In 2013, The Consultant and I attended a Lady Gaga concert, although I feel the term “spectacular” more closely conveys what we witnessed that night. I enjoy recapping the evening’s events as such:
(Note: I couldn’t remember what she actually wore during the show so I used my brain to invent an outfit or two that she might wear.)
A black, neon-outlined, jewel shape lowered from the ceiling with Gaga’s face projected in the middle, while she delivered a monologue about “mitosis,” “the future,” and creating a “new human race.”
Then Gaga trotted out on a horse with her entourage, waving medieval-esque flags around her (which kind of makes sense since the stage was made up of an open-and-close castle structure that was like a life-size version of the My Little Pony palace I used to play with).
Then she mimed getting some downtown action from a dude on a desk before shooting him with a rifle.
Then she gave birth to herself from giant inflatable lady bits.
And THEN she crucified Black Jesus.
This was the first twenty minutes.
She gave a bunch of epic speeches throughout the night, for sure. The Consultant was like, “Oh, I wish I was young and impressionable” while we were listening to her say how she “isn’t man nor woman. I’m YOU.” (We said Obama needed to start getting her to write his speeches for him, and then he has to run around with an American flag wrapped around him like she did.)
Gaga stressed the importance of not giving a fuck what people think and asked her backup dancers if they gave an fuck what people thought of them, and nope, they didn’t give a fuck what people think of them, Gaga. Then she was like, “Ooh, ooh, I know! Black Jesus, do YOU give a fuck what people think of you?” He wordlessly shook his sassy finger at us, all no-you-didn’t-just-ask-me-that-Gaga, and she translated for us: “Black Jesus has no more fucks left to give.”
During “Poker Face,” she came out on meat hooks and her backup dancers were stuffed into meat grinders with their legs sticking out of the top.
At one point she had a motorcycle body a la the cover to “Born This Way,” and one of her backup dancers hopped on her and rode her off.
I enjoyed the finale, which was rather unadorned. She had a somewhat romantic and fun dance to “Edge of Glory” with some guy, and then she sang “Marry the Night” and invited her fans on stage with her, and it was straight-up “Godspell” then, the way they were worshipfully tailing her across the stage. I was all but waiting for her to break into “Day by Day.”
The concert (“spectacular,” rather) was solid evidence of Gaga’s incredible talent doing a ton of different stuff. I asked The Consultant if he imagined that, in addition to being creative and talented, she was a nice person, and he said that he felt she acted with integrity but felt that to ask if she was “nice” was “irrelevant,” which is an interesting stance. (Generally one of my first five questions when someone is talking about someone new is “Are they nice?”)
But the next morning The Consultant said that he’d thought it over and he decided that he did think Gaga was nice; a couple fans broke into her house and she was apparently really cool about it. I figured it was probably a great compliment to her to be famous enough for that to happen. It’s kind of otherworldly—for someone to unconditionally accept notoriety like this, and so graciously. During the show, she kept reminding the audience how grateful she was to them, and how they were the ones that created her and turned her into the pop star of everyone’s dreams. For sure: When Lady Gaga first hit the scene, she felt so familiar to me; it was the icon status I’d wanted for myself growing up when I was saying “to be famous” in response to “What do you want to be when you grow up?” (I’m pretty sure Barbie and the Rockers no doubt had something to do with this.)
In short: Go see Lady Gaga live!
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2 Comments on "The Lady Gaga Concert"
This was was great re-cap! I saw her Monster Ball kicking off her born this way ball at boardwalk hall NJ…right before her MSG live performance that rocked NYC. I’m so glad you wrote about your experience. I am a huge fan and I am constantly empowered by LadyGaga. She is brilliant.
Thanks for commenting, Jacqueline! Was your concert experience similar? As time goes on, I’m more and more impressed by Lady Gaga. She is so creative and genuinely talented in so many different ways, yet comes across as really grounded and accessible. A true superstar!