Review | Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘Short n’ Sweet’ Tour

I remembered exactly where I was when I heard the song “Taste” for the first time; it became one of my favorite songs almost instantly.

My friend and I had lined up outside of a record shop in Southern California that was about a 40 minute drive from me, excitedly waiting to hear Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet the day before it was released. As we walked inside, we picked up a blue journal with the gold embossed words “Short n’ Sweet” on the front cover, then we went and stood next to a stack of records. After waiting excitedly for about 45 minutes, the record store owner started playing the album.

I had told my friend while we were waiting in line outside that the singles had been really great (my favorite then was “Please Please Please”), but I was curious if Carpenter could follow them up. Because if she could, she’d probably end up being an enormous artist. Could she do it? 

I remembered when the first notes came on thinking to myself, “Yep. She did it.”

Sabrina Carpenter was a pop star of the truest sense, going from Disney Channel star to opening for Taylor Swift and, this year, headlining Coachella. She also hosted SNL, won multiple Grammys, and is up for a slew of Grammys for this next album as well in all of the major categories. She accomplished this with years of hard work and a unique brand of outgoing pop music with strong notes of sarcasm, psychological reads, and witty innuendo.

I had the pleasure of being able to cover the very last show for her most recent tour celebrating both Short n’ Sweet as well as her most recent release, Man’s Best Friend. As the show began, a screen onstage showed a video announcing that Carpenter was about to take the stage, with the word “starring …” playing multiple times until it said “um … starring” and she finally ran out onto the stage on a beautiful house set, laughing.

Carpenter started off the evening playing the affirmation song “Taste” and revealed her outfit by opening up a towel that she had wrapped around herself. She walked to the front of the stage as she and her backup dancers sprang into perfect choreography.

The night began with more Short n’ Sweet hits, such as “Good Graces,” “Slim Pickins,” and “Bed Chem.” Carpenter also played songs off of her most recent album, including the smash hit “Manchild” (which hilariously saw the entire crowd screaming “useless,” “dumb,” etc.), “House Tour,” and “Tears.” She also included some songs off of her Emails I Can’t Send record, such as “Nonsense,” “Feather,” and “because i liked a boy.”

However, my favorite part of the show ended up being the ballads that she sang with no dancers, either with just her with the mic and band, or her on the guitar. “Sharpest Tool,” “Opposite,” and “Dumb and Poetic” all proved her incredible vocal skill, her ability to emotionally connect with the audience, and showed that she could hold her own in both an intimate setting just as well as she could lead a team of professional dancers.

During her show, Carpenter has been known to both have a pose that she changes every night during her song “Juno,” and a member of the audience that she jokingly arrests. For this show, it was Miss Piggy that was arrested (a few nights ago it was SZA), and her pose was two dancers holding a finish line up as she pretended to run in slow motion through it.

Carpenter made multiple mentions throughout the show about how sad and emotional she was that the tour was ending and how thankful she was for everyone being there. “My parents are here tonight … and … my biggest dream has always been this. I’m a small girl but I love a big stage. I took a very very long time to make it into this room with each and every one of you … I’ve just been thinking about it this whole past week because every step of the way you guys have been there for me …” Carpenter shed a tear and then tried composing herself. 

“I’ve dreamed of being able to do this tour my whole life.”