The arrival of Lady Gaga (no introduction needed) and her show The Monster Ball tour in Australia was met with borderline hysteria: glitter faced, telephone-haired fans stormed the airport upon her touching down on Australian soil and Gaga has quickly overtaken icons Madonna and Kylie as the most popular drag persona this side of Avenue Q. She isn’t a popstar – she’s a freaking cult leader. And her fans and followers – who she refers to as her “Little Monsters” – are easily as devoted as the members of a religious sect.
So now after kicking off her tour with two sellout concerts in Sydney the verdicts are in and we’ve got them all for you:
1) THE SHOW ACCORDING TO A NON-MEGA FAN:
Triple J’s Nina Las Vegas was our on-the-ground reporter at last night’s concert and this is her first-person account of The Monster Ball:
“I’m definitely pro-Gaga.
I may not be the biggest fan in the world (admittedly not being one of the 7 million-ish people to have bought the ‘Fame Monster’), but in any Lady GaGa conversation-slash-video-clip deconstruction, I’m always on her side.
So when a former colleague of mine offered me a ticket last week, I instantly said yes…
To no surprise the show was insanely ridiculous.
Outrageous costumes, fake blood, fake hair, percussion-playing drag queens, mechanical dresses, a Wizard Of Oz appropriated narrative, and an Entertainment Centre filled with monsters’ – even though I only really knew the 5 singles – I watched in awe for the full 2 hours.
Yep: 2 hours. For someone with only an album (and a half), that’s pretty impressive (or boring?). Personally, I liked her piano playing “this-is-a-song-I-wrote-when-I-had-brown-hair-and-lived-in-New-York” moments; although her non-familiar tunes may have bored the under 18s in the audience only wanting to hear the big-room house tracks she’s more famous for. Thankfully the piano was on fire when she was trying to be a serious musician. And she was standing up while playing.
After going last night I can vouch that Gaga can belt out a tune but can’t really dance. Luckily the whole monster movements (claws in the air) and robot-like spasms is her thing, so you can’t tell. She’s also pretty composed and can signal screaming fans with a simple eye-brow raise. However, with her schedule and general mass-media-world-domination, the whole “composed” effect may be a good cover up for the fact that she is HUGELY exhausted.”
2) THE MEDIA’S GENERAL CONSENSUS:
According to all reports the show was spec. tac. u. lar.
The Daily Telegraph wrote: “Madonna Who?”
The Sydney Morning Herald: “The Electric Lady Sends The Audience Gaga”
Nine MSN: “Lady Gaga blew away memories of lacklustre pop megastars”
The Music Network: “From the ornate stage sets, to the extremely loud, dark, electro re-workings of her songs, to the extreme couture and abundant costume changes – nothing about this tour falls flat. Oh, and she can sing. And play. REALLY well.”
THE PARENTS ARE PISSED
Through the duration of the concert Gaga called for fans to “get your cock out” and said “you may have heard I have a massive dick” and “This is a place where you can be free. A place where all the freaks are outside and I locked the fucking door.” It also featured footage of a model making herself vomit onto Gaga shown on a film loop.
No surprises there. This is, after all, the woman whose latest video clip features a mash up of semi-naked S&M burlesque, girl-on-girl tongueing, mass murder by poisoning; and whose rise to fame grew from an initial rise to infamy based on outspoken bi-sexuality, song lyrics about getting high, and an inability to wear pants in public.
Surprising then, that another of the overwhelming responses to her concert has been one of outrage. This came from the parents who played chaperone to their tween sons and daughters, claiming that the concert should have come with a classification warning.
Those parents have either been living in rock cave, ambling about in a drug-induced fug, or are absurdly unobservant individuals because surely it’s no secret that the biatch makes the vast majority of her coin first and foremost for being a provocateur (provocateuress?) in the Gen-Y mould of Madonna. Remember Madonna mum and dad? She made that ‘Sex’ book that was banned from the local library faster than ‘Forever’ by Judy Blume.
They must have missed this one:
“Disco Stick” = man parts.
Title Image by Kevin Winter via Getty
