Taylor Swift Brings Out Echosmith At Philadelphia Concert: Watch

Christina Lee | June 13, 2015 9:00 am
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Taylor Swift surprised fans at her June 12 1989 concert in Philadelphia by bringing out one of 2014’s breakout acts, Echosmith, to perform sleeper hit “Cool Kids.”

“So there’s this song that came out this past year,” Swift says to introduce the group, “and it embodied how we feel when we feel like, there’s just these people, they’re cool, and you can’t catch up with them. And you can’t get on their level.”

Echosmith is a sibling synth-pop act, whose members were ages 15 to 21 when “Cool Kids” became a top 20 single a year after its iTunes debut. Their father, a producer and songwriter himself, raised them on seminal ’80s rock acts like the Smiths, the Cure and Echo and the Bunnymen.

That said, here’s what the group’s surprise appearance during Swift’s set made clear: Such musical influences, matched with its relatable lyrics (“I wish that I could be like the cool kids / ’cause all the cool kids, they seem to fit in“) makes “Cool Kids” sound like something the 1989 superstar would have written, had she discovered the ’80s when she was writing 2010’s Speak Now. Watch below.

Get an eyeful of even more pop music coverage, from artist interviews to exclusive performances, on Idolator’s YouTube channel.