It has only been nine short months since the artist fondly dubbed our beloved Mama Monster, Lady Gaga graced these shores and invited us to attend her Monster Ball. In the time between she has won countless awards, recorded duets with Beyoncé, has notched up over one billion views on Youtube, and just yesterday, finished working on a track with none other than Elton John for upcoming movie Gnomeo and Juliet. Not bad for such a short space of time, considering she is also smack bang in the middle of her second consecutive world tour in under two years!
After making our way through all our queue rations and waiting for hours in the pouring rain with no umbrellas, we were hurriedly rushed into the O2 arena. It wasn’t long before the first support act of the night, Lady Starlight appeared on stage. You might think she’s joking with a name like that, supporting Lady Gaga, but the truth is that these two go way back, right back to the beginning of Mama Monster’s career in 2007. The two colaborated on a number of projects and Gaga even acknowledges Starlight as the reason she developed an interest in performance as an art in the first place. Djing everything from ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ by Guns N Roses to ‘Killing in the Name’ by Rage Against the Machine, you can see why Ms Starlight holds the title of New York City’s Best Female Hard Rock DJ! Granted, there was definitely a portion of the crowd who didn’t ‘get’ why she was there, but for the most part, Lady Starlight’s perfomance (complete with props and performances for each song she played) went down a treat with most fans and was a perfect opener.
Up next was Semi Precious Weapons. Having seen them on the previous leg of the Monster Ball tour, we were delighted to hear that they’d be returning this time around. Also hailing from NYC, they mix rock and glamour together with an electric live act that the crowd either loves or hates. We came away from their last performance dying to get our hands on their album, so this time we were prepared and knew the words to fan favourites such as ‘Put A Diamond In It’, ‘Magnetic Baby’ and ‘Semi Precious Weapons’. There’s just something about the line “I can’t pay my rent but I’m f***ing gorgeous” that hits home in the @rcade office! Lead singer Justin Tranter has such an awe-inspiring stage presence that just completely drew us in. And when he thanked the crowd for being more than the ‘twelve f***ing people’ that attended their first show with Lady Gaga in a bar in New York, we almost screamed back, ‘you’re f***ing welcome!’.
Then after a brief pause in proceedings, the onscreen countdown began. Gaga’s talent for various forms of media becomes apparent from her intro video and the ones that followed throughtout the show. With a flash of pink lights, she appeared atop her scaffolding, amid a slew of neon signs.
The outfits seemed limitless. She began in a square shouldered leotard, migrating to a giant red cape, pvc nun’s uniform, sequinned bikini, tinkerbell-esque prom dress and even something that looked like she borrowed it from an extra in Dr Who. Then of course there was the blood, and the water and the sparks from her bikini. The girl knows fashion and she made it very obvious from the get-go. Playing through almost every song we were dying to hear (again) she never stopped giving. Opening with ‘Dancing in the Dark’, she links the songs off both The Fame and The Fame Monster together to tell a story about getting lost on the way to the Monster Ball with her dancer friends. Gaga encounters a car with a piano under the bonnet, a tram that holds a glittering torch (with a built in camera), a paparrazi creature and finally after falling victim to a tornado, she makes her way to the Monster Ball. Highlights on the night were her performance of ‘Speechless’, which she dedicated to ‘all her Little Monsters’ and a sneak preview of a new track called ‘You and I’ which will be featured on upcoming album ‘Born This Way’.
She closed the show with ‘Bad Romance’ and we can guarantee there wasn’t one silent person in the audience. Her interaction with the crowd is incredible, and at times, we see glimpses of the young woman behind the sensational performer. She is so grateful for her fans and wills every single one of them to not give up on being who they want to be, whether they are gay, straight, black, white, old or young. She inspires them to ignore those trying to put them down out of fear or jealousy. Lady Gaga’s passion for what she does is undeniable, as anyone who has watched her live shows will tell you. She is not going away any time soon. She is not a phase. We definitely count ourselves as one of her devoted her Little Monsters and we cannot wait to see what she throws at us next.
