Every single Goth bone in our bodies was freaking out almost from song one. Blood, nuns and smoke all made "LoveGame" massive. You cannot discount the overt Goth and industrial elements to a Gaga show, which for us is a major selling point. The Disco Stick made its appearance during "LoveGame," and she wielded the glowing phallus like a scepter. She had a Good Witch thing going on.
She doesn't preach happiness and sunshine, and doesn't shy away from the grotesque. Instead she tempers it with self-confidence and the power of proactive thinking: Sisters are doing it for themselves albeit covered in blood and diamonds.
Midway through the show, Gaga stopped being Gaga and became Stefani Germanotta again, sitting in front of a piano and pounding out ballads. It was her without a net or a gang of dancers behind her to distract you from miscues. Well, she was still Gaga, because not many people play pianos that are also on fire whilst wearing leather underwear.
Gaga came forth with two piano-driven songs, the family portrait "Speechless" and the brand-new "You & I," the latter of which shows a whole new path coming in her next phase. It's her voice laid bare without any pyro or lights to get in the way. Vulnerable. For those two songs we could have been in some supper club or coffeehouse, throwing dollars in her tip jar instead of an arena with 20,000 pairs screaming lungs.
She does possess a bluesy mama howl that gets lost in the digital bath all her songs are dipped into in the studio. Take away the make-up, what passes for clothes, and the deviant disco, and Gaga could have just easily been a torqued-up Norah Jones. She has an honest and soulful wail, and knows how to use it to great effect.
"Monster" opened with an insane amount of Siouxsie and the Banshees-style synth before turning into the Prince-worthy headbanger it is. It very much swings like the Purple One's "When Doves Cry," with the huge snare cracks and the slangy sexual lyrics. Dig if you will that.
For "Teeth," the show turned into pornographic gospel, with Gaga using the rough-sex jam to writhe on the floor covered in fake blood while decrying hatred in the world in the name of Jesus Christ. It was very much one of those Lizard King/Manson moments when you aren't sure if the unhinging is real or just for effect.
Things got the most cataclysmic during "Alejandro," with even more blood, this time from a fountain topped by the son of God that shot fire out the back of its wings. Going into the show last night we didn't think we would be doing our metal-face, let alone trying to describe Gaga bathing in the blood from the fountain. We also didn't think things would take a GWAR turn when she fought multi-legged "fame monster" onstage.
The triple threat of "Poker Face," "Paparazzi" and "Bad Romance" closed out the night. Each song smacked hard like heavy metal onto everyone. The danceability is still there, but she seems to now be playing with more stomp and snap the older those hit songs get. Her next album could very well be her Black Album if it's not Generation Y's own Tapestry.
Gaga baits conventions with the best of them, and preaches a strong pro-personal-freedom stance. Music is supposed to move you, liberate you and call you to action. She's just taking it all those to levels that are apparently needed right now in this world. She's controlled chaos at a time of extreme uncertainty. It doesn't hurt that the songs are some of the catchiest things in the past decade.
More interesting to us isn't what's going on with Gaga now; it's what is to come.
