[ATTENDED: October 8, 2017] Katy Perry
For Tabby’s birthday, I bought her (and us) tickets to see Katy Perry. She’s a pretty big fan and we thought this would be a fun “big” concert (bigger than “Weird Al”, anyhow). I’m not a Top 40 person (no duh), but I like a few of her songs (“Firework” and “Roar” are wonderfully catchy uplifting anthems).
I had heard that her shows put the spectacle in spectacular. And I love spectacle. I wish we had been able to get a little closer (but I wasn’t paying $500 a ticket), but hey for a first concert it wasn’t too bad.
Plus, the stage was set up in an interesting way. I gather it was meant to be a teardrop, with a lengthy walkway that let Katy come out halfway into the audience. I deliberately chose seats near that end of the stage, although I guess it wouldn’t have mattered. Incidentally, the super high-priced tickets allowed you to stand by the stage and, apparently walk around the entire length of the stage out to the end of the teardrop.
Tabby was impatient with the opener. And she was really impatient with how long it took Katy to come out (which was frankly 20 minutes longer than necessary). All of the trappings of anticipation for your first big show. She also got to experience fighting your way to the merch table.
And then the giant video screen that was behind the stage turned into a giant eye. That was pretty cool and we all got excited–the fact that the eye stayed there on a loop for 20 minutes was a little too long though.
But then the screen opened, and Katy floated out on a giant star-shaped item. It was a spectacular entrance. I knew that Katy did lots of costume changes, but I didn’t know that her show was divided into what setlist fans describe as Acts. It made sense that every three or four songs she would change into a new style. And this wasn’t just a new costume. It was an entirely new set–videos, props, dancers and yes, a new outfit.
It was pretty darn cool.
I had checked Setlist earlier to see if she was playing a lot of stuff from the newest album (which none of us knew well). She was. But it didn’t matter. With everything that was going on, I was able to enjoy the whole show whether I knew the songs or not.
The “Roulette” section featured some giant videos of dice and roulette wheels. And on stage were 12 foot high dice that the dancers climbed all over (and in and out of the pips). It was like going to an acrobats show (which I love) with a live band playing around them.
I had heard that for “Dark Horse” she came out of the floor on a giant horse. But that was so last tour.
Instead, for “Chained to the Rhythm” (a song I rather liked) there were 15 foot “puppets” (no idea what the technical term for them would be). There were these guys with televisions for heads, dancing. And then soon after, the dancers came out with similar TVs on their heads. I was impressed that they danced with these props on. And haters say what you will, synchronized dancing is fun to watch.
For the second act she played some older songs. She was wearing some 80s era clothes, and the backing videos were so retro it was like being in a real life Duran Duran album cover.
At some point, all of the dancers and Katy herself climbed on a dayglo beam and were raised into the air, for no apparent reason. But it was cool.
During this Act she played “Teenage Dream” and “Hot n’ Cold” a song I particularly like, even if I don’t know the words at all. She wore a shirt that had lights on it which spelled out Hot and then Cold, which was lo tech but looked cool. Amusingly, when Sarah took a picture, it was during the two second when the words switched to say “sex.”
I also didn’t know that Katy played guitar, so it was interesting to see her with a pink one, which I assume she was playing.
She then played “California Gurls” and even brought out Left Shark!
I wasn’t sure how many young kids would even know what that shark was all about (it was almost three years ago!). We don’t watch the Super Bowl, so Tabby had no idea anyway. But I enjoyed that she could have fun with this notorious moment in her career (even if I don’t really quite remember what happened either). Anyhow, left shark danced around and we all had a good time.
I don’t know exactly how long that protrusion of the stage is, but Katy must have come out to the end of it fifteen times. Most times she marched, sometimes she ran. And she kept singing the whole time. Her fitness cannot be questioned.
Before “I Kissed a Girl” she brought out an oversized pink phone and called her mom. It was cute–I don;t know anything about Katy’s mom. Does she live in the UK? Was it all prerecorded? No idea. The only reason I know it wasn’t the same conversation every night is because her mom made a corny joke about New Jersey (what did Delaware?). Then Tabby informed me that Katy’s mom’s least favorite song is “I Kissed a Girl,” so she knew that Katy would play that next. Which she did.
This song featured gigantic lips that came out of the background. By the end of the song, Katy was more or less sucked up into them on a swing. I was really impressed with how good the prop looked–lips can be a tricky thing to recreate–but it worked well, even the chewing part.
At some point gigantic flamingo puppets came out too, which was pretty fun. I liked that you could see the operators of the puppets (they are walking behind the legs). I can’t imagine the kind of strength and coordination it must take to manipulate them.
During the third act break (video screens in full use) the rest of the stage magically grew flowers. For “E.T.” a guy in a wonderfully creepy costume that was part Beetlejuice part Dark Crystal came out and stomped around.
Then during “Tsunami” the same guy, I guess did some impressive acrobatics on the flowers–spinning around and doing all the stuff that acrobats do.
“Bon Appétit” which Tabby told me has a weird video, had her being sprinkled with giant salt and pepper shakers and then being eaten by a giant Venus Fly Trap.
During the fourth Act, she mixed things up a bit at different shows. I assumed this tour was a machine that did the same thing every night (with these stage sets how could it not?). But it seems that during this part she adds or removes a song.
In Boston she played “Save as Draft” & “Power”
In MSG she played an acoustic “Part of Me” and then “Power”
In Philly she only played “Power”
No one has added our setlist on Setlist, so I don’t know if she played an extra song for us or not.
The act begins in a frankly mindblowing manner. She flies in on a planet. No kidding. There are planets around the stadium and she is comfortably seated on Saturn. She plays acoustic guitar and sings “Thinking of You.” I don’t know the song and could barely hear it over the cheers, but it seemed to be pretty good. I have seen people get to various parts of a stage in many different ways–ziplines, giant hamster balls, magic–but I have never seen anyone fly around a stadium on a planet before.
As the planet settled down, it landed on the other “teardrop.” To the left of the long ramp was a singular teardrop stage. It had been ignored all night. But then she was on it. And, in what may be the sweetest, coolest thing I have ever seen at a show, she called a fan up onto the stage with her. And she didn’t pick someone right up front in the expensive seats. She didn’t pick the two girls dressed like manga characters or the girl who walked in the stadium in front of us whose skirt lit up (we saw her down on the floor during the show). She picked a girl who was in the mezzanine (I knew the wouldn’t pick anyone as high up as us, but this girl did have to climb down some stairs–and in fact, had to be helped down by security because there was no easy way for her to get down from where she was).
It’s possible she had a homemade shirt on (that said Katy Perry of course). Anyhow, this girl was brought up on stage during Katy’s wish on a star moment. Katy asked if this girl had a wish she wanted to come true. And (as I imagine many girls say), hers was to be a singer and to sing “Roar” with Katy. And Katy burst into an a capella version of “Roar” (she sounded quite good) and this 12-year-old girl sang along with her and also sounded good). It was an incredibly touching moment.
After the girl left, Katy climbed off of the teardrop and waked more or less through the crowd (high fiving) to the end of the runway where she climbed back up and continued the show. I was really impressed with how not untouchable she was.
I was less enamored of the motorcycle sequence which was just a big motorcycle that she climbed on while interesting effects flashed about. But a couple of songs in came “Swish Swish.” This song features Nicki Minaj and is really on the border of being okay for her younger fanbase–and clearly she has a younger fanbase. Not saying that Katy has to be rated G or anything, but Minaj is nothing if not NC-17. It’s also possible that this song introduced the term bish as a slang for bitch (source needed, but I did read it as as suggestion).
The song featured a giant basketball net, giant basketballs and dancers with oversized hands. And after singing on and in the basket, she invited “a dad” on stage to play her in a game of basketball.
The dad was from Tenafly, a town that Katy had a hard time believing was real. Katy clearly does this every show and she was quite good at hurling these balls at the basket. The dad scored one basket at which time Katy said “you might actually beat me.”
He didn’t. And he was given a yellow hat that said Loser. I felt a little bad for him, but it seemed all in good fun. I wonder if they have a winner hat.
But I imagined this guy at work the next day: I took my daughter to see Katy Perry and wound up losing oversized hoops against her while guys with giant hands danced around. Meanwhile, Katy was wrapped in strips of blue PVC. What did you do?
There wasn’t much left for her to do from there except play her two biggest hits.
We all went nuts for “Roar” (although I have to admit that the giant origami tiger head was something of a letdown after everything else she had put up there on stage). Of course that song was all about the song (and I have a cute candid video of Tabby and Sarah singing along).
She left for an encore break. And while she was gone a giant hand opened up at the end of the stage. Katy came out onto the hand and sang “Firework” (which we knew would be the encore).
Interestingly, she sang the first part nearly a capella, or certainly less bombastic than I expected. Even the chorus was less explosive than I would have imagined.
I just assumed the arena would be full of fireworks or something. There were fireworks on the video screen and a number of them on stage, but they were pretty mild compared to the flash pots and other explosives I’ve seen on stage.
It was just surprising that the two biggest songs had the least “spectacular” sets.
For all that the show was about spectacle, Katy’s band sounded great. I assume they were all playing live.
I was pleased when they showed the band members on the video screens. Even if they were never actually named.
So just as that was Tabby’s first big pop concert, it was also my first pop concert.
I’ve seen bands with spectacular visuals before, but nothing has compared to this. And seeing how much Tabby enjoyed it made it even more wonderful
For the next big pop extravaganza, I hope we stay away from the really loud drunk ladies and get seats near anyone in cosplay.
POSSIBLE SETLIST
- Act I “In The Space” (Video Introduction)
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Witness
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Roulette
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Dark Horse
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Chained to the Rhythm (Hot Chip Remix outro)
- Act II Act My Age (Video Interlude)
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Teenage Dream
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Hot N Cold
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Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)
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California Gurls
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I Kissed a Girl
- Act III “Celestial Body” (Video Interlude)
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Déjà Vu
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Tsunami
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E.T.
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Bon Appétit (Contains elements of ” “What Have You Done For Me Lately” by Janet Jackson)
- Act IV Mind Maze (Video Interlude)
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Thinking of You
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Save As Draft [maybe]
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Power
- Act V “Motorcyclist” (Video Interlude)
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Hey Hey Hey
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Part of Me
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Swish Swish
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Roar (Contains elements of “Hard Knock Life”)
- Encore
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Firework
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