He lost – badly – and didn’t wish for world peace either, though she still gave him a hat that said Winner on the crown.
Later, during “Swish Swish,” one of the best tracks on “Witness” with its house music boom and beats, she brought a dad out of the crowd to play basketball on a giant hoop with beachball-sized basketballs. “She’s gonna be a singer and an actress and take my job,” Perry said in mock outrage as the kid left the stage. The set-up involved wishing on a shooting star – Perry had just descended from the planets and stars in the rafters – and so she asked Lisa what she wished for – “World peace” – and what she wanted to be when she grew up: a performer. Thirteen-year-old Lisa was practically vibrating with emotion when she got there and gave Perry a huge hug and told her she was “from a little town called La Habra.” And to her credit, Perry doesn’t pander to any of them, staying true to who she is, a fun and funny performer – her comedic timing was perfect at times during the between-song banter – who still feels like a bit of an outsider despite all her success.Īt the end of “Thinking Of You” she picked a girl out of the crowd at the back of the arena to come on stage with her. It’s a strangely diverse crowd that Perry draws, ranging from little girls who were definitely out past their bedtimes on a weeknight, to adult fans who love her songs for their pop craft and dance beats. A delicate ballet, a subtly beautiful production, an Instagram highlight – what more do you want? One of the simplest, yet loveliest performances came during “Thinking Of You,” a lesser-known song from maybe a decade ago, which found Perry riding atop a mini-Saturn, rings and all, floating between inflatable planets above the fans on the floor. From an ’80s palette of flat Art Deco women and pastel geometric shapes – think artist Patrick Nagel and the Italian collective of Memphis Design – during “Hot N Cold” and “California Gurls,” to the Alice In Wonderland-inspired wildness of the black and white costumes and props during “Bon Appetit,” which ended with massive salt and pepper shakers covering Perry in silver glitter, the visuals on stage or on the eye-shaped screen behind never stopped changing. You know you’ll get a ton of color at a Katy Perry show, and this one did not disappoint. It, and the songs that followed – “Hot N Cold,” “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.),” “California Gurls” and “I Kissed A Girl,” which saw Perry lifted up and through an enormous pair of floating lips – all had the crowd on its feet to dance and sing as the dancers, including a cameo by Left Shark of Perry’s Super Bowl halftime show fame, and the stage props shifted on and off stage from one track to another. “Teenage Dream” saw Perry return to the stage in an over-sized white suit with a black windowpane pattern – simple enough, especially for her – and her dancers looking like vintage cartoon characters, with bright yellow balls on their heads, pink-and-blue patterns on the rest of their garments. The show was organized into roughly four chapters, mostly to let Perry and her dancers dash off stage for costume changes, with the second block of songs holding many of her biggest hits. My Chemical Romance thrills fans during its five-night residency at Kia Forum The night opened with the pairing of “Witness” and “Roulette,” which were done so quickly – maybe six minutes to run through both – that you barely had time to absorb the set and costumes – red-and-black harlequin dancers writhing in and out of holes in the giant dice on stage – before they were done. At Staples on Tuesday, though, many came to life. On her fifth album, “Witness,” many of the songs felt flat, and less engaging than earlier hits such as “Teenage Dream,” “California Gurls,” and “Firework,” which such huge hooks you couldn’t help but sing along to the car radio or the club DJ. So let’s break it down, the first stop on Witness: The Tour in Perry’s adopted hometown of L.A., a night that packed 20 songs, six costume changes and one flight by Perry above the crowd while riding on the planet Saturn into just under two hours and dazzled the not-quite-packed house that turned out for the weeknight show. It is what we in the pop music business call a no-lose situation because Perry and Mars, while their music may be different and Perry most certainly has more costume changes and enormous pink flamingos in her show, are – when you strip everything else away – truly fun performers with whom to spend a few hours. On opening night of the Pop Stars Battle of Los Angeles on Tuesday I drew the Katy Perry card and headed for Staples Center for the first of Perry’s three shows there this week while colleague Kelli headed off the Forum for Bruno Mars and the first of four – four! – shows there.
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