Arrived with much anticipation of seeing possibly the most theatrical performance, if youtube highlights were anything to go by, of my concert going life since Bowie's "Glass Spider "of confusion that greeted my then 16 yr old eyes.
Entered the precinct and walked towards the entrance expecting to greeted by a cavalcade of teenage madness and wasn't disappointed,"Little Monsters" everywhere, "Bowie Slashes" painted across cheeks, glitter and a genuine lack of fashion sense pervades the kids, Aside from thinking, we really need basic clothing education for our young ladies, I'm impressed with the energy that is abuzz when we enter the arena. Luckily we've obtained last minute released tckets, that afford us an amazing view of the backstage area and mixing consel, close enough to see the levels on Gaga's microphone when she was singing.
The Kids are going off on the Floor, lots of youngies at their first gig by the craned necks and wide eyed looks at the video screen by those at the frontbarriers instead of the stage when she was performing, TV probably raised these kids so they probably can't observe something unless it's a widescreen flickering at 29 frames per second.
So the support band "Semi Precious Weapons" with a many inch heel wearing singer, towering over his bandmates channelling their own interpretations of ubiquitous rock images, think Navarro, Flea and Travis Barker. Who are able to whip up a brew of the New York Dolls and SoCal Punk with a flavour that goes down well with the almost totally full arena, say's something that people were not prepared too miss a thing of this, maybe something for the Rugby crowds at grounds everywhere to take account of. Job done they leave the stage to appreciative and expectant cheers.
Here we go.....White drop descends in front of the stage curtain, images are projected, beat begins, screams reach voxmax, faces almost blue. Side curtains pull back, musicans and dancers take up their places amongst a "jungle gym" of stage props. Then she appears escorted up the stage steps by torch bearing handlers, makes her way to the top the scaffolding to begin her performance, the crowd are obscured from this view by the drop, she is then backlit with a deep pink spot and the crowd goes nuts. She sings her opener from this position then makes her way down to stage level to begin a two hour barrage of energy that saps the audience and Gaga to a point of exhaustion, it's been well reported that she had to sit and ly down during the two numbers to ensure that she didn't pass out, that ladies and gentlemen is something that Whitney, Mariah, Celine would never do. Our Lady is one tough cookie, the costume changes, dance steps, vocals, piano and double electric bass playing were enough to put most performers i've seen to shame. Quite simply this young lady has restored my faith in Art Rock/Pop and the efforts of Bowie and Madonna to push, shock and entertain have not been in vain. The show rocked popped and tore the house down, I went out and bought the Fame Monster album by 10am the next morning and even uploaded a video to youtube, we had a ball
Vector Arena @
- Auckland @
- Sat 13 Mar 2010 @
Favourite moment: So Happy I Could Die, She ascended thirty feet above the audience wearing a dress that moved and morphed shapes with a fanlike headpeice and wings @
Setlist: The Fame Monster album, buy it.....total pop @
Opening act(s): Semi Precious Weapons, an excellent choice, good friends of the artist with a similar New York brashness. @