Kim Petras Concert Review: June 2019
Kim Petras was the second Queer artist I "discovered" after Troye Sivan and the reason being that she was opening for Troye on his Bloom tour in the fall of 2018. As I discussed before Kim turned out to be one of those rare opening acts who matched the headliner. I soon became a big fan and over the coming months my love for Kim grew more and more as she kept dropping bop after bop after bop peaking in the spring when she released 9 songs over the course of 9 weeks that were all slam dunks.
It was around this time she announced her first headlining tour and I knew I needed to get tickets. I was already signed up for her fan club so I could get the pre-sale code and she was set to play at the Fillmore in Silver Spring where I had seen Garbage live 6 years prior. I was set to buy tickets the moment the pre-sale started but then disaster struck! The pre-sale code wasn't working! I kept trying over and over again but to no avail. On social media I could see others were struggling as well for the Silver Spring date. Kim responded quickly saying she was working on trying to fix the issue but still it wasn't working. Then someone posted on twitter that the pre-sale code for Silver Spring was not Bunheads but Bedheads! And just like that I was able to purchase tickets. That gentlemen is my hero wherever you are now.
As noted in the lead up to the concert Kim just kept dropping perfect pop songs like nobody's business and was solidifying her place as the best pop star of 2019 as far as I was concerned. Each week she kept giving me a new favorite song! I was getting more and more excited for this concert. Despite not putting out a full album before her first headlining tour, Kim Petras now had a catalogue of over 20 songs that all sounded like they were worthy of being called a greatest hit.
The day arrived quickly. I wore my new Cub Sport concert shirt for the first time and with my trusty pride flag in hand I was ready to party with Kim Petras. My husband and I got there before our friends Will & Molly showed up. So we waited in line and much like I had done at other gay pop concerts I made friends quickly this time with a girl named Brooke! We gushed about our mutual love for Kim Petras and discussed other pop girls in depth like Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, Charli XCX as well as Troye Sivan. I also recommended that she look into the pop star Girli because I thought she would love Girli.
Once we got inside the venue I went straight for the merchandise while my husband and friends got drinks. I ended up getting the black t-shirt with the neon colored logos from Kim's first era of singles. It's now my second favorite Queer pop concert t-shirt after MNEK's Stay Fabulous Honey (Which is hard to top honestly.)
Once I got my shirt and everyone else got their drinks we headed up to the balcony because I feel much more comfortable there since because of my concussion I don't want to be too close to the stage or surrounded to the point where I can't move. The balcony usually gives me a great view of the whole stage but I have more space and I am not right next to the speakers.
I'm glad I was in the balcony too because I saw my favorite T-shirt of the night across on the other balcony that said "EWW David!" If you get that reference you rock and if you don't you need to start watching Schitt's Creek immediately.
The opener was a DJ who spun hits from the 00s&10s and made me realized as much as I love some pop from that era such as Britney Spears, Katy Perry and Ariana Grande (all of which he played) there's a ton of top 40 dance music I don't know or ever care for from that era. Once the DJ was done Kim had a cute recorded intro of a computer voice asking everyone to say WOO-AH at the top of their lungs. it was super cute and got everyone excited. Then Kim's own DJ came on stage who was with her on the Bloom tour followed quickly by the diva herself who emerged from behind the curtain and thus commenced one of the best concerts I have ever attended.
Kim's first outfit was very Fame era Lady Gaga. Like early Gaga, Kim Petras makes superproducd pop music that can sometimes hide what a first class vocalist she is. She sounded great on the Bloom tour but this was next level. Kim is one of those rare singers who sounds even better in concert than on record since she really let's loose. Kim puts everything she has into each song and in turn the audience gives everything that they have back to her. Everyone sang every single lyric to every single song at the top of their lungs including the songs that had been released over the last 8 weeks before the concert including Personal Hell, which was only 2 days old at the time of this concert!
Kim Petras fans are dedicated because of how dedicated Kim is to both her craft and her fans. This made the atmosphere of the concert completely electric and it never let up for 1 second. When I first saw Kim live she had just dropped the Halloween themed EP Turn off the Lights and she performed 1 song off it on the Bloom tour. In the time between those 2 shows Turn Off the Lights had grown in stature with fans. While I was in the merchandise line there were other fans singing praises for Turn Off the Lights and when I told them that Jesse Saint John confirmed volume 2 was coming in October these fans were ecstatic.
Kim knew the clout Turn off the Lights had by that point and made it the centerpiece of her concert where she came out dressed in black and the video monitors played creepy images from films as diverse as The Exorcise and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Cory also told me that day that Close Your Eyes is now his favorite Kim Petras song.
The final 3rd of the show saw Kim doing the sexy bops like Slow It Down and Do Me with images of mermaids from Disney's Peter Pan striking sexy poses on the video screens. That was the Kim Petras brand defined, sexy but cute, mature but fantastical, and most importantly and above all else fun!
By the time Kim got to All the Time and I Don't Want it All the audience was at peak excitement and Kim brought the house down. She then came back for the encore and performed my 2 favorite songs by her, Heart to Break and Sweet Spot. I definitely danced my ass off to those two songs and by the end of the show I was a sweaty mess. It had been a great evening and it had cemented Kim as THE pop star of 2019 as far as I was concerned. In fact she is now my second favorite pop diva after only Madonna that's how impressed I was with her and how much fun I had at this concert. In my humble opinion Kim Petras is the heir to Madonna's throne and I can't wait to hear what comes next from this pop goddess!
