Gig review: Christina Perri, ABC

FOR someone who writes almost exclusively about heartache in one form or another – unspoken love, thwarted love, disappointed love, no love – Philadelphian singer/songwriter Christina Perri is an unstintingly perky performer.

This proved to be her default setting even while sticking it to the ex like a PG-rated Alanis Morissette on Bang Bang Bang, one of the very few instances in her set when she swapped safe, supine pop/rock balladry for a spot of playful defiance.

However, insipid lace-trimmed whimsy and puddle-deep lyrics haven’t harmed Taylor Swift’s career and the impression derived on this debut UK jaunt is that Perri is cut from the same cloth, indulging her adolescent fantasies (she’s 25, incidentally) on trite teenage ballad Distance and compounding the drippiness by handing out flowers and making heart signs with her fingers.

Her propensity for schoolgirl sentimentality started to make sense when she outed herself as a Twilight fan. There were more ultra-bland lyrical platitudes and floral tributes for the front row when she played A Thousand Years from the Breaking Dawn soundtrack.

This was followed by yet another doe-eyed paean to Edward Cullen, which at least mustered a bit of pomp rock fire via the guitar solo in its closing stages. It was such moments as these, when she gave her band something to sink their teeth into, that produced the most engaging sounds of the gig, including a gypsy-style knees-up and a brand new song blending Spanish guitar, mariachi trumpet and electric twang.

Despite the empty melodrama displayed elsewhere in her performance, Perri’s breakthrough hit Jar Of Hearts was eventually delivered with relative restraint at the piano, prompting a chorus of voices – and cameraphones – to be raised among the crowd.

Rating: **