Concert Review :: Katy Perry

My three friends and I caught a taxi to Vector Arena. It was 6:40pm and the doors were set to open at 7pm. We had seats, so we really had no need to be this early. 7pm came and a man got up on a platform outside the doors to say it was going to be another 15 minutes because it was the first night, they were having a couple of problems setting up the machines to scan our tickets.

The doors opened, we quickly made it through the doors and up the stairs. The doors into the actual arena were still shut, and we ended up waiting there for another 20 minutes. The opening act, Zowie, was supposed to come on at 7.30pm, but the lights didn't dim until 8pm.

We found our seats, which were in a pretty good spot, although I was much closer to the stage when I saw My Chemical Romance there 4 years ago. The crowd was filled with a lot of blue wigs! Mostly girls, but there were more guys there than I was expecting. It was a sold out crowd and I think vector holds about 13,000.

The stage was filled with pink and Zowie began. The sound was fantastic. Often the problem I have with sound (bare in mind, I did a year long live sound course!) is that the vocals are never loud or clear anough. But this was perfect. The sound was so clear, and there was no feedback whatsoever. Mind you, Vector Arena is supposed to be one of the best in the world!

I'm actually considering getting Zowie's album after such a good performance. Her singles sounded just like on the radio! She played for about 40 minutes, and it was a very fast changeover for DJ Skeet Skeet came out. He cut his set short because it was already far behind schedule!

The venue was packed by now and it wasn't long before the lights dimmed and everybody screamed. The curtains opened to reveal the bright stage with a big set including stairs on either side. The screens turned on and a man voiced over a story. After that Katy Perry appeared and began with 'Teenage Dream'.

There were two big screens either side of the stage, which were great.

I don't own either of Katy Perry's albums (though I would like to one day!), so I only know her released tracks. Altogether out of 16 (not including the 5 covers) songs I didn't know 7 of them. She slowed it down quite a bit in the middle for about 3 songs, none of which I knew. Of course it was still great to watch the stage (Katy Perry sitting on a swing lifted across the ground/great lighting/dancers etc) but I did find myself wanting her to switch it up a bit, and go back to the more up tempo songs.

Left: Performing E.T Right: Kitty Purry on stage with Katy

Throughout her set she got quite a few people up on stage dancing etc, as well as one guy who took his shirt off for her. The curtain pulled at one stage, for a little acoustic segment. She talked to the crowd quite a lot, and told us how she related to NZ not wanting to be grouped in with Australia. She was quite funny, and made a few little jokes. She then said it was time to play a little game called 'Name that Tune'. She sang 4 covers acoustically (including Rihanna and Rebecca Black and Willow Smith) and whoever got them all right got to jump off the Auckland Harbour Bridge with her the next day. I'm not sure if the person who won did, but Katy Perry jumped off the bridge on Sunday!

The curtain lifted again and Katy Perry sang 'Hot 'N Cold' with her famous blue wig. I'm sure she had at least 10 costume changes just while singing this song. It was really clever!

She sang Whitney Houston's 'I wanna dance with somebody' and then her own track, Fireworks (with a lot of fireworks going off on stage). She left the stage, but the house lights didn't come on, and she still hadn't sung one of her most famous tracks.

Everyone screamed again when the stage lights came back on and Katy Perry came out, closing the show with 'California Dreams'. The song ended with explosions of pink glitter and she said goodbye.

It was a great show, I really loved it! I would go and see her again if I was living where she was playing (but somehow I don't think anyone will play Christchurch for a while yet!)

Here's a little snippet of Katy Perry singing Teenage Dream (I wanted to upload more but I only get 1gb of broadband a month!)