"Hello Katy" hits NYC.

Forgive me for my lack of posts. I've been working, on locations on shoots and sitting in my bedroom watching hours upon hours of awful, mindless reality TV. Now that the Bad Girl's Club has ended, I can get back to my wonderful blog.

Last night I saw Katy Perry's "Hello Katy" Tour at The Filmore Theatre at Irving Plaza, and I felt compelled to share my experience with everyone. Besides, now that the Bad Girl's Club has ended and Heigl is about to die on Grey's Anatomy, I'm really stretching for things to keep this blog afloat. Bare with me.

I love living in New York. There is something about seeing an artist play live in New York City that carries it's own electricity with it. It's like the artist has to try harder, play harder, sing louder, jump higher and compete with the energy of the city and it's inhabitants. There is no way to "phone in" a show in New York City. Because not only will the city eat you alive, but the fickle, jaded New York audience won't settle for it either. Madonna, the queen of live shows has often said that no matter how hard she works each show, she never works harder than she does for a New York audience. If you want to see an Artist in their prime, see them in New York.

Katy Perry must have taken Madonna's advice because she was on fire last night. From the moment she stepped(actually, jumped) on stage to the final encore, she was a non-stop force of nature. She engaged the audience, she spoke between almost every song, she fed off the energy of the venue and she sang and played her heart out. Switching between playful banter, rocking out on her guitar, singing more powerful than I've ever heard her do before and sweating like it was her job, Katy made it her duty to not just play her album, but to make sure the audience was apart of every aspect of her show.

The stage was simple and visually appealing at the same time. The venue is rather small, but Katy managed to make it hers but filling her performance space with random, giant inflatable fruits like raspberries, strawberries and one large banana. At the end of the stage was a massive replica of a cat's head, whose eyes light up an electric blue between, during and after songs. Katy stayed in one colorful suit the entire time, sans the encore when she changed into a purple leopard leotard, and used her vocal and musical talent as the real star of the show. The stage and one costume change were icing on the cake. Katy used her music to take the audience on a journey...something that's incredibly rare to see at a concert nowadays.

Perry performed her entire major label debut album "One of the Boys", minus one song, the stellar "I'm Still Breathing". While I was disappointed with the omission of that song, I couldn't have been happier that she replaced it with her incredible, better than the original, cover of Outfield's "Use Your Love". Check out her "Ur So Gay" EP on Itunes to listen to the genius of her retelling of the track. She dedicated that song to "All the parents, the Milfs, who took their kids to my concert tonight and who are standing in the back". Bridging a gap between Parents and Kids in for one 4 minute song was just one of the highlights of Katy's unique way of making everything she does and says universal.

The reason Perry is so successful is because she doesn't take herself too seriously, and trusts that the audience she appealing to "gets" her. She's confident that while songs like "I Kissed a Girl" and "Ur So Gay" may seem like nothing more than a cheap way of getting publicity, anyone who dares to check out the rest of the album will see half of it written solely by her, instrumentation credit on every song, and lyrics and melodies that resonate long after the first, second, or tenth listen. She doesn't ram the fact that she has actual music talent down the listener's throat, and instead does her own thing, hoping that you come along for the ride. There's something that's completely organic about what she does, no matter how bizarre the clothes she's wearing or the sentences she's saying may be.

Lady Gaga is getting tons of attention now for being so different and edgy, and I just don't get it. I can appreciate her vocal and piano talent, but there is something that seems so forced about her entire persona, from the outfits to the stage antics and the interview snippets. To me, she's trying to stand out instead of JUST standing out. This is the difference between Lady Gaga and artists like Katy, Sia, Lily Allen, Gwen Stefani and Robyn. There's an underlying confidence in what the latter artists do that the former just doesn't exude, in my opinion.

The last song of the night, the all important encore, was prefaced with Katy proclaiming "This is what started me, and this is what's bringing me home" before launching into "I Kissed A Girl". The song brought the house down, and Katy disappeared backstage with the final "and I liked it". Short, simple and making the audience wants more. That's how you wow a New York City crowd.