...And I Liked It
Weekends in the summer are just chock full of stuff to do. Yesterday, we had the Asbury Park Surf Music Festival at Asbury Lanes and the free 4Knots Festival featuring my all-time favorites, Dinosaur Jr., at South Street Seaport. I'm pretty sure I could've gotten a press pass to 4Knots, but I didn't even apply. Way back at the beginning of the year, I bought 5 tickets to see Katy Perry -- along with the cooldaughters and two of CoolDaughter #1's friends -- at Newark's Prudential Center.
I did make it to Asbury for some surf sounds for a little while, but I headed back home early for some pre-game pizza with the gang. We piled into the minivan, put on Sirius XM Hits 1, and set out. Now, I love my girls; and CD1's friends are a couple of the sweetest, funniest kids I know. Their taste in radio stations, though...
Sirius XM Hits 1 for 45 straight minutes has got to be worse than waterboarding. It's not so much that the music is bad (though, a lot of it is). It's that we heard the same half-dozen songs three times each on the way up to the arena. Thankfully, traffic wasn't bad or I'm not sure what I would've done with my nerves as frayed as they were.
We settled into our not-so-cheap cheap seats. At exactly 7:15 (Tickets said 7:30), Ferras -- first signee to Katy Perry's Metamorphosis Music -- took the stage to do about 30 minutes of 80s-inspired synth pop. The arena was far from full, but that still meant Ferras played to several thousand. Those down front seemed to have a good time.
Popcorn break.
At 8 on the dot, LA's Capital Cities took the stage for their set. We saw them as they pulled in when we were lining up to enter the venue. The girls (and I) were amazed that I recognized them through the open window of their SUV.
"Hey guys."
"Hey."
They got the crowd pretty worked up with their disco trumpeting. The place exploded for mega-hit "Safe and Sound." They closed out by piping a remixed version of the song through the sound system and jumping wildly, imploring the crowd to do the same.
We all took advantage of the break between sets to hit the merch table for $40 T-shirts. I'd learned from the Taylor Swift show that doing this after the show was a recipe for disaster. So, with all the girls appropriately suited up, we returned to our seats to await the main event.
CoolDaughter #2 started getting impatient (and, of course, decided she had to pee) as the time neared 9:20. Just at that moment a giant prism arose from beneath the stage and started to open like a flower. The familiar introductory drum beat to "Roar" started, and Perry appeared inside the prism wearing a neon-accented dress.
CD2 squealed, "This is so COOOOOL!!" I glanced down the row and saw the older trio screaming the song. I have to admit, it did look pretty cool when the lights went down and all we could see were the silhouettes of Perry and her dancers outlined in neon.
Following the fourth number -- a version of "This Moment" that ran right into "Love Me" -- Perry disappeared below decks while things changed over to an Egyptian theme. Then, a giant "Technical Difficulties, Please Stand By" appeared on the triangular screen at the rear of the stage. It wasn't a joke, and it was about 3 or 4 minutes before Perry re-emerged, this time on the back of a giant horse puppet operated by several of her dancers for "Dark Horse."
The next wardrobe change saw Perry and company in cat costumes, Perry playing the role of "Kitty Purry as Katy Perry." At one point, she threw in a bit of Madonna's "Vogue," even pulling a saucer full of "milk" -- actually white glitter -- onto herself.
I feel like the cotume changes at this show took a little longer than Taylor Swift's; but the in-between, on-screen entertainment was pretty funny at times. CD2 was losing it to the cat animation preceding the Kitty Purry part of the evening. I've always found Katy Perry to have a pretty good sense of humor.
She toned things down for a mostly acoustic section -- rainbow hair, butterfly theme -- down at our end of the stage. She stopped to take selfies with some of the "Kitty Kats" in the pit and brought a young girl onstage for a pizza and a selfie. "The One That Got Away," "Unconditionally," some other stuff.
After that, Perry appeared in a bikini top and smiley face on the butt skirt for a "Throwback" section. The big number here was a version of "This Is How We Do" with some "Last Friday Night" thrown in, featuring an inflatable car and some emoji balloons. One was even the very well-known Covergirl lipstick emoji balloon. Camera died during "Walking on Air."
Perry closed the main set with a pair of songs from her last record: "Teenage Dream" and "California Gurls." "Good night, New Jersey!" People started leaving. We held firm, waiting for the two songs she hadn't yet performed.
...aaaand. Re-boot. Perry emerged from beneath the stage once again for current hit "Birthday" during which she brought a kid with a July birthday onstage for a G-rated kind of lap dance. Perry then flew over the crowd dangling from some giant balloons. CD2: "OH MY GOD! HERE SHE COMES!"
The stage cleared again. We waited again. Then "Firework." Complete with fireworks.
Everything took exactly 2 hours.
The kids loved it. I was, honestly, entertained. She's basically a giant corporation, but there's something about Katy Perry that has always seemed kind of honest to me. Maybe she's just a great actress, but she does manage to make a connection with the audience.
We made our way back to the car and waited 45 minutes to exit the parking lot. I couldn't do the Sirius XM Hits 1 thing again, so I put on Faction where they were replaying an episode of Marky Ramone's show where he and Tommy Ramone were picking their favorite songs. The girls were playing some game in the back seat that involved a lot of sudden screams.
Then "I Wanna Be Sedated" came on the radio. CoolDaughter #1: "Guys! Guys!!!"
"What??"
"Shhhhhh!!! Quiet!!! Listen to this song!!!" They tilted their heads and looked at her incredulously as she sang along.
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