Concert review: Katy Perry offers garish, migraine-inducing spectacle at Target Center

At this point should we start feeling sorry for Katy Perry The -year-old mother of one saw her would-be comeback album flop critically and commercially much like her previous effort s Smile suffered from slow ticket sales in particular markets for her first tour in seven years and got absolutely roasted for her tone-deaf Blue Origin space flight Even the Wendy s Twitter account got in on the action responding to a post celebrating her return to Earth with can we send her back After sitting through her garish spectacle of concert Tuesday night at Target Center the answer to my question is that no we should not start feeling sorry for Katy Perry To paraphrase Radiohead she did it to herself she did For starters technical difficulties led to doors opening more than two hours late leaving fans waiting outside or in stuffy skyways Word is the crew was late in arriving from a Monday night concert in Chicago Once the show decisively started it wasn t a mere concert but a high-concept experience meant to mimic an immersive video meeting where Perry portrays a half human half robot who battles an AI monster named Mainframe who stole all the world s butterflies Which much like sounds as if it was conceived by AI She performed on a massive stage that includes a large lighted infinity symbol stretching into the crowd to the back of the floor with fans inside the teardrop-shaped centers Both Perry and her army of dancers wore so several different complicated semi-futuristic outfits she must have a dedicated semi truck just for the wardrobe At various points she flew above the crowd rode a gigantic metal butterfly and engaged in a lightsaber battle Clearly someone sunk a lot of cash into the production Yet it all looked so cheap and chintzy as if it was all constructed out of items from a combined Big Lots Party City closeout sale It was loud too with endless flashing lights and migraine-inducing graphics And that aforementioned lightsaber battle She was dueling with what appeared to be two large sections of HVAC tubing More than a whiff of desperation ran throughout the set list as well with Perry opening by sneaking in new songs Artificial and Teary Eyes between older hits Chained to the Rhythm and Dark Horse in the same way folks try to hide heartworm medication in the dog s Purina Pro Plan A multitude of aspects of the show lifted ideas from other more talented acts like Taylor Swift Beyonce Lady Gaga and Pink From Swift for example she partially adopted her Eras Tour style and played banks of songs from the same time frame And it was a genuine surprise that she dropped five of her biggest hits in the first hour of the show California Gurls Teenage Dream Hot n Cold Last Friday Night T G I F and I Kissed a Girl Hilariously enough during Hot n Cold she strapped on a guitar and proceeded to play it for maybe seconds tops To her credit it was quite cute when she pulled a fan and her mom onstage to sing The One That Got Away Perry was also quite gracious when another fan in the crowd handed her an album to sign But it was certainly an album from Perry s opening act Rebecca Black and it was Black s autograph she was looking for Perry s voice has held up remarkably well and the new songs aren t quite as cringeworthy in concert save for the still-dreadful I m His He s Mine Also Perry did take full advantage of her gigantic stage and played on all parts of it giving fans from all around the arena a decent view at several point Unfortunately it was a decent view of a Katy Perry concert