There was little response last night the handful of times Katy Perry mentioned her recent trip to space. But when she played her hits, of which there are plenty, good God did the Toyota Center liftoff.
After an eight year break since her last tour, Katy Perry launched the American leg of her Lifetimes Tour last night in Houston in a high concept show stacked with pop canon classics, new album filler, silly stunts for days, and some pretty big 2010 energy.
The tour’s concept features Perry as a half human, half machine cyborg main character in a dystopian video game, where she needs to collect hearts to complete levels, defeat a big green matrix-like villain named Mainframe, and free the butterflies because they’ve been…trapped? Please don’t let her into the Cockrell Butterfly Center.
It’s a plot too intricate to actually follow in an arena show that soars when Perry drops the act and plays the good shit. You know, the songs that send your dopamine through the roof, even more so surrounded by thousands (“California Gurls”). The hooks that felt classic on arrival and all but melt your heart as your nostalgia spirals (“Teenage Dream”). The lightning in a bottle that should jumpstart any career as sweet and decorated as Perry’s (“I Kissed a Girl,” “Hot N Cold”). Perry chose to burn through all that gold while navigating her way through a jungle gym spread across her infinity sign shaped stage that spanned the arena’s floor, though the songs’ sugar highs alone would have sufficed.
But that’s the thing about Katy’s sugar crash. When it’s not pumping your veins with melodic crack it leaves your ear in withdrawal waiting for the next hit. Literally. And every song that goes without that potency leaves you pining for that feeling you know first hand her songs can deliver.
Anonymous beats from Perry’s latest record 143 – a dumpster that even a raccoon wouldn’t rummage – warrant a steady head nod at most (“Crush”) and opportunities to levitate (“Artificial,” “Nirvana,” “All the Love”), as one does in a show this scale.
A mid-show “Choose Your Own Adventure” segment crashed the set’s already bumpy pacing by asking fans to use a QR code to vote for album cuts from Perry’s quintessential Teenage Dream album for her to perform (“Not Like the Movies,” “The One That Got Away.”) The wifi didn’t work. She called out four girls from the nosebleeds to join her onstage but stalled to buy them time to take the elevator down…
Set highlight “E.T.” found Perry completing the video game’s plot, because yes we still have to do that.
Lightsaber in hand, Perry battled dancers, the villain Mainframe – a green guy so bad he’s got bars to replace Kanye’s verse here – and a giant air conditioning duct. I mean, the infinity worm, who is Mainframe’s protector sidekick pet of sorts. None of it should work on paper. But it’s that throw it at the wall and see what sticks spirit that encapsulates Perry’s artistry. Sure it might hurt your brain and make you cringe sometimes but when you’re in the room with Perry, you’re in the song with her, and you’d probably cut an HVAC unit that did you wrong in Houston too.
Distracting plot points and endless levitation aside (oh yeah, she flew around Toyota Center on a butterfly during “Roar” after defeating Mainframe and releasing the butterflies), Perry’s catalog houses some of pop canon’s most evergreen classics. A run of hits so concentrated and celebrated it’s hard to comprehend them with contemporary metrics. It’s hard to want or need much more from an artist like Perry, except for her to close out the night with a victory lap that is “Firework.” As a lifetime concertgoer, and sometimes a professional one, this writer can tell you that there are few closing numbers from any artist, any catalog, that stack up to this one. The lyrical scale, the sweeping chorus, the pure, unfiltered joy, but most of all, the sugar highs transcending into true musical fulfillment. See you again in eight years, Ms Perry.
Now can someone go check on the Butterfly Center?
The Opener: In 2011, if you would’ve said that in about 15 years, Rebecca Black – of viral music video “Friday” fame – would have enough material to play a 30 minute opening set for Katy Perry in an arena, I would’ve said you’re high. But she did it last night, and on a Wednesday. Rebecca Black’s hyperpop leaning set couldn’t have been more satisfying. Backed by two dancers, Black played songs from her recent album Salvation to an engaged arena. As the kids say: Her mic was on. She left no crumbs. Four plus four.
Random Notebook Dump: Perry’s ascent in the late aughts marked a moment in pop music when stars began shifting their lens back on their audiences, as if to say “I see you.” So a couple of shout outs are in order. To the guy riding solo in the white tank across the arena, dancing to Rebecca Black’s set with the same intensity as her backup dancers; to the guy in a suite perched atop his chair’s armrests during “Firework,” arms out in total glory bright enough for me to catch five stories down; and to the group on the floor dressed as plastic bags drifting through the wind: I see you. To the fans dressed as astronauts, welcome back. And to the Left Sharks in the house – I see you too. I’ve just lost count of you.
Setlist
Artificial
Chained to the Rhythm
Teary Eyes
Dark Horse
Woman’s World
California Gurls
Teenage Dream
Hot N Cold
Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)
I Kissed A Girl
Nirvana
Crush
I’m His, He’s Mine
Wide Awake
Not Like the Movies
The One That Got Away
All the Love
E.T.
Part of Me
Rise
Roar
Daisies
Lifetimes
Firework
