"There’s been bras. There’s been Bob Saget. There’s been so many happy things. I’m having so much fun with you guys!" Carly Rae Jepsen joked with the full house at Turner Hall on Friday night.

Indeed, what a blast.

Carly Rae Jepsen is definitely outside my "all country, all the time" wheelhouse. Still, I’d have to have been living under a rock not to have heard her 2012 international smash hit "Call Me Maybe." I may even have given it a good car jam session once ... or twice. But then I probably crawled back under my country music rock and went on my merry way.

So it’s not unusual that I hadn’t heard much about Jepsen since "Call Me Maybe." But man, I really should have. After giving a listen to Jepsen’s new, '80s inspired pop album, "E∙MO∙TION," filled with all stages of relationship songs, popping rhythms and on point lyrics, I wanted to hear her live. I mean, the girl got Tom Hanks not only to lip-sync "I Really Like You" in the song’s video, but to execute a dance number that will leave you grinning. Plus, the album’s stand-out song, "Run Away with Me" should be on your playlist. If it’s not, give it a whirl here.

Needless to say, I was really looking forward to a solid night of Jepsen’s brand of synth-inspired, dance pop Friday night at Turner Hall. And she totally delivered.

Her concert opened with Fairground Saints throwing down a really solid acoustical set. They’ve got a kind of country/rock sound going with some sweet harmonies. Whether or not they were the right sound to open Jepsen’s dance pop concert, I’ll be checking them out later.

Next up was Cardiknox, who seriously brought their A-game. Lead singer Lonnie Angle’s voice is rich and full, but still she rocks out hard. Coincidentally, Cardiknox dropped their first album on Friday. Jepsen met them on stage towards the end of their set bearing a cake with their album cover on it. The band’s heavy on the talent and even heavier on the beats, and their music set up Jepsen perfectly.

Jepsen hit the stage with a roar from the sold-out crowd at Turner Hall. She had them even before she sang her first note. Pretty much it felt like these were Carly Rae Jepsen fans through and through, for the most part singing the words to every song (except the new one she performed, "Forever").

Each song had a mood. Jepsen and her crew do an excellent job of setting the stage for every song with interactive lighting, her dancing, her interplay with her band, and her personality bubbling through. It took me until almost the end of the show to realize that at times (a lot of times) intended or not, the lighting felt like a dance in a high school gym, which added to the whole '80s throwback feel.

While the mood for each song was set in advance, Jepsen and her personality were not. She felt spontaneous and rolled with the audience as they rolled with her. At some point, and for God only knows what reason, someone tossed a fairly sizable bra on the stage. Jepsen, who is a pixie dynamo, held it up before she performed "Boy Problems" and quipped, "Who has boy problems? I feel like this would solve all the boy problems!"

Bob Saget, who was in town last night performing at The Pabst, also stopped by. Even as a famous woman herself, she was totally blown away and excited like a school kid when she brought him on stage. The crowd went crazy, and the two performed an impromptu sing along of the "Full House" theme song (Jepsen sings an updated version of the song for the Netflix show "Fuller House."). And Jepsen, who was still floored, yelped, "Holy sh*t!" when Saget left the stage.

She killed "When I Needed You," a song close to my heart about not changing who you are for someone else, especially when that someone isn’t ever there when you need him. She brought the house down with her massive old hit "Call Me Maybe." And even when she slowed down the pace with "All That," she never lost the momentum.

It’s safe to say after attending Jepsen’s Milwaukee concert that the woman is not, as some have said, a one-hit wonder. What is harder to pinpoint is why her star isn’t shooting higher than it is ... at least on this side of the world. Her reception has been much more positive in Japan and the United Kingdom.

But it seems that the Canadian singer-songwriter isn’t upset with the way her music has charted or sold since "Call Me Maybe" became an international sensation. Unwilling to be boxed in, she’s remained true to herself and her artistry by taking her music in a different direction rather than mass producing a slew of identical sounding songs.

Some have pointed to the singer’s reclusiveness and lack of accessibility (to the media) as one of the reasons for her seeming lack of super stardom. That seems a sad statement on how stars are made. It’s true that she hasn’t created a caricature to put out to the media, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t understand who she is as a person through her lyrics. She very much strikes me as someone who lives hopeful, lives and loves joyously, and keeps her albums filled with meaningful gems and not puffy filler.

By the time the show ended, I was definitely glad I stepped outside the country music world to enjoy a little slice of pop star heaven.

SET LIST
"Run Away With Me"
"Making the Most of the Night"
"Emotion"
"Warm Blood"
"Boy Problems"
"This Kiss"
"Favourite Colour"
"Full House" theme song (with Bob Saget)
"Gimme Love"
"Good Time"
"I Didn’t Just Come Here to Dance"
"Tonight I’m Getting Over You"
"Your Type"
"When I Needed You"
"Fever"
"LA Hallucinations"
"All That"
"Let’s Get Lost"
"Call Me Maybe"
"I Really Like You"