Concert review: Katy Perry’s fantastic, Prismatic world

Ask anyone who was at the Katy Perry show at the Philippine Arena last Thursday night and they’ll tell you the same thing: fantastic show, horrific traffic.

Many of the approximately 30,000 spectators who turned up at the massive venue in Bocaue, Bulacan did so for the first time, myself included. Traffic was excruciatingly slow from the NLEX towards the exit, going inside the venue and towards the parking area, but the concert gods must have been smiling down on me and my friends because we got to our seats just as Katy and her merry band started on the first song, “Roar.”
 
The venue was filled almost to bursting with Katy fans of all shapes and sizes: grandmothers with walking canes, burly men with wives and/or girlfriends in tow, girls and boys in snazzy, colorful outfits, and even children as young as eight or nine. It only illustrated the 30-year-old singer and songwriter’s appeal, which cuts across generation and gender.

Onstage, the initial theme seemed to be Amazonian tribe-meets-outer space, with back-up singers and dancers clad in glowing, futuristic neon costumes. Decibel levels neared eardrum-shattering levels when Katy herself appeared. She moved on to sing “Part Of Me,” and a remix of “Wide Awake.”

Images of pyramids flashed on the big screen onstage as dancers channeled ancient Egypt on the next set. There was an actual, larger-than-life “horse” which Katy rode on the song “Dark Horse,” but that was nothing compared to the mummies boasting gigantic bosoms and posteriors for the next song. “Where my ladies at?!” the artist, wearing a swimsuit-inspired body dress, asked before launching into “I Kissed A Girl.”

“Visual spectacle” would be a colossal understatement to describe the entire shebang. According to Katy herself, this show marks exactly one year since the start of the Prismatic World Tour in Belfast, Northern Ireland. “One hundred and thirty-eight shows,” she said. “This might be the biggest we’ve ever done.”

Katy’s fascination with cats continued on the next set, where a video interstitial showed felines traveling from Egypt to Hollywood, while live “cats” tap-danced onstage. Katy appeared in a hot pink catsuit, complete with ears and a tail, while singing “Hot ‘N Cold. “ She segued into “International Smile,” mixed with Madonna’s “Vogue,” when the ensemble turned the stage into—what else?—a catwalk.

One lucky audience member got the surprise of a lifetime when Katy asked him to join her onstage to teach her Tagalog. The starstruck fan, wearing an almost exact replica of one of Katy’s costumes, seemed to be in awe as the artist quizzed him about the local language. She even suggested a selfie, eliciting screams and sighs of envy from everyone else in the Arena

“We want everybody to feel uplifted at our show,” Katy said. “We’re gonna show up every single time because we said so. They’ll have to take me on a stretcher before I quit.”

That’s when I knew Katy Perry is the real deal. It looked like she was having fun performing for us, but underneath it all is a consummate professional whose sole purpose of being was to entertain and satisfy her audience. We sat there watching and singing and dancing along, but Katy and her crew were working, and working hard. She wanted everyone to feel that they were getting their money’s worth and I have to say, there was little doubt that she succeeded.

After a quick throwback to the dance hits of the 80s, Katy moved on to “Walking On Air,” and a mash-up of “This Is How We Do,” and “Last Friday Night.” The neon theme reappeared for the unbelievably fun medley of “Teenage Dream and “California Gurls.”

The big encore, of course, was “Firework.” At the end, there was a sense of having been part of an experience, as opposed to just watching a show. Of course, we all had to contend with traffic getting out of the venue and driving all the way back to Manila, but even then, the overall feeling was one of satisfaction and euphoria. That’s what Katy wanted, and, without a doubt, that’s exactly what she got. — BM, GMA News