Back in January — which seems like an eon ago in Lady Gaga's rapid meteoric rise to pop dominance — the singer born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta warned NYC audiences at Radio City Music Hall that it would be the last time she played a non-arena show in her hometown. The only future stop, she bellowed? Madison Square Garden.
Once again, Gaga's vision quickly came to fruition, and last night she launched the first of three sold-out nights of her seemingly unending Monster Ball Tour at her prized pinnacle: Madison Square Garden. "My name is Lady Gaga and I used to sit right over there, way far in the back and way up top," she said at the show's halfway point. "I saw Madonna, I saw Cher, I saw the Rolling Stones, I saw Kiss and Elton John. I used to stare at this side of the room, and I used to think, 'One day I'm gonna be up there."
And so she was, in an overtly theatrical tribute to the city and her remarkable string of pop hits layed out in an expanded version of the tour's last incarnation. The basic setlist was the same, again mining from her sole album, the hit-heavy The Fame, and it's eight-song Fame Monster addition. The sets were grander and reflected a more defined storyline, tracing Gaga's rise from her her rusty roots in lower Manhattan on a Wizard of Oz-esque journey to her current pop heaven, The Monster's Ball. But this certainly was no Kansas: downtown neon signage advertised implants and a staircase railing was made of giant syringes. Her Tin Man was an early-career pal, a Rihanna-lookalike transvestite named Posh whose main on-stage talent was hitting two tambourines together.
In a series of acts combined with images from the earlier version of the tour, plus 15 outrageous new costume changes (including a rubber nun look, synchonized moving dress and headress ensemble donned during "So Happy I Could Die" and, of course, her signature spark-spewing brassiere), Gaga belted through her smash setlist in a similar order: "Dance In The Dark" was again the opener and it quickly segued to her first megahit, "Just Dance" (which she introed on a keyboard set into a broken down car's front hood).
Gaga then climbed scaffolding to do "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich," played a giant bass to bring on "The Fame," paid tribute to NYC gay boys she dubbed her "best friends" in "Boys, Boys, Boys" and nodded to her "Love Game" video by performing the song from an F Train subway car. As with prior Gaga shows, the real centerpiece was when she slowed things down behind her trusty piano to dedicate the rousing "Speechless" to her father. As he stood watching from the side of the stage, she recalled the days of her early career when he helped her carry her piano down "four flights of stairs" to gigs and toasted him, "Of all the drunk men in my life, Dad, you're my favorite." A crowd-pleasing belting of her unreleased YouTube sensation "You and I" followed, another one dedicated to her loyal friends.
Of course, the big hits were squeezed into the end of the bit-too-long two hour set. Notable performances included "Paparazzi," during which she was swallowed up by a giant fame monster, and the closing "Bad Romance," for which she again was wheeled out on her big ol' gyrosphere.
Also packed with heartfelt praises for her army of supporters (many of them decked out in her wild looks), the show was not without flaws: the ambitious, 21-song setlist should have been edited down, especially with lesser known numbers blended into medleys. The legendary venue's acoustics often drowned out and muddled Gaga's vocals and sharp backing beats, the storyline was often lost in overindulgent translation. And, let's face it, for an artist who once boasted she'd never lip sync, there were more than a few questionable moments.
But the night was not really just about just pulling out all of her tricks or hits. Gaga reiterated before leaving the stage that the real theme of the evening was seeing yet another passage of her unimagineable, unstoppable rise realized. "We did it, little monsters," she barked. "We made it to the Monster Ball. We made it to Madison Square Garden. Thank you for making my dream come true."
By Ian Drew for UsMagazine.com. To read more of Ian's blog, click here and don't forget to follow him on Twitter.
