Katy Perry Concerts In Melbourne: KATY PERRY, the lithe 25-year-old American pop star behind California Gurls, indisputably the biggest radio and download hit of this year, does not do subtle. After all, in the video for 2010’s most unavoidable pop song she sprays cream from a dispenser attached to her bra. And on Thursday night at a mildly amusing one-off show to launch her second major-label album Teenage Dream, subtly was something again avoided.

That she chose the nostalgic hit I Want Candy to announce her arrival on stage was no coincidence, either. The retro-inspired image Perry wishes to project is unambiguous: although she sings about postmodern pop-cultural topics like, say, getting drunk and waking up in Vegas, she aspires to be an alluring throwback to when the biggest pop cultural sirens were USO performers entertaining the troops.

And to that end, she succeeds. Arriving in a tight, figure-hugging grey dress and launching into her two-year-old hit Hot N’ Cold, Perry and her band performed before a screen projecting cartoonish All-American images (think cheerleading and gridiron helmets). For the first half of the show, she leaned heavily on her top-selling album from 2008 One Of The Boys.

In fact, it was not until midway through her set and the arrival of her new album’s title-track — itself already a worldwide radio and download smash — that the sold-out crowd was given a taste of new material. Perry is an exceedingly confident, in-control performer with a competent vocal capacity (which is more than can be said for several of her contemporaries). But she was still unable to arrest several dull spots through the show. Her ballads were mostly flat and appeared to forfeit the attention of her fans.

It was only the irrepressible California Gurls (minus the rapper Snoop Dogg) that revived the show. The main set concluded, as most pop shows seem to of late, in a blazing blur of confetti being blasted over Perry and her screaming audience.