After last week’s colossal show by The Weeknd, the next installment of shows-I-requested-that-I-never-expected-to-get-approved sees me at the Bell Centre for one of the pop heavyweights of the last 20 years.
No, it’s not Rebecca Black, who’s playing right now, though she would dearly love that. After breaking through in 2011 with one of the worst songs of the last 20 years in the form of “Friday,” she’s certainly reinvented herself since. I arrive to the sound of thumping techno beats, and as I enter the auditorium, I see that Rebecca looks completely different too—clad in a pink nightdress with a leopard-skin bodysuit underneath, gyrating with her two dancers. Combined with her dishevelled hair, there’s an air of Amy Winehouse to her appearance.
It’s an entertaining watch, “Sugar Water Cyanide” mixing in a snippet of “Friday,” probably for nostalgia purposes (but that’s as much of a mention as that song gets), and by the time the set wraps up with the energetic “Salvation,” the room is certainly warmed up for the main event.
I remember the first Warped Tour I attended after I moved to Montreal. It was summer 2008, and in the middle of the day, there was an ENORMOUS lineup for the signing tent. I asked someone in the line who exactly was at the end of it, and they told me “Katy Perry.” Not a name you expected to see on a Warped Tour bill, but the number of punks lining up to meet her told me she must be big. And big she became. That five-year spell from 2008 debut One of the Boys to 2013’s fourth record Prism, she was untouchable.
Things have certainly been tougher of late, though. Commercial success has been a little tougher to come by, and newest record 143 was roundly massacred by critics—firstly for the involvement of controversial producer Dr. Luke (subject to sexual assault allegations by Kesha), and secondly for the songs themselves. Still, none of this seems to have derailed her popularity, as testified to by a jam-packed Bell Centre that screams at the top of their lungs as the lights drop to signal her arrival.
And Katy doesn’t disappoint. For just over two hours, she proves that she is still a force to be reckoned with. A stage shaped like a figure-of-eight reaches almost the entire length of the floor and sees Katy reach all corners of the room on a regular basis. Consideration is even given to the nosebleeds too—various harnesses and winches lift her into the air at various points of the show.
She’s winched up through the middle of it in a cage on opener “ARTIFICIAL,” connected with various cables like she’s a cyborg. It’s a narrative that runs throughout the show, with assorted two- or three-minute videos of cyborg-Katy on a mission to rescue some butterflies trapped by aliens (or something), allowing for all kinds of costume changes and stage setups. “NIRVANA” is a sight to behold too—Katy flying around the room doing somersaults, landing on the backs of her dancers, and then floating/running over the top of them as if in zero gravity. She even soars around the room on the back of a giant butterfly on the classic “Roar,” once the butterflies have been liberated from those aliens. Those pesky aliens…
Shout out to the dancers too—oh my goodness, they are so much more than dancers!! It feels more like a Cirque du Soleil show in places, honestly. On “I Kissed a Girl,” Katy is again raised up safely inside a sealed spherical cage, but her dancers hang off the sides of it, throwing shapes with no harnesses attached. “Wide Awake” is the crowning glory though—two of them hanging at near-right angles from a vertical pole probably about 20 feet above the surface of the stage. The gymnastics are incredible!! Katy is more than adept at the physical stuff too. On “I’M HIS, HE’S MINE,” she’s hoisted up onto the top of her dancers, crowd-surfing for a while before dropping back down into the splits!
Musically, it’s an absolute blast too. There’s an insane run of “California Gurls” / “Teenage Dream” / “Hot n Cold” / “Last Friday Night” / “I Kissed a Girl” that has the old-school among us absolutely losing our minds, both Katy and dancers weaving in and out, and up and down, a scaffold set up in the middle of the 8-stage. “E.T.” is a lot of fun too—Katy fighting off the dancers dressed like ninjas or those bugs off the ’90s movie Starship Troopers, with a double-ended lightsaber like Darth Maul’s. Man, I felt like such a nerd writing that.
There’s a nice moment of audience participation too—Katy picking three members from the crowd to come and play percussion (i.e. shake one of the little egg-shaped shaker things) on “The One That Got Away” (which the youngest girl, a 10-year-old, humourously admits she doesn’t know). The deafening singalong that comes from the crowd suggests that she was probably the only one in the room who didn’t! “Not Like the Movies” is even more stripped down and delicate, a sea of cellphone lights around the room embracing its fragility like a warm hug.
Katy engages with the crowd throughout, acknowledging one fan’s sign requesting “Tucked” with “I can’t play that song!”, before promptly freestyling some of it a cappella. She ends the show with a call to arms: “I don’t care how old you are or how cool you are, it’s time to sing ‘Firework’!” Everybody duly obliges. It’s an absolute carnival that ends with cannons of confetti unloading at all corners of the floor and brings the curtain down on an unforgettable show. Honestly, dismiss Katy Perry at your peril!
Setlist
- ARTIFICIAL (Shortened)
- Chained to the Rhythm
- Teary Eyes
- Dark Horse
- WOMAN’S WORLD
- California Gurls (Shortened)
- Teenage Dream
- Hot n Cold / Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)
- Peacock (Snippet)
- I Kissed a Girl
- NIRVANA
- CRUSH
- I’M HIS, HE’S MINE
- Wide Awake
- Tucked (Snippet)
- Not Like the Movies
- The One That Got Away (Acoustic, shortened)
- ALL THE LOVE
- E.T.
- Part of Me
- Rise
- Roar
- Daisies (Remix)
- LIFETIMES
- Firework
Review – Simon Williams
Photos – Steve Gerrard
