Katy Perry, Birmingham LG Arena, 14/05/14 | Gig Review

Katy Perry roared into Birmingham last night for her second trip to the LG Arena. As anyone would have guessed, she stunned with a star-studded show filled with fabulousness and sparkle. With a grand total of 9 costume changes, she certainly looked the part as well as bringing a fabulous show to the LG. The problem being, the music was put on the back burner to create this grand spectacle of a concert.

Her singing was never bad. It was just Perry obviously wanted to make it a very memorable night in a showy kind of way rather than for the music. This was plain to see as she did her best whack-a-mole impression with the trap doors dotted around the stage and all the lights and fireworks and very random stage props.

There were obvious segments in the show. Most notable was the Egyptian which included her (hella) sexy Egyptian outfit along with the mechanical horse with two muscly men underneath *swoon*. And she performed a couple of songs maybe. Dark Horse was one, an absolute banger compared to some of her other songs. The most strange was when she appeared as a cat, after an absolutely ridiculous cat montage on the screen while she was changing into said outfit. She performed a very unusual take on Hot n Cold, which worked well, having a less poppy take on the hit from 2008. Actually, the most surreal thing in the entire set was her rendition of Kissed A Girl. Not because of the way she performed it, but because of what was going on during it. There were these mummies... With what seemed like balloon butt and boobs, and it just... Wow. It was weird. They twerked too, a sight that cannot be unseen.

When Perry finally showed some form of sanity in her performance was when she went to her ballads. She went with By The Grace Of God and Unconditionally which are very beautiful songs. These were performed beautifully as well and showed a nice contrast to the over-showiness of the rest of the show. What she did very well was an acoustic version of The One That Got Away. In recent events this obviously was touching for her, and it showed through the pure emotion she expressed as she performed. 

Then it went back to the norm. With a flying poop emoji and a taco among other things. A mash up of This Is How We Do and T.G.I.F. followed and was met with hysteria from the crowd. One of the most awkward moments of the concert was for Birthday where a girl of about 15 maybe got brought on stage as it was her 'birthday'. Then Perry went on to sing this seemingly innocent track, but actually telling her to get in her birthday suit. Yeah...

No-one left unhappy surely. It was an absolutely amazing show from Perry filled with montages and flashy, shiny things. But it just wasn't a very good concert as there was so much focus on the flashy, shiny things. It's definitely worth seeing though as there's no chance you'd see anything like it anywhere else. Ever. 

7/10