by Charley Kassabian, news lite editor

OAKLAND – Katy Perry has assumed her throne as one of the biggest pop stars of the year.

It is rare to drive in the car for 10 minutes without hearing one of her numerous and record-setting chart topping singles on the radio.

But hearing her recordings and seeing her live is completely different.

While her Nov. 21 at Oracle Arena concert had a lot of lip-syncing and pre-recorded tracks, Perry put on one massive show.

Perry packed the arena full of screaming fans, varying from the screaming pre-pubescent girls to the middle aged couples with a passion for songs they’ve heard on the radio.

The California Dreams Tour was an 11-month, sold out tour that started back in February.

Perry made her second trip to the Bay Area on the tour over Thanksgiving Break, and the crowd couldn’t get enough of her.

While only one Perry took the stage, there were hundreds of look-alikes throughout the crowd.  The superstar has a cult following, with her every outfit being represented by her fans.

Before this California pop star took the stage, her backup dancers came up into the spotlight with a massive cannon, firing out shirts. The crowd spiraled into a frenzy, getting the hearts of the fans racing.

Finally, the lights went out, and the ground shook with the screams of the audience.

The curtain came up to reveal three cloud shaped video screens hanging over the stage.

Katy had prepared a short, five-minute video as an intro to the show, showing her escaping from the employment of an evil butcher, finding love at first sight, and going into a California Candyland with her cat, Kitty Purry.

The stage illuminated, and Perry came rising out of the ground, belting out her single, “Teenage Dream.”

Once she hit the chorus, it was a struggle to hear her over the crowd singing along.

After her first three songs, the pop star slowed down and took some time to talk to her audience.

She thanked her fans for coming and told them to prepare for a long night. Her set progressed and she began to grow more and more risque, throwing in some sexual references during her song “Peacock,” which is one of the few to not reach the top of the charts.

After she was done with the song and shed her Peacock feathers, she invited the first guy to get his shirt off to come on stage.

She gifted him with a kiss on the cheek, reminded the audience that she is married, and continued the show with “I Kissed a Girl.”

A couple songs later, the video came back up while she changed her outfit for the third time of the night.

In her video, Perry took a mysterious brownie from a mime, which was laced with some form of drug.

She proceeded to come on stage in a provocative cat outfit, singing “Circle the Drain.” Perry then proceeded to go into one of her hit singles, “E.T.,” accompanied with an incredible light and laser show.

The show died down after this, as Perry performed some of her softer songs, including “Not Like the Movies,” “The One That Got Away” and “Thinking of You.”

All of a sudden, the show picked up with some of her most popular songs, including “Last Friday Night” and “Hot ‘n’ Cold,” all backed by a video of her finding love  with a boy who bakes.

During “Hot ‘n Cold,” Perry changed her outfit six times during the single four- minute song.

After pulling up a handful of hyperventilating fans on stage to dance with her, Perry closed with her powerhouse hit, “Firework.” An encore was imminent.

After a brief close to the video, Perry returns to the stage to perform “California Gurls,” the first single off of her latest album.

This song was accompanied with a massive amount of stage props, ranging from candy canes to a giant gingerbread man.

Before the song ended, Perry pulled out a massive gun, which she uses to spray her crowd with whipped cream, fitting the candy theme of both the tour and the star herself.

When the curtain finally dropped and the lights came back on, the crowd was left covered in whipped cream, with racing hearts and  smiling faces.