Katy Perry brought her Wizard of Oz-inspired candy-coated Teenage Dreams tour to the Air Canada Centre on Wednesday night for the first of two shows.
Not only was the 26-year-old singer wearing a twirling candy-cane decorated dress as she emerged on her brightly-coloured set to kick off the two-hour show with Teenage Dream – the title from her third album of the same name – but there were oversized lollipops, icing-topped cakes and pink candy floss (even trimming three video screens) everywhere you looked.
Backed by a seven piece band, with all the musicians in white suits and her two backup singers in neon-coloured pink and purple dresses and matching wigs, Perry clearly wanted to keep things light, fluffy and downright child-like with a slightly subversive subtext throughout.
“Oh my God, hello,” said Perry. “Listen if I know one thing about the people of Canada, they like to have a good time.”
Then Perry brought out one of her “best friends” Slot – a girl dressed up as an actual slot machine – to accompany her for Waking up In Vegas, along with an Elvis impersonator, and two showgirls.
You get the picture.
“Hey, slot, what’s up,” kidded Perry, who later changed into a Dorothy worthy blue decked out in sequins while her dancers were dressed as mimes for Ur So Gay.
Later one of them offered her brownie that wasn’t as innocent as it appeared, given the blurry images on the video screens that followed.
“Excuse me that’s the most interesting tasting brownie I’ve ever had,” said Perry, who was stripped of her dress in exchange for peacock tail feathers for Peacock and then changed into a lime green sequined gown with a green, yellow and orange boa for a cabaret version of I Kissed A Girl which eventually picked up steam.
“Stay in school, don’t do drugs,” joked Perry later.
This was after she called up a 20-year-old shirtless male fan on stage and got him to kiss her on the cheek and then he did the same to her.
“They just told me in my ear that my husband is here,” said Perry referring to comic-actor Russell Brand. “Simon you better go to the back of the auditorium because he’s going to break your legs!”
Now of course there was no way of knowing if Brand was really there but one suspects not.
Perry also took on the persona of her cat Kitty Purry, with a black cat suit and cat ears, for Circle The Drain, which inexplicably included two oversized steaks on stage, and one of the show’s best and biggest sounding songs, E.T., with its “kiss me, k-k-kiss me” chorus.
And you had to love the Elizabeth Taylor-worthy silver sequined caftan thrown on Perry for Pearl while two her female dancers did aerial work behind her and the flower-embossed swing on which she sat for Not Like The Movies.
“Oh, my goodness, I’m finally in blessed Canada,” said Perry, who was injured dancing during a post-MMVAS party last year.
“I’m kicking off my Canadian tour with Toronto. I love this city. The only time I’ve ever been to the hospital or gotten stitches was in Toronto. I’ve got a scar somewhere. Tonight, I’m proud that I got my scars in Toronto and for free. God I love it. Can I stay?”
Perry then gathered her band at the front of her catwalk for a playlist of other people’s songs – Rihanna’s Only Girl (In The World), Jay-Z’s Big Pimping, Rebecca Black’s Friday – which prompted one of the biggest crowd singalongs of the night – and Willow Smith’s Whip My Hair before floating over the crowd while standing on a pink cotton candy cloud and playing a pink sequined guitar during Thinking Of You.
She also danced with about 30 or so audience members brought on stage during her cover of Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance With Somebody that also featured a dancer dressed as her cat, Kitty Purry.
Still, not all of the staging worked, like those cheesy-looking white stretchy cords wielded by four male dancers and attached to Perry during Who Am I Living For? Guess she was literally showing being pulled in all different directions?
And some songs – Teenage Dream, E.T., Hot N Cold, complete with numerous costume changes on stage and coloured confetti, Firework (with yes, many fireworks) and the show ending California Gurls with her dressed in a silver bra with big tassles and matching hot pants – proved to be much more durable than others.
SET LIST:
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
Only Girl (In The World)
Big Pimping
Friday
Whip My Hair
Thinking Of You
I Want Candy/Milkshake, etc. medley (performed by her backup singers)
Hot N Cold
Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)
I Wanna Dance With Somebody
Firework
ENCORE:
California Gurls
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