Katy Perry has fans singing along at Madison Square Garden show
Katy Perry performs during "The Prismatic World Tour" at PNC Arena on June 22, 2014, in Raleigh, North Carolina. Credit: WireImage / Kevin Mazur
Katy Perry took a break from her song "International Smile" about halfway through her sold-out Madison Square Garden show Wednesday night -- to lead her cast of dancers dressed as cats down an impromptu fashion runway to Madonna's "Vogue."
Then she continued on with the song as if nothing had happened. It was part of her strategy of making her "Prismatic" tour feel unexpected and trippy. It kind of worked, as she balanced bits of esteem-building with tap-dancing cat dancers, giant gold horses and loads of cat videos.
After all, this sort of mainstream curating is what Perry does best.
If you examine any other bit of her career closely enough, it does sort of start to unravel.
Her vocal range is limited -- though she certainly knows how to use it well.
Her lyrics' quality varies wildly, sometimes even within the same song. (It is hard to get over how lazy the purposefully mispronounced "Unconditionally" really is, especially when it's tricked out in concert with giant butterflies.)
Perry's ability to generate a good time does sort of allow her to gloss over her shortcomings. "If you don't like sing-alongs, now's your chance to leave," she declared early on in the first of a long string of area shows. (Perry plays the Prudential Center on Friday and Saturday and Barclays Center on July 24 and 25.)
Though the acoustic section of her show stretched a little too long, Perry knew she could depend on her fans' support to pull her through and that's exactly what happened -- like some sort of teenage dream.
