Elaborate effects, vibrant sets & eager fans: Inside Katy Perry’s KC concert
“I’ve never missed Kansas City on a tour, and we’re gonna keep that record tonight,” Katy Perry declared, kicking off her Lifetimes Tour stop at T-Mobile Center with trademark exuberance.
It was a show for all ages, with elaborate costumes, dance moves and props. Perry really struck home with the moms in the audience, talking about her daughter and telling the kids in the Kansas City audience that mom wants breakfast in bed for Mother’s Day.
The Saturday concert was not lacking in visual stimulation either, with lots of lights and effects to keep the audience engaged and kept the attention away from changing sets. Unless you were looking, you would might the cages rising and falling, or elaborate props being rigged for the Cirque du Soleil-style dancers.
The spectacle actually began outside the arena Saturday, where there was no shortage of pink, glitter and jungle leaves on the hundreds of people waiting to get inside. There were some families, some friends — from near and far — and many mother-daughter duos.
Amanda Anders and her daughter Violet Cook drove 45 minutes and braved the sun and heat together as part of their Mother’s Day celebration.
“I honestly just like happened to see that she was in Kansas City, so we decided to make a day/night of it,” Anders said. “And it’s Mother’s Day, so it’s my Mother’s Day gift to me and her.”
Before the show, The Star spoke with fans outside the area to find out how fans felt pre-show and in light of Perry’s various controversies. Fans seemed to embrace what the singer has been up to lately, even dressing in blue astronaut suits in reference to her recent space flight.
Some fans, like Mikala Steinmann from Rochester, New York, drove 18 hours to see Saturday’s show. The long-time KatyCat knew she wouldn’t be able to go to a show closer to where she lives, so she found the closest show with the cheapest tickets that weren’t nosebleeds and landed in Kansas City.
Fan duo Alex Faulkner and Mari Pirtle were there to celebrate. Mari was turning 11, and Alex was attending her first concert. Alex chose Perry as her first concert because she “just really likes her,” and they are excited to see her costumes and stage setup.
“Our girls lived their best lives tonight,” said Allison Faulkner, Alex’s mom. “Witnessing KP sail across the arena on a butterfly was something they’ll be talking about for years to come.”
Katy Perry was last in Kansas City in 2017 during her Witness tour, but this wasn’t the first time she had visited the city. Kansas City was a stop on all five of her previous tours.
Inside Katy Perry’s tech-themed show
Recently, the singer has been garnering some bad press with her 11-minute space flight and early looks at the show. Some were baffled by Perry’s dancing and said the show looked cheap. But is the roughly two-hour show getting more hate than deserved?
The Lifetimes Tour began April 23 in Mexico City, just a few months after the release of her newest album, “143.”
But instead of the 143 Tour, the singer took a play from one Taylor Swift and created an Eras-like set list playing songs from each of her “lifetimes.” The difference? Perry’s show is set in the form of an immersive video game, reflecting the album’s futuristic and playful themes.
The set features vibrant, high-tech visuals with a multi-level stage, large LED screens, and dynamic lighting that shifts with each “level” of the concert.
Throughout the show, Perry performs amid elaborate props and set pieces — including flying on wires, engaging in a lightsaber battle, and riding a metallic butterfly-like creature, bringing the narrative of a half-human, half-machine heroine battling an AI villain to life.
The overall effect is visually satisfying, but the interactive experiences that place Perry and her audience in a surreal, digital adventure do not work as well as they should. For example, when fans got to choose the songs Perry sings using a QR code to vote, it tested the Wi-Fi in an arena that can hold 18,000 people.
The audience also wasn’t consistently engaged with the show. It seemed more like the audience was watching Perry play the game rather than helping her play through it.
As for the tubes that Perry fights during her song, “E.T.,” they are not as bad as the internet is making them out to be. The videos circling on TikTok carry comments like “why is Katy Perry fighting with a heating tube on stage.”
The tops of the tubes are left open at the end, and in the videos circulating online they look out of place, but the effect in the show’s context of fighting an AI machine, it works surprisingly well.
The concert opens with high energy as “KP143,” Katy Perry’s half-human and half-AI character, makes a dramatic entrance from the center of the infinity stage and immediately sets an electrifying tone for the night. She kicks off the show with the song “ARTIFICIAL,” immersing the audience in a futuristic, video game-inspired world, which is explained in detail to the audience throughout the show.
Perry is the heroine in the game, battling a rogue artificial intelligence known as the Mainframe. The storyline unfolds through narrated video interludes and live action, all within a surreal, playful digital landscape.
Perry dazzles with multiple costume changes, including a pastel yellow during the “Women’s World” level and a pink bodysuit with a teardrop-shaped neckline to close the show. At one point, the stage is alive with props and moving pieces. Even the costumes come alive: During “E.T.” the dancers even appear to have spider-like limbs and what seems to be stilt-like space boots during “Part of Me.”
Perry then goes on to soar over the audience on wires, spins upside down, and rides a giant butterfly, creating a sense of spectacle. These over-the-top moments are punctuated by Perry’s more down-to-earth direct interactions with fans, such as inviting four audience members up on stage.
Kansas City girls join Katy Perry on stage
During the “choose your adventure” portion, the fans could vote for songs off the “Teenage Dream” album. This was set up via QR code on the screens on stage, which required fans to subscribe using their email to access voting.
The audience in Kansas City chose “Not Like the Movies,” a song Perry wrote after her previous marriage that she hasn’t sung in years.
At the track’s end, Perry tells fans that her “heart is much better now.”
After that song, Perry selected an audience member to join her on stage. She landed on 12-year-old Vyla Orloff, who was holding a sign that said she was celebrating her birthday with her friends, Reagan, Zoe, and Finley, who are also 12. While on stage, Perry asked each girl what they wanted to be when they grew up, and Reagan said she wanted to be a singer.
“When I woke up I was still shocked that we went up on stage. It felt so unbelievable that she chose me to come up and no one else,” Vyla said afterward. “We were so happy it happened, best day and birthday ever!”
Perry and the four girls closed out the choose your own adventure section of the concert by singing “The One That Got Away.”
Perry also addressed the recent criticisms with wit, referencing her 10-minute Blue Origin space flight. She mentioned that her daughter Daisy Bloom asked what they would do that day after she was successfully launched into space and landed.
Fans seemed largely satisfied with the show, despite an hour-and-a-half delay getting into the concert earlier in the night.
“I was ready to be mad, due to the wait, I’m not,” Anders said. “It’s everything a closer-to-40-than-30-year-old mother could have wanted, and a perfect first concert for a 9-year-old girl.”
Mikayla Steinmann gave the show a 7.5 out of 10, saying that the crowd seemed to lose energy halfway through but picked back up at the end.
The excitement seemed to pique the most ahead of chart-topping classics like “Roar,” “Firework,” “California Gurls,” and “Teenage Dream.” You could feel the crowd buzzing in their seats and the excitement building up as she got closer and closer to the nostalgic hits, where the fans were bound to sing along.
Katy Perry’s Kansas City set list
- “ARTIFICIAL”
- “Chained to the Rhythm”
- “Teary Eyes”
- “Dark Horse”
- “WOMAN’S WORLD”
- “California Gurls”
- “Teenage Dream”
- “Hot n Cold” / “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)”
- “ I Kissed a Girl”
- “Nirvana”
- “Crush”
- “I’m His, He’s Mine”
- “Wide Awake”
- “Not Like the Movies ” (fan vote)
- “The One That Got Away” (fan vote)
- “All The Love”
- “E.T.’
- “Part of Me”
- “Rise”
- “Roar”
- “Daisies”
- “Lifetimes”
- “Firework”
This story was originally published May 11, 2025 at 12:48 PM.