At TD Garden, Katy Perry floats like a butterfly, stings like a B-lister
Carrying the combined weight of her diamond singles and myriad public criticisms at TD Garden Friday night, Perry insulated herself from the vitriol of the Internet, and performed her first show in Boston
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The children and teens who attended Friday's show in droves felt like the target audience for Perry's current 'Lifetimes' tour. The kid-free adult fans? Not so much.
Katy Perry performed in Boston for the first time in eight years on Friday.
Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff
Children do not know the difference between a campy performance and an outright cheap one. They do not view an artist being strapped into a harness for multiple in-air tricks as someone falling back on distracting, often underwhelming gimmicks. They do not notice lackluster choreography or if an artist seems a little too reliant on her backing track.
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And they do not question if a set is bloated with material from a poorly-received album — in Perry's case, last year's effort, '143' — while fan favorites like 'California Gurls' and 'Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)' get clipped short.
They
do
lend their high-pitched voices to thunderous singalongs, which often threatened to overpower Perry's pipes when she performed her biggest smashes, 'Dark Horse' and 'Firework.'
To be clear, Perry's hearty soprano still slices through her hits with incredible clarity, and certain moments from Friday's show felt ripe with bravado and vulnerability — a winning formula for staying power.
When singing her breakthrough hit, 'I Kissed A Girl,' Perry put on an impressive Cirque du Soleil-esque display that involved spinning upside-down while suspended from the ceiling in a cage (quite the contrast to riding a giant, gaudy butterfly around the arena for 'Roar'). Her stripped-down rendition of 'Not Like The Movies' recreated a bittersweet unraveling that felt as fresh as it did in 2010, mid-split from first husband Russell Brand.
But it's hard to imagine anyone who came of age during Perry's rise to fame (reader, that's me) could be satiated by Friday night's performance, where baffling creative choices often dimmed the brilliance of Perry's peak years.
This is an artist who once cooked up confectionary hits by the batch; a woman who was the winking face of pop for an entire decade.
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Perry's legacy deserves to be upheld with concerts that cement, not chip away at, her place in pop history. Until the legacy feels better preserved, Perry's career will continue to look like it's already jumped the (left) shark.
KATY PERRY
With Rebecca Black.
At TD Garden, Friday
Katy Perry performing in concert at TD Garden on her "Lifetimes" tour.
Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff
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