ANALYSIS/OPINION:
At her District appearance at Capitol One Arena Monday, Katy Perry seemed hell-bent on bringing the ’80s back, turning a whole new generation on to the era of Day-Glo and synth pop.
This D.C. stop, five dates into her “Witness” tour, featured singing, dancing, a little Cirque du Soleil acrobatics and a lots of nods to ’80s pop culture. Miss Perry herself was born in 1984, but obviously she feels at home in that retro decade as an adult. (I mean, watch any of her videos, especially “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F).” Kenny G — enough said.) Miss Perry sang in front of a Pac-Man interface, “Miami Vice” colors and neon, cassettes and boombox clip art, and her pre-show music ran through Top 40 hits of the decade, including the Thompson Twins, Simple Minds and Prince. (A single song by The Smiths was a nice nod to the non-Top 40 songs of the era.)
Some of her stage props included giant hot pink flamingos trotted out during “California Gurls” and a motorcycle with colors from the movie “Tron” during “Hey Hey Hey.” A giant fly straight off the set of “Beetlejuice” followed Miss Perry around during “E.T.,” reminding one of Peter Gabriel’s “Shock the Monkey” video. She even covered a bit of Janet Jackson’s “What Have You Done for Me Lately” during “Bon Appetit” and the original “Annie” version of “It’s a Hard Knock Life” before “Roar.”
In a nod to the current decade, Miss Perry’s most famous prop from Super Bowl XLIX, Left Shark, came out toward the end of “California Gurls” and danced with her down the catwalk. The unlikely duo then phoned Miss Perry’s mom from a giant, fuzzy, neon-pink rotary phone handset. On the other end of the call, Miss Perry’s mother, Mary, asked her to play her dad’s favorite song, “I Kissed a Girl.”
While this was cute, the “impromptu” phone call and other aspects of the show seemed rather scripted. Before “Save as Draft,” Miss Perry said, “When you see a shooting star, you have to make a wish. Is there anyone out there who has a special wish tonight?”
A teenage girl named Layla was brought up on stage, and Miss Perry asked what she would want if she could wish on a star. The young girl said her parents are in a custody battle over her, and she wished that could be over. Miss Perry entreated the whole crowd to say, “We support you, Layla, because things do get better.”
Miss Perry obviously seeks to make that personal connection with her audience, which, in an arena setting — and with a stage production this large — is not easy. And what a diverse crowd: cool parents bringing their kids to their first concert, ladies from the ’80s booty-dancing, tweens screaming and boys who love boys booty-dancing and screaming at the same time. The show even started 75 minutes late, but no one moved anxiously. That’s devotion.
It’s also possible that perhaps that spontaneity was there after all, it was just was more a result of Miss Perry’s live show, not the singer herself. I saw little girls dancing and having a blast on a school night. During “Roar” I saw a mom and dad on either side of their tween daughter recording her on their phones as the daughter sang and danced with joy. I saw two friends grab the hands of parents in the row in back of them — all strangers and all swaying together to the chorus.
“You sing. You dance. You shake your tush. You sweat, someone else sweats on you. And that’s OK,” Miss Perry said at one point.
Miss Perry’s music can be called many things, but it always brings together an audience of many different colors, ages and genders — every one of them joyously singing their hearts out. To be witness to that joy is a special thing.
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