Katy Perry and The Asteroids Galaxy Tour at Shepherds Bush
Katy Perry – Shepherds Bush Empire – 09 / 10 June 2009
Support Band : The Asteroids Galaxy Tour
Words and Photos by Marcus Maschwitz
So last night I treated the misses to her first Katy Perry live show experience and being close minded for some reason, I was shocked when on arrival we were hit with the sounds of The Asteroids Galaxy Tour. It’s a really bad thing as a concert go-er to write off the opening act before giving them a try (although not always) and I found myself in that place where it felt like my eyes had just been opened to something so new and really interesting which made me go back tonight to get myself another listen and shoot some photographs.
The Asteroids Galaxy Tour is an electro-alternative-psychedelic-pop-ish duo from Denmark that is headed up by Mette Lindberg and Lars Iversen and they are joined by a really strong touring band. They are currently supporting Katy on quite a few of her shows for the Hello Katy Tour and I think once their stint is over, the band is going to step it up to the next level in terms of fans. The first thing that attracted me to what I was hearing had to obviously be Mette as she is the main feature of the band and I find her quirky, weird, interesting, cute and different with a talent and voice that I cannot explain (in a good way). She dances around the stage really owning it while her big band backs her up playing instruments that only they could make look that cool. They all look like they are having a really good time and they push out songs that have been well conceptualized that I know we will be hearing more of in the near future. My favourite song of the night by them has to be The Sun Ain’t Shining No More and while I am tapping my foot along with the rest of the crowd, someone squeezes through handing out promo copies of the single and I feel almost lucky when I get to grab one. If you haven’t seen them before make sure to check out their touring calendar but at least give their tracks on Myspace a good listening to. I don’t think it will be long until they (the next big thing to come out of Denmark) are touring as a headliner in a venue like this.
Next up was Miss Katy Perry who also shocked me. I didn’t really think about her live show before last night and I really had no idea what to expect but her extremely energetic live performance wasn’t really my first option. She made the large stage seem really small making sure to cover every single part of it so that every fan would be able to see her in action. Her live band was incredible and really strong although they weren’t over-powering allowing Katy to really be the star of the show. I look around and majority of the crowd consists of die-hard girls and even more die-hard girl-girl duo’s screaming along but in the midst there are also a few dodgy guys lurking. It doesn’t seem like they care much about what is going on.
I find Katy (real name Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson) really entertaining and I love that she makes the venue so intimate and it feels like she is speaking to each individual present and this has to be one of the first shows in ages where the crowd has spent time decorating themselves like cats with whiskers and most of them are holding up big “I LOVE KATY” posters leaving me waiting on their reactions when Katynoticed their efforts which she did quite a lot of. She acts slightly ditsy but is clearly talented and good at making catchy music that everyone can sing along to. Obviously the crowd responds a lot more to her number 1′s like UR So Gay, I Kissed a Girl and Hot N Cold off her album One of the Boys but none of the set is left with anyone not singing along.
I find her vocals to have a lot of influence from Alanis Morisette (SO good) and she definitely has a big influence from Queen’s live performance style but I think it is safe to say that she has made sure to keep the style hers by adding in a lot of strong unique and personal elements. The rest of the show includes GIANT blow up strawberry’s flying across the venue, sexy / cute 50′s candy store style dress ups, Katy Perry crowd surfing (and getting felt up real good) a crazy evil-ish looking GREAT blow up kitty, a million cheeky comments, a grooving band, Nina from London, an ENORMOUS blow up cherry chapstick, kissing, boy talk and all round good entertainment that I would like to experience again.
Katy Perry gives a live show that will without doubt be the headlines of many Facebook status updates. I could be wrong in saying so but I doubt it because Katy in my eyes has become and entity and if she continues this way she will soon be filling up the O2 Dome (she mentioned that she would love to after watching Beyonce the night before).
June 11th, 2009
[...] – A few of my photographs were used in a review on Clink Music Magazine so be sure to check it out. Tagged: Hello Katy Tour, Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson, Katy Perry, [...]