Live Review: Katy Perry brings spectacular Lifetimes tour to Birmingham's Utilita Arena
Want to know the secret to winning over a capacity audience on the sixth date of your first UK tour in seven years?
As dull as it sounds – correct pronunciation and correct confectionary! And Katy Perry knows this.
The US pop star is in the UK as part of her Lifetimes tour and while there’s so much to talk about over the course of her set (which we’ll get into later) one of the biggest cheers comes early on when she pauses to tell those packed into the Utilita Arena that she knows how to correctly pronounce Birmingham (as opposed to the city’s US namesake usually favoured by visitors from across the pond) and the importance of getting it right while here.
It’s around this time that she also professes her love of one of the nation’s most beloved items of confectionary – Percy Pigs. When Perry stops to eat a few and talk about them it’s met with as much admiration.
Opening for Perry was Canadian singer-songwriter Goldie Boutilier whose set melded elements of 80s pop and alt-country.
Perry’s 28 song set is all kinds of fantastic ridiculousness. Everything you want from an OTT pop show.
The show itself is split into five acts with a narrative which centres around Perry’s quest to release butterflies which have been captured by a sinister digital presence – aided by dialogue from a small floating robot cat.
Along the way, there’s mid-air backflips high across the arena (a dozen – the most on the tour so far), Matrix-esque digital visuals on the giant screen at the back of the stage, a section where Perry goes a bit ‘Darth Maul’ with a double ended red lightsabre to battle (I think) digital ninjas and another fight against (what looked like but probably wasn’t) a large section of air-conditioning pipe.
This built to a spectacular finale which saw her ride a giant butterfly around the arena.
All of this and there was still time for a section where fans were urged to scan a QR code shown on screens to pick songs, to invite four young fans on stage to help perform one track and to joke about more nuances of the English language (boot=trunk vs boot=shoes) referencing both British ex-husbands.
It’s almost easy to forget that nestled among this are some of the biggest, multi-platinum, chart topping, pop hits of the 21st century.
And a lot of these come early on. Our first glimpse of Perry – who at this point is performing as KP143 - comes for set opener Artificial.
The US star is suspended high above the stage and contained within a wired frame.
After being lowered down and unhooked, she continues to perform with her troop of dancers, also flanked by her live band.
The first of the big hits is Dark Horse while California Gurls marks the start of the second act.
For Hot N Cold, Perry straps on a guitar and uses every inch of the ‘figure-of-eight’ stage extension (the middles of which are filled with fans) while ahead of her breakthrough hit Kissed A Girl, she pauses to talk about how ridiculous some of the commentary attached to the song upon its release in 2008 seems now.
She also pauses to talk about Birmingham’s Gay Village and, with a day off on Sunday, her plans to potentially head there after the show with her dancers.
In Act 3, Perry picked four fans from the audience to join her on stage including one dressed as a Shark (a nod to her 2015 Super Bowl half time show and the now infamous ‘Left Shark’), a brother and sister and other fan. All are given shakers to help perform one of Perry’s more stripped back songs.
All night, Perry comes across incredibly self-aware, mocking tracks like Peacock – before playing a snippet.
And, as the butterfly storyline reaches its conclusion, the singer mounts a giant prop of the insect which zips around the arena, over the heads of fans as she performs set closer Firework before thousands of paper butterflies are shot into the air and onto fans.
Despite Perry’s career spanning three decades and seven albums, her appeal has continued to resonate with an army of young pop fans too.
While Saturday’s gig at the Utilita was without doubt an over-the-top spectacle with maybe a bit of an iffy narrative – many fans wouldn’t want it any other way.
Katy Perry played:
Act 1: Artificial
Artificial
Chained To The Rhythm
Teary Eyes
Dark Horse
Act 2: Woman's World
Woman's World
California Gurls
Teenage Dream
Hot N Cold / Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)
Peacock (Snippet)
I Kissed A Girl
Act 3: Nirvana
Nirvana
Crush
I'm His, He's Mine
Wide Awake
Act 3.5: Choose Your Own Adventure
Harleys In Hawaii (Snippet)
Bon Appétit (Snippet)
Roulette (Snippet)
Legendary Lovers (First Time Since 2015)
Unconditionally
Swish Swish (Only Band Playing)
All The Love
Act 4: Mainframe
E.T.
Part Of Me
Rise
Act 5: End Game
Roar
Daisies
Lifetimes
Firework
(Setlist source – Setlistfm)