I'm Officially a Perry 'Kitty Kat'
So the good people at ghd sent me along to the Katy Perry California Dreams Tour gig at the O2 in Dublin last night and of course I was more than happy to oblige. With some Perry-esque styling in place, (eh.... pink nails) we made our way to our (really good) seats, stuffed our faces on candy floss, took ridiculous pictures of each other and moaned that Vodafone must be blocked from inside the arena - as every gig I have been to there, I've found it impossible to text, tweet, facebook, call or otherwise connect with people from my iphone (O2 people take note, this is very frustrating)
Anyway, after a terribly dull and insanely repetitive performance by Danish group ‘Oh Land’ which had an approximately 10,000 strong crowd of people nearly falling asleep in their seats and crying into their candy floss, a hyped up L.A. DJ, by name of ‘Skeet Skeet’ – so good they named him twice –finally revved us back up again as we waited in anticipation for the sugar coated pop queen – Katy Perry. Rumours that she was going to appear from behind us meant we spent quite a long time with our necks straining backwards to see if she would swing from the roof beams or high wire it to the stage. She didn’t. In fact, she just appeared on the stage, but of course with that voice, that set and those costumes, she wasn’t about to disappoint.
The show was broken up by Disney inspired fantasy interludes being shown on film in the background and that told the tale on which the concert theme is founded (i.e. Katy has a nightmare that her cat Kitty Purry goes missing – whilst she also finds herself on a quest to find a hot baker boy.... it made more sense on the night!). The entire event, from beginning to end, was a saccharine coloured, candy filled, pink, fluffy, candy cane striped, glitter adorned extravaganza. Her costume changes ranged from cupcake dresses to a cat-suit to a foil mini skirt and Madonna-esque cone bra’s with tassles and moveable parts. The vast amount of colour, glitter and tulle used in her incredible costume changes alone was mesmerizing – and it wasn’t just the younger audience members who were being dazzled by the bright light displays and the simulated fireworks. It is unusual to find a pop-star whose audience genuinely ranges from age 3 (I kid you not, she was in the row in front of us) to adults – all of whom were bopping to her high octane performances, for the entire night.
Perry remained in her Disney-esque inspired character throughout – even when addressing the audience – and her quirky sense of humour saw her bring a young man up from the eager crowd, onto the stage, pointing out that he was a ‘ginger’ and proceeding to kiss him on the cheek – only to then jokingly announce that her husband had arrived to surprise her. The young man, whose name was Sean, beamed across his freckled face as he alighted from the stage. She couldn’t have found a more typically Irish young man if she had spent two hours scouring the crowd. Later Perry also brought some young girls in Perry costume, up from the crowd and spent a full two minutes getting her picture taken with them. Her generosity and sensitivity towards the younger audience in the crowd was quite rare and the audience really appreciated it.
One of the most striking things from the show was how good a live singer Katy Perry really is. Considering this was the last show of approx 120 European gigs, there may have been allowances made for a scratchy throat or the odd sigh perhaps... but she sounded as if it was merely the opening night. It’s always been obvious that she has an incredible voice, but quite a few beautiful ballads on the night sealed the deal for me in terms of her vocal abilities – showcasing her as a hugely talented individual.
I might not have said this a few weeks ago, but I really think I could be one of her ‘Kitty Kats’ after this......
Your Comments
- Posted by imy on 11 November 2011 at 11:54...
- Kitty purry rocks u gotta love her n her changing clothes n hair every 2 secs she was brillant wasnt she, i wanna dye my hair blue now seriously i think i will
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