Further back in the crowd, a teenage girl was bawling in a sparkling silver tank top. “Dad! I knew this would happen,” she said. Dad drank his beer wordlessly, fuming. Little sister twirled a multicolored light in the sobbing teenager’s face. Suddenly, Dad leaned forward toward little sister, yelling and pointing his finger. Little sister started crying. “I don’t feel bad,” she said, tears streaming down her face, as she dug her black tutu out of her crotch.
Perry’s stage show is a concoction of all the pageantry of every parade and Broadway show you’ve ever seen, plus a dollop of whipped cream or two — and it isn’t hurt by the fact that Perry is utterly giggly and adorable. She has mastered the art of the innocent ingénue, backed by the swagger and smoothness of a seasoned entertainer. Her music is channeling an eminently likable (and profitable!) genre of radio-pop: ‘80s girl-anthems, a la Wilson Phillips and Belinda Carlise’s “Heaven Is a Place on Earth.” (Covers of “I Want Candy” and “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” had mothers and their teenage daughters waving aisles and aisles of spray-tanned arms in the air.)
The show is also very smart: Perry has distilled all the irony that Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera could never muster, and she has fused it with the absurd saccharine fluffiness of the Disney Channel. (Her backup dancers’ puffy skirts and Converse reminded me forcibly of Lizzie McGuire — if Hillary Duff were swigging shots of Patron and blacking out in Vegas, that is.) The point: Perry is targeting tweens, teens, their moms and 20-something kids with a taste for irony with her pop confections. And it works. Oh, does it work.
A jazzy, sexy introduction to “I Kissed a Girl” demonstrated some serious singing chops. Perry’s voice is much stronger than her radio tracks let on. There isn’t much gruff speak-singing in her live show like you’ll find in “Hot N Cold” — Perry’s strong alto stands on its own, pulling off complex runs and sustained belts with equal ease. She also frequently transcended her own artifice, like during her tribute to her husband, Russell Brand: "It’s not like the movies," Perry said, grinning lopsidedly at the crowd. Sure, it was delivered during a sea of bubbles while Perry gazed dreamily into the distance on a swing made of roses — but it was also ridiculously touching, and soulful. And as fake as everything else onstage may have been, that grin was real.
Perry would go on to complete sparkling, glittering, confetti-ridden versions of “Firework” and closer “California Gurls” (with lines of dancing gingerbread men, by the way), but the truly special moment was when Perry ascended onto her cotton-candy cloud and floated toward the back of the Sprint Center. She flung heart-shaped guitar picks into the crowd while cooing sweet nothings — “hello," "so pretty," "kiss, kiss, kiss” — and serenaded us with a stripped, acoustic version of “Thinking of You.” For once, Perry’s voice, paired with the simplicity of her acoustic guitar, outshined her star power and stage show.
Set List:
Teenage Dream
Waking Up In Vegas
UR So Gay
Peacock
I Kissed a Girl
Circle the Drain
E.T.
Who Am I Living For?
Pearl
Not Like the Movies
Only Girl (In the World) (Rihanna)
Big Pimpin’ (Jay-Z)
Whip My Hair (Willow Smith)
Friday (Rebecca Black)
Thinking of You
I Want Candy (The Strangeloves)
Hot N Cold
T.G.I.F.
I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Whitney Houston)
Encore:
California Gurls
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I read a different review that was more to the point about her over the top cover everyone in ejaculating foam bizzare concert and that weird pillow she floats away with.... best quoted as: "It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's a giant flying sphincter."
I would say she needs to cut the sugar crap when following up Janelle Monae. Either she can sing on her own or she can't.
Janelle Monae' Stole this show from Katy Perry... I left once the Cotton Candy Flight Rider took effect, this show was fake..the whole thing. I am sadly unimpressed.
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