Carpenter donned a beautiful sparkly blue gown and sang a beautiful rendition of her song “Dumb and Poetic” as the pulling-of-the-heartstring ballad of the night. The next song was introduced with a funny segment and a mid-stage outfit change when the dress turned into a cute two-piece. Sabrina then sang “Juno” and had the whole crowd singing and dancing along! Abi Robison (12) exclaimed, “’Juno’ was my favorite part because it’s such a cute song and it was fun to dance to.” Carpenter then made her way back onto the heart stage to sing the bridge, and as the final course came, the heart stage lifted Carpenter up so she was performing over the audience and getting closer to the fans up top. To finish the set, she performed two more songs off “Short n Sweet” and then left the stage, presumably for the night. However, soon later, holding her coffee cup, Carpenter came back on stage for an encore! She sang “Espresso” as the last song of the night and had the whole crowd dancing one more time. She then thanked the crowd for coming, took her bow, and then left the stage.
The concert was the perfect length and was over before 10 p.m., giving attendees time to get home at a reasonable hour. Carpenter did an amazing job picking what songs to perform and when to perform them to always keep the audience entertained. She had amazing vocals, was singing live the whole time, and you could genuinely tell she loves what she does. I would love to see Sabrina Carpenter in concert again and would highly recommend, if you like pop music and having fun, to go see the “Short n Sweet” tour while you still can!