The lobby of Centennial Hall was filled with the scent of Victoria’s Secret ‘Pink’ and bubblegum lip gloss. Throngs of jabbering tweens snapped photos of each other, tugging on glittery shirts emblazoned with “”I Kissed a Girl!”” which would inevitably end up on their MySpace page the following morning.
Such was the scene Monday night at the UA campus, where Katy Perry, along with opening act The Daylights, performed to a packed venue.
Los Angeles based rockers The Daylights lent a pleasing contrast to Perry’s pop hits, peppering a few of their bass heavy songs with xylophone. The Daylights alternative rock sounded like a mix of fellow Californians Rooney and Switchfoot — not surprisingly, since guitarist Drew Shirley hails from the latter.
Perry proved she’s not like the other saccharine-sweet pop princesses when she bounced on stage in fishnets and a polka dot onesie, crying out a hearty “”What the fuck?””
If her plucky welcome didn’t catch your attention, Perry’s wardrobe had to have done the trick. With her skintight leopard suit and her pouty, Marylin Monroe-esque red lips, it wasn’t shocking to see a few guys in the audience rip off their shirts during Perry’s set.
Perry’s live vocals weren’t quite up to par with the recorded versions of her unavoidable hits: Perry struggled to hit the high notes of “”Hot N Cold,”” and was drowned out by her band during “”Mannequin.”” Even so, there’s a reason why this girl has been a long-standing fixture atop the pop charts. Grabbing her guitar, pulsing to her infectious beats and belting out her signature cheeky lyrics, Katy had the crowd on their feet and screaming for the better part of the show. Admittedly, with only her acoustic guitar on her shoulder, Perry lost steam with her slower ballads like “”Thinking of You.”” Perry managed to get the crowd back on their feet by flinging pieces of her set-huge, inflatable pieces of fruit-into the audience during “”If You Can Afford Me.””
Perry closed out the night with “”I Kissed a Girl,”” the ubiquitous song that, quite frankly, reached its saturation point on the airwaves long ago. But with her sassy attitude, risqué lyrics and chart-topping beats, it’s clear that Katy Perry has found a winning equation for taking over the pop scene, and shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon.
