Katy PerryMalahide Castle★★★★☆⯪ (3.5)Storming the stage in a shirt and tie number, Katy Perry deals a frenzied version of her hit California Girls to open her Malahide Castle date, setting her multigenerational crowd a light. Her opener sees her don a bedazzled stars spangled tie with a shirt that reads “I am not a Robot” in block lettering, all while being supported by eight back up dancers in caricaturistic muscle men suits, in turn bringing a slice of Venice Beach to Dublin’s northern coastline.“I came with the freaking weather,” the Santa Barbara singer-songwriter exclaims joyfully.“I am going to play all the songs you grew up with” she adds, which the diverse crowd take delight in; her last album 143 was a critical and commercial flop, in part due to the involvement of controversial producer Dr Luke. Although she is performing in Dublin as part of her Lifetimes Tour in support of her seventh studio album, the set list predominantly features material fans and non-fans alike will be familiar with from her early career.California Girls is immediately followed by Teenage Dream and Last Friday Night (TGIF) – two other tracks off her 2010 studio album – in a whirlwind medley. The triple hit opening embodies everything that is brilliant and disappointing about the gig. Sure, she plays all the tracks you know and love, but almost in a hasty Katy Perry tribute act fashion. It’s 9pm by the time the star makes her appearance on stage to the 20,000 strong crowd, and an hour and 45 minutes does not feel like a sufficient amount of time to do justice to all the chart-topping tracks from her near 20 year long career. There are two glorious songs that prove exceptions to this ad hoc greatest hits festival. The first is a moving rendition of her 2009 track Thinking of You- it is the first and one of the only songs of the evening that is played from start to finish in full. It sees Perry pluck guitar strings, and prove that she is every bit the star, if not more so, without the trappings of the elaborate stage. The second incidence of blistering authenticity is when she plays a stripped back Roar- the final track of her set before the encore. Perry’s stage presence in these moments are more compelling than when she gambols across her elaborate set – which is designed to look like desk complete with a giant white laptop, phone, window, water bottle and books. That’s not to say that the crowd does not go wild when she uses the enormous stage prop water bottle as a vehicle of crowd surfing, as part of a back to back billing of Hot n’Cold followed by I Kissed a Girl. But with the rush to deliver high octane rip roaring pop, Perry sometimes loses sight of her most endearing authentic performance moments. Ending a musical night of fun and camp, Perry closes with one life affirming session of Firework, taking a bow on her evening of greatest hits.