The Monster Ball Tour

The Monster Ball Tour - Lady Gaga

The first concert I ever went to, was Paula Abdul. Do you have any idea how hilarious I find this? Paula fuckin' Abdul! I was...12? I think. Holy shit. That was 20 years ago!

Color Me Badd was the Opening Act. I'm almost embarrassed to admit that. Even more that I had a great time. I was so queer, even back then.

Oh how far I've come.

Since then, I've seen U2 twice, Bon Jovi, Savage Garden, Jann Arden, Meat Loaf, Matchbox Twenty, Sarah McLachlan twice (once at Lilith Fair) Janet Jackson, Shania Twain, Econoline Crush (5 times) and a few country Music Festivals and probably a bunch of others that I can't remember off the top of my head. Oh, I somehow managed free tickets to see Britney. She was terrible.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

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The last concert I saw was Madonna about 2 yrs ago. She was really good, but this past week, I saw Gaga. She was better! Lady Gaga is the latest instalment in my "I'm Gayer than you are" concert series and to keep with my gay gay gay theme, she was FABULOUS!

I admire Gaga for a lot of reasons. I think she is one of the few pop artists on the scene right now with actual talent. Her writing and singing aside, this woman knows how to entertain, and she really has it together for someone so young. She's only 24, which just blows my mind.

I've been asked a number of times if I think Gaga will still be around 5-10 years down the road. I think she has more talent in her left tit that anyone else on the pop scene right now, and for the reason alone, I hope she is around for years. Will she have the longevity of someone like... Madonna? I don't think so. Most music consumers have become so fickle that the average pop tart is only around for about 5 years. The pop music shelf life is very short, and I don't think we'll see many artists live past that 5 year mark, much less 30, like Madonna has. It's a shame, because I don't think Gaga will be swept away because she isn't good. I think most people will get bored of her antics and her music and find her too niche to care after a few years. It's a shame really. She deserves better.

After seeing The Monster Ball Tour, I'm more convinced than ever that she is the best thing to happen to pop music in a long time.

So here's the skinny on the concert. The Monster Ball is of course, the second tour to promote Lady Gaga's current album the Fame Monster. For additional reading, you can always take a look see at the Gaga wiki Gagapedia *rolls eyes*

We bought these tickets back in... May I think. It was quite some time I know that much. I logged onto ticket master and tried to get tickets, I even took my lunch early but the tickets SOLD OUT in like... 20 seconds. I couldn't believe it! How disappointing. But Gaga answered my prayers, and a second show was added. This time I was successful. I got tickets WAAAAAY up in the bleeder sections. I'm kinda broke lately, so I had to opt for some of the lower priced tickets, and thus shittier seats. I just didn't realize how bad they were until we go to the arena. upper upper nose bleed section, 4 rows from the VERY back. no, really... there were only 4 rows of seats in the entire stadium that had shittier seats than ours.

I believe my tweet from that night summed it up best.

At the very least, our view was centred, so we could see really well.

Gaga brought along fellow New Yorkers Semi-Precious Weapons with her for this leg of the tour. Apparently they played together some time ago, to an audience of 12. Amazing how things have changed now that Gaga is selling out arenas and stadiums at 20,000 + little Monsters.

SPW was ok. The music was a bit too punk for me. I love a fabulous man as much as the next guy, but this just not my cup of tea, and I couldn't buy into his whole trashy tranny punk fabulous music. I was too focused on the Lady backstage.

When she did take to the stage, opening with "Dance in the Dark", she didn't disappoint. Now since Gaga only has 1.5 albums out currently, there wasn't a lot of material to choose from. However, much like I mentioned with regards to the Madonna concert I developed a new appreciation for a lot of her songs after seeing them live. Songs like "Dance in the Dark" "So Happy I Could Die" "LoveGame" are now in heavier rotation in my iTunes.

Each song built on the last, with "Just Dance", "Beautiful Dirty Rich", "The Fame" and "Boys, Boys, Boys" she got us more and more pumped with every beat.

Gaga is not only an amazing performer, but she cares for her fans, whom she aptly refers to as her Little Monsters. She has an fondness for the Gay community, and has championed gay rights for quite some time now. She's teamed up with Virgin Mobile to donate thousands of dollars to charity to help GLBT youth who end up living on the street, mostly from being abandoned by their shitty families and jack-ass parents. She encourages her fans to donate before the show, and one lucky fan got singled out by getting a call on her cell phone from Gaga on stage. It's got to be a cool feeling to talk to Lady Gaga in front of 20,000 people. Even cooler to be thanked by Gaga and rewarded for your generosity and moved to better seats and then invited backstage for a meet and greet with her Ladyship after the show. The key here, if you'll be seeing Gaga... DONATE!

The conversation with her fan ended when she got a call on her other line. Leave it to Beyonce to call at a very inopportune time, but it segued nicely into Telephone, and then into a string of my favourite songs. including "So Happy I Could Die" wherein which she wore the craziest costume, which included wings and a moving, or breathing headpiece. It was pretty impressive.

My absolute favourite moment during the show was when she sat down at her piano and plunked out “Speechless”. It’s a fantastic song. I think one of her best. It's heartbreaking and riveting, and she ALWAYS rocks out. Her piano, of course was lit on fire while she played. Neat effect, and very appropriate considering the song. Even more impressive was when the fire burned in a cyclone 6 feet high off her piano. Kinda one of those things you need to see, as I'm not good at describing shit.

The reason I think Gaga is a top quality star is how she topped that moment. After "Speechless" we were treated to a previously unreleased track, from a forthcoming album, which could drop in early January or next summer at the latest. "You and I" was one of the best songs I've ever heard from her. Someone recorded the performance at her show in Montreal. In a word... AH...MAZING!

I love the imagery my brain conjures up when I heard this. It SCREAMS smokey piano bar. I could see myself sitting there, having a beer. Out of nowhere a woman walks in with a bottle of whiskey, and sits down and starts picking out a song. At first no one notices, they're enraptured in their conversations, and their drinks, but within minutes, each voice falls silent and every ear in the bar has caught the tune, and all eyes now gaze upon this woman, singing her soul out.

Both "You and I" and "Speechless" are very emotional songs. This one in particular is sincere, genuine, sad and real. I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of the studio version.

There were too many highlights from this show to talk about each and every one. But it wouldn't be a good "review" of a Gaga concert to not talk about her costumes. Many of them were bizarre, some were just plain odd. Black leather, purple lace, red rubber. you name it, she wore it. If I didn't know better, I'd almost think she got her inspiration from her living room and bathroom. Between the lampshade inspired outfit and red rubber shower curtain, with shoulders taking up twice her body size.

One of my companion's cheekily commented that he was going to wear the same outfit, but his shoulders would't have been quite so big. My response was "well this is why she's there, and you're here. Pass me the oxygen tank will ya!?"

Google images shows a great collection of most of the costumes she wears during her show. The costumes, while amazing and surprising are actually the source of the only complaint I had about the show. Being a former theatre actor, I know the meaning of the word “quick change” but these costumes were SO elaborate that they disallowed a real quick change. There were some lulls in the show, and the transitions were not handled as well as Madonna’s. It slowed the pace of the show down a bit, and I think considering how creative Gaga is, I wanted to see something a bit more interesting than what was projected on the screens.

Gaga borrows a page from Madonna's playbook in a lot of ways, not the least of which was her attempt to disturb and provoke her audience. Even the songs are mature in theme and lyrics, but the imagery on the video screens was sometimes disturbing and provocative. The end of the show is pretty dark, with tracks like "Monster", and one of my album favourites, "Teeth" Luckily, Mama Monster provides a safe place for all her little monsters, screaming "All the freaks are outside, and I locked the doors!"

She even stirred up the religious pot, talking about how Jesus loves all of us, even we gays. And then, as the eerily familiar violins (yes, they were on stage) announce the arrival of Alejandro, Gaga shrieks "Tonight, my religion is Vancouver," before rocking out Alejandro.

The crowd practically begged for an encore after that. I thought the roof was going to pop off the arena after the lights went out. The crowd was so energized. I couldn't believe how many people made their way our of their seats after Paparazzi. Umm... hello... one VERY important song still left unplayed.... and when Bad Romance started to blast through the audio system, all of her Little Monsters screamed collectively, and I think the roof did pop, just a little bit.

Even if you're not fanatical about Gaga, I can't recommend this show enough. If you find her quirky, and interesting, I can't see how you wouldn't find this show immensely entertaining.

There is no doubt in my mind this was the most entertaining concert I've ever had the privilege of attending. Gaga has it where it counts and if I had the money, I'd have seen her both nights she was here.

She finished off the show with "Poker Face" and "Paparazzi" where she confronted the the Fame Monster, a giant tentacled Angler Fish, complete with glowing eyes and tentacles.

Umm yeah. Little weird, but a great stage effect.

It met it’s demise thanks to her now infamous spark blasting Bra.

Gaga confronting the Fame Monster during Paparazzi

The Promotional Poster

for the Monster Ball Tour

The Monster Ball Tour: Starring Lady Gaga

SET LIST

ACT I: City

Dance In the Dark

Glitter and Grease

Just Dance

Beautiful, Dirty, Rich