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Toward the end of Friday night's incredible arena spectacle, Katy Perry, emoji princess, compared the concert to a first date. Before I even get to how ridiculous that is—I wish all my OKCupid dates involved glow-in-the-dark gladiators and 3D glasses that made everything seem like an acid trip—let me say that she's onto something. It was actually more like a third or fourth date: You're totally infatuated with the other person, you're getting to know them, and everything is all roses and donuts and neon pink balloons, but you haven't slept together just yet.
Thatâs Perryâs whole persona: dirty enough to mention that she ordered the cock-and-balls at Voodoo Donuts, but just coy enough to pretend that she had no idea that every other prop onstage looks like a penis. It works perfectly for adults, though, especially after a few stadium beers: Weâre all in on the joke, and we can scream and shout and tweet pictures of the giant floating poop emoji and sing along to âTeenage Dreamâ without worrying what our neighbor might think, because theyâre all doing the same thing.
Arena shows are always a visual overload, but Iâve never seen anything as gloriously ADHD. It was hard to keep track of Perry when her two guitarists are flying in the air, shooting sparks out of their guitars. The screaming started before she took the stage and never let up, from the kids to the parents (including Stephen Malkmus, seated a few rows in front of us, wearing a sparkly pink hat). There were tons of crazy set changes throughout the night. Perry sang the first set of songs, including the opening âRoarâ and âLegendary Loversâ from her new album, Prism, dressed as a neon Xena, Warrior Princess. All our favorite emoji came to life on âThis Is How We Do.â She dressed as a cat, vogued down a catwalk and poured a giant bowl of white powder (itâs milk, guys!) onto herself. Yet for all the craziness of onstage, I came away thinking that she has the songs to make it all work. Despite hating it initially, Prism is a pretty great pop record, and âInternational Smileâ is better than anything off Random Access Memories.
Perry made a point to talk about how much she loves Portland. "I've always come here on every tour," she said. "You've always seen me grow. I wanna dedicate this song to all of you, paying $20 for parking." Then she played "Birthday" and we all took another selfie. #bestdateever, right?
All photos by Thomas Teal.
WWeek 2015