Filthy Pop

Review: Katy Perry brings the California Dream tour (and her blue wig) in Vancouver

With back-to-back-to-back #1 singles, Katy Perry is on a hot streak these days. And with a rumoured re-release coming soon, you can bet that the streak is set to continue. So it’s really no wonder that the Vancouver stop of her California Dreams 2011 Tour sold out. Almost 13,000 people were at Rogers Arena last night to see the pop star perform.

I’m happy to report that Katy actually delivered. Here are the highlights of the show for me:

• Her rendition of “I wanna dance with somebody”. It was quite amazing that she brought a handful of fans on stage and even took a pic with one of them.
• The 10-minute or so acoustic set, which included covers of Rihanna’s “Only Girl” and Willow Smith’s “Whip my Hair”.
• Part of this acoustic set was Rebecca Black’s “Friday”. Interestingly enough, it worked.
• The very subdued performance of “Not like the movies”. After seeing her perform this live, I can’t really ever accuse of her not being able to sing.
• The hits — “E.T.”, “Firework”, California Girls, and Teenage Dream — were all exceptional, for no other reason than the fact that they’re fun to sing along to.
• When she sang “Circle the Drain”, I was mildly shocked. It’s my fave from her album, but given the lyrical content of the song (and given that there were children in the crowd), I wasn’t expecting it on the playlist.

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