Featured Review : Christina Perri

Last week Christina Perri returned to her home state on her most recent headlining tour which has been billed The Girls Night Out, Boys Can Come Too Tour. Joining Perri on this tour were the pop mainstay Colbie Caillat and rising star Rachel Platten, who recently joined Taylor Swift on stage for night two of her 1989 World tour in Philadelphia. All that being said the evening truly belonged to Christina Perri in the end as Pennsylvania is her home state and though she had just played a show at the Mann Center in Philadelphia a few days prior the Sands Event Center crowd was near what looked like capacity for Perri’s show.

Last October Perri had a slot opening for Demi Lovato’s tour that saw her trek through the Hershey market but prior to her July 15 show at the Sands the Lehigh Valley hasn’t been treated to a proper headline performance from Christina Perri in quite some time so expectation and anticipation were very high amongst the fans in attendance.

Photo by Matt Christine

Having a small time slot in which to perform Perri set the pace for the evening early , beginning the night away from her piano with “Shot Me in the Heart” The instant walked out on stage smiling the crowd burst to life and began to sing along with her, which would be the recurring them of the evening. Jut like the last time we caught up with Christina Perri the fans bring the show to life as they sing along to every moment with as much passion as Perri has on stage.

As Perri sat behind her piano to start playing “Arms” you saw a song come to life and you could see the look in her eye that she had while she was in the studio recording that song, in that moment we were able to glimpse inside her world and truly understand her as a musician. As the song came to an end her stage came to life in a color wash of red and purple as Perri continued to showcase her musical mastery as she dawned an acoustic guitar and strutted across the stage. Fans were no doubt delighted to see her continued evolution as a musician as she embraced the full length of the stage and transformed into an amazing front woman.

Photo by Matt Christine

There is no doubt something special about any moment Christina Perri sits behind her piano but watching move around with more freedom on stage showed a new side of her that I didn’t see enough of in her last tour and marks an interesting change in her life performances. While this tour did not have a long, expansive runway for her to command like she did on the Demi tour Perri made the most of the Sands Event Center stage and was sure to play it up for all the cameras in the house that were live-streaming the show on Yahoo! that evening. Perri continues to grow and expand and it is exciting to be there seeing her growth as an artist. The pop music industry is over filled with talent right now but Christina Perri shines as one of the brightest and certainly embodies the future of pop music. She crosses over into the alternative realm and behind that touches the hearts of millions of her fans with her felt lyrics and caring personality off stage. Thank you for remembering to come home Christina Perri, Pennsylvania will always be here supporting you. The full set list from the Sands Event Center show is below :

Shot Me in the Heart

Arms

Run

Distance

Burning Gold

The Words

The Lonely

One Night

Be My Forever

I Believe

Human

Encore :