Taylor Swift is an inspiration to gangly girls everywhere—you may be a head taller than all the boys at your school, the same ones that keep being mean to you and breaking your heart, but you can still go on to become the biggest country-to-pop crossover success that the music world has ever known. And, of course, in Swift’s case, her endless string of hookups and breakups with Cory, Joe, Taylor, John, Chord, Jake, etc. is the fuel to her songwriting fire. Some say Swift’s bad boyfriends theme is getting catty and worn-out; we say her music is only getting more perceptive and finessed with time—as evidenced on her articulate third record, last year’s Speak Now—and that teenage girls will never tire of songs that stick it to the boys—as evidenced by tonight’s sold-out show. With NeedToBreathe. ERIN K. THOMPSON

Wed., Sept. 7, 7 p.m., 2011