Katy Perry / Zedd at Armory, Minneapolis for NCAA Final Four (07 April 2019)

As fun as rainbow cotton candy at a carnival, and more colorful than an exploding Skittles factory–

The March Madness Music Festival saved the best for last as Katy Perry and Zedd played to a capacity Armory in downtown Minneapolis, on the last night of the three-day indoor music festivities.

As part of the weekend entertainment activities based around the city hosting the NCAA Final Four Basketball Championship for the first time since 2001, this would be the third of three consecutive nights of free concerts (after The Chainsmokers/Judah and the Lion and Jonas Brothers/Elle King) held this year at a much smaller indoor venue (rather than a typical outdoor open field or parking lot), from fear of Minnesota’s early April ever-changing weather, so tickets as a whole, were scarce.

Zedd is the musical nom de plume of Russian-German DJ, producer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Anton Zaslavski, (who stylized the first letter of his last name to get his alter-ego) and who proved to be an ideal choice to rev the sold-out crowd up during his hour-long opening DJ set. Drawing on tracks from his two albums, multiple singles, and numerous collaborations, the mix ebbed and flowed continuously beginning with 2015’s ‘Beautiful Now’.

Perched atop a DJ platform, lights flashed and on-screen visuals (patterns, shapes, colors and his own logo) swirled and moved with the rhythm and BPM of the tracks. The first half of his set leaned heavier on collaborations, with some covers and influences mixed in, jumping from present day to a 1990 sampled riff from AC/DC, then even back to 1987 and Whitney Houston.

Just over halfway through, the crowd got a very pleasant surprise as Katy Perry strutted on stage and up and down the extended catwalk in high white boots and an orange studded dress with matching beret, for the first live public performance of the duo’s recent collaboration, ‘365’.

With the crowd still loud, Zedd resumed his set, ending with a quintet of the most well-known songs he has appeared on- from his collaboration with Alessia Cara, to an Ariana Grande remix, to his chart-topping ‘The Middle’ with Maren Morris. To end things, Zedd took it back to the beginning, to 2012’s ‘Clarity’, the Grammy-winning song that topped the US Dance charts and became his breakthrough song.

Celebrities were easily seen in the second-level VIP section, including Josh Duhamel (who graciously came down to shake hands and take selfies), Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, former TV Bachelor Ben Higgins, former athletes, and broadcast personalities from CBS, ABC, and ESPN.

With a colorful stage set that was part-Willy Wonka, part-Patrick Nagel, Katy Perry was picture-perfect and musically precise for her ninety-minute headlining set. Springing out of her Witness Tour (which ended last August) and perhaps a precursor to a rumored Las Vegas residency, this one-off show was exactly the kind of pop-filled confection the crowd had come to see and hear.

Similar to her previous tour, the set started with two songs from her most recent album, with Perry in a multi-colored short dress and high red-latex boots. Her band members spread out on various platforms in matching black and white wardrobes, with six costumed-changing dancers hovering around her. 

“Everybody knows that I like balls… big, orange basketballs” she teased, “this is a very special show, just for you, Minni!”

“Shall we take it all the way to the eighties?” she asked as her dancers surrounded her for a bubbly ‘Teenage Dream’. “This is rock and roll…actually, I call it pop and roll”, Perry said correcting herself and thanking the crowd for staying up, playing a later show than normal for her.

Two enterprising local gentlemen (Dave from Shakopee and Colin from Eden Prairie) dressed as the blue sharks made famous from her Super Bowl appearance, and were allowed on stage during ‘California Gurls’ to dance with Perry- “every time I invite sharks on stage, they steal the show”. Perry and her six dancers even elevated over the stage at one point, sitting and singing on a long yellow beam as it rose to near the top of the large set.

“Do any of you believe in aliens?” she asked leading into ‘E.T.’ followed by the suggestive hip-hop thump of ‘Peacock’, and things would then slow down nicely as Perry picked up an acoustic guitar for ‘The One That Got Away’. So nice they played it twice, Zedd returned to the stage for another performance of the new ‘365’.

Her makeup crew did a quick touch up as Perry mentioned the cameras would roll to show a couple of performances on television the following night during the championship game (though I didn’t see anything) as ‘Part of Me’ was sped up in tempo and the basketball-themed ‘Swish Swish’ seemed like the theme song of the weekend.

The throb of ‘Pendulum’ and bombast of ‘Firework’ would end the evening, complete with multi-colored confetti blasts, streamers, and a balloon drop, filling the arena with a swath of primaries, pastels, and brights. 

Swish, swish– Katy Perry shoots, she scores.

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