Taylor Swift presents “I Hate It Here” live with “The Lakes” on the Eras tour

The “Tortured Poets” section met folklorein which Taylor Swift wistfully sings of “the lakes where all the poets went to die” during the star’s Eras Tour stop in Cardiff, Wales, on Tuesday evening (June 18).

Swift’s surprise song set, the acoustic portion of the show, included the live debut of The anthology Issue of Tortured poets“I Hate It Here” paired with a melancholic piano mashup with folklore Bonus track “The Lakes” at Principality Stadium.

On Tuesday night, Swift checked her piano to see if her microphone was working and then jokingly commented, “That’s a song I’ve never played live before. Wish me luck!”

“Quick, quick, tell me something horrible/ Like you’re a poet trapped in the body of a finance guy,” she sang.

The first verse was followed by the chorus “I hate it here”: “I hate it here, so I go into secret gardens in my mind/ People need a key to get there and the only one is mine/ I read about it in a book as a precocious child/ No hopes of a medium-sized town and fears of a small town/ I’m there most of the year ’cause I hate it here/ I hate it here.”

But instead of singing the second verse of the song, she switched to “The Lakes”: “Is it romantic how all my elegies sing my praises?/ I am not made for all these cynical clones/ These hunters with cell phones/ Take me to the lakes where all the poets died/ I don’t belong, and neither do you, my love/ These peaks of Windermere seem the perfect place to cry/ I’m leaving, but not without my muse.”

Later in the performance, she pleaded again, “I hate it here, so take me to the lakes/ Take me to the lakes where all the poets died/ I don’t belong here and neither do you, my love.”

As she had done several times on the European leg of the tour, where admission was free and standing room only, Swift stopped her performance in the middle of the crowd to signal to security for someone in the audience who needed help.

“I won’t sing until they get help,” she said, “but you guys are so great and you’re so good at it.”

Before her piano number, Swift played an acoustic mashup of Lover‘s “I forgot you existed” with Call‘s “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things,” complete with audience-amplified laughter as she attempted to sing, “And here’s to you, ’cause forgiveness is a nice thing to do,” and capped it off with, “I can’t even say it with a straight face.” (Fans pointed out that Swift’s song choice fell on June 18, which happens to be Scooter Braun’s birthday.)

Watch Swift’s acoustic set in Cardiff below. The clip on the left features “I Forgot That You Existed” with “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things,” while the video on the right features “I Hate It Here” with “The Lakes.”

The next time the Eras Tour visits Wembley Stadium in London is from June 21 to 23, on three consecutive nights.