Katy Perry California Dreams tour November 15, 2011

On Tuesday night I went to see Katy Perry. It was a VERY last minute decision, but I’m glad I made it.  I’m not the biggest Katy Perry fan, but I figured that her show would be a bit over the top and entertaining – and it was.  Plus, I wanted to see if she really pumped in the scent of cotton candy into the venues. (Either she did or the $10 cotton candy they were selling smelled very strong!)

Opening act Ellie Goulding went on at 7:30 and played a 45 minute set. I felt like this was too long for her – I lost interest about 5 songs in.  Not that she didn’t have a good voice, but a lot of her songs were a bit more mellow and it didn’t really get me excited for what was to come. After Ellie was done, DJ Skeet Skeet DJ’ed.  This seemed to be a bit ridiculous – do kids today really need to be constantly simulated? What happened to bringing up the house lights and just playing music throughout the arena? (Am I old?) He kept saying how Katy would be on next so I thought that meant as soon as he was done her curtain would drop.  Nope.  The lights went on this time and we waited some more for Katy to hit the stage.  I think her set started about 9:15.
Then the screens started playing the story that would go on throughout the show. (For some reason I really like these stories for costume changes more than I like random stuff tossed on the screen in between sets, even if they are a bit silly, and Katy’s certainly was.)  Katy was working at a meat place but the butcher was mean (pretty sure it was played by the brother from bleep my dad says) and got mad about how she was cutting the meat so he told her to leave.  She saw a cupcake shop and fell in love with the baker’s boy… then she fell asleep and kitty purry (her cat) was gone so she had to go find her and ended up in this candy land like place.  (I am pretty sure the butcher’s boy was Nick Zano).  The story continues throughout the show with her trying to find the cat and silly things happening that were then incorporated in to to the show and her songs.

After eating a brownie from some mimes and “feeling sexy” she ended up saying she wanted a guy to join her on stage.  First she was talking to a boy that she thought was young, but his father said he was 21.  She said if he was 21 the father wouldn’t be with him and I guess the father said he loved her too.  Then she mentioned how she would go to jail if she had a boyfriend that was 15 and was looking for older boyfriends but not really older boyfriends haha.  Then she had said the first boy to take his shirt off could come on stage and the boy she pointed to hesitated so she picked a different boy, Marty.  Then was saying how she liked his name because it was like Back to the Future and she kissed his cheek and then told him to kiss her cheek back but then in her in-ear monitor she was told that her husband had showed up to visit her.  That set everything up for I Kissed a Girl and the first “hope my boyfriend don’t mind it” was changed to “husband” and she showed her ring finger.

She also floated to the back (where we were) on a piece of cotton candy, which was cool. I really like how a lot of artists are using tricks like this now to get closer to the fans in the back.

Overall, the show was very entertaining and happy and bright (though I’m not sure how appropriate it was for the younger crowd that was there… but I’m not their parents) and a lot of fun.  During Hot And Cold, she changed her outfits over and over throughout the song which was very interesting and entertaining (in a “how’d they do that!?” kind of way)

Between DJ Skeet Skeet and Katy they were showing tweets on the screen, if you included the hashtag #HartfordDreams.  Apparently also using this hash tag meant that your twitter photo may end up on the HUGE screens behind Katy during Last Friday Night.  Which I did not realize until my friend was like “LOOK! It’s you and Oscar!” (my twitter photo).  Of course I wasn’t quick enough to snap a photo of it so I guess Ill be looking for other photos or videos – but if you are going to a show and tweet with the hash tag – keep an eye out for your twitter photo being on the huge screens behind Katy for this song! (Perhaps this warning was in other reviews but since it was so last minute that I decided to go, I didnt prep myself for anything!)

Setlist under the cut!

Teenage Dream
Hummingbird Heartbeat
Waking Up In Vegas

Ur So Gay
Peacock
I Kissed A Girl

Circle The Drain
E.T.
Who Am I Living For?
Pearl
Not Like The Movies
The One That Got Away

Thinking Of You
Hot N Cold
Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)
Firework

California Gurls
I Wanna Dance with Somebody