Katy Perry Super Bowl Half Time Show, Sunday, February 1st, 2015 Reviewed

Katy Perry Rides Em

The difference between great spectacle and great art is one thrills the eyes and the other thrills the mind and while Katy Perry did neither during the half time Super Bowl show on Sunday night, still, she wasn’t a complete putz either. Perry road a metallic lion and roared like, well, somebody who roared for the entertaining 12 minutes or so half time show ,and two thirds of it were negligible though fun , and at least one third came close to about as good as it gets.

Katy looked so over the top she might well have been a trannie, boobs bursting forward like Lynda Carter circa Wonder Woman (remember when they wouldn’t air her Sesame Street performance –hahahahaaa) she over sang her way through “Roar”, which is to Girl Power what “Steal My Girl” is to World Peace, followed by “Dark Horse” and then joined by another cartoon superhero, Lenny Kravitz as Super Jimi, ripped the heart out of “I Kissed A Girl”

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“I Kissed A Girl” was a perfect example of everybody reaching their level of incompetence, the great bubblegum track about faux-lesbianism made Katy a star and would have been fine with its recorded backing track but blown into anthem mode with Kravitz, a faux-black, faux-guitarist, completely nauseating in full Hendrix drag, blew it into smithereens. I don’t care but I am not impressed.
Katy is still playing the elder sister in the superstar mode and while it takes a full fledged act of wilful disbelief to buy in, at least the promise of camp gets her through: if she was serious here (the way she can be during her concerts) she’d have changed into Celine Dion before our very eyes. So OK, not bad but she has an ace and when she brings out the greatest rapper between the years of 1999 – 20005, a great r&b singer and maker of the best hip hop, shit gets serious.

 
Missy Elliott is the Nicki Minaj of her generation only much much better, sincerely the greatest rapper of the end of the 1990s, start of the 00s, who was felled by a serious illness well before her due date. Out for years and years, she has had a problem regaining her footing although in an energetic performance Missy appears in good health again. All power to Katy Perry for giving some of her precious minutes to the brilliant Missy E who spent it well with three great, state of the art even today, overwhelming tracks that were the height of pop music , especially “Get Ur Freak On” (from 2001). Dancing, rapping, and feeding Katy titbits, Missy was so great , when she left it was as deflating as … hey, what do you want, I’m real late with all this review any way.

 
Two sure fire Katy hits, the masterful “Teenage Dreams” and less wonderful “California Gurls” with dancing balls (no, no, beach balls) and sharks lead to the “Fireworks” of fireworks.

 
Good spectacle, from truly great to truly not great music, a visual treat but nothing to really remember past the reviewing of it (for instance: anybody remember Bruno Mars performance?) , it did the job tidily, politely, with a sense of over earnest hard work. I hear people are upset about her. How?

 
Grade: B-