/ / / / / POCKETROCKLIFE CONCERT REVIEW



LADY GAGA / LIVE IN NEW YORK CITY

Lady GaGa pres. The Fame Ball with Chester French + The White Tie Affair :: May 02 :: Terminal 5, New York City

[ Setlist: Paparazzi . LoveGame . Starstruck . Beautiful, Dirty, Rich . Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say) . Money Honey . The Fame . Poker Face (acoustic) . Future Love . Just Dance . [encore] Poker Face . Boys, Boys, Boys . presentation of Gold certification plaque ]

A sold out, capacity crowd was on hand to witness Lady Gaga at the operahouse-like concert venue Terminal 5 on Manhattan's West Side for her Fame Ball tour. This is her first tour in the United States, following the international success of "Poker Face" and "Just Dance." Openers included Star Trak/Interscope recording artists Chester French and Chicago-based pop/electro-rock outfit The White Tie Affair. The night included two back-to-back, sold out shows with over 5,000+ concertgoers between the two performances.

There was a star-studded audience on hand for the first show that night. Madonna was in the upper-balcony with an entourage including daughter Lourdes, her is-he-or-isn't-he-boyfriend Jesus, and fashion photographer Stephen Klein. Cyndi Lauper was also in attendance and the crowd went wild for both women. GaGa acknowledged their presence and there was a triptych, almost diety-like level of respect transmitted without words. And the setting of New York made it seem surreal like she was being christened and was performing before royalty.

Her set started with a huge white curtain and pre-concert music by various Cherrytree recording artists. Various pictures of GaGa were displayed amongst the silhouettes. A short, introductory visual-art piece began to play with GaGa lost in a character known as Candy Warhola, when the film ended and the curtain dropped, alone sat GaGa in a dark, metallic-like flower singing "Paparazzi."

"In the year 3009 the kids came out of New York and shot the paparazzi."

The crowd was eager, armed with cameras, camera phones, cell phones and PDAs, all high in the air recording and taking pictures the entire time. For what it was worth, The Fame Ball appeared more like a visual-audio spectacle during the first half and through the series of themed-vignettes entitled The Heart, The Fame and The Face. GaGa played on that and encouraged her fans to "take their best shots." Gummi worms were thrown on stage, glowsticks were flying in the blackouts.



The audience felt like a sea. Concertgoers were exiting due to exhaustion from the heat and pandemonium of thousands of bodies in a General Admission floor, young girls and guys desperately wanting the best view pushing their way through the crowd in human-trains, dancing and full-out singing happening in the midst of it. The sprightly, fashion-forward crowd had on everything from emergency jackets, glitter, disco pants, glitter, spandex leggings with hi-tops and Hannah shoes on guys and girls, glitter, metallic shoes, body and face paint, glitter, fluorescent and highlighter fashions.

"I love coming back to New York, no one on Earth dresses as good as you fuckers."

The six outfits GaGa sported where nothing short of fantastical, with everything ranging from a sculptural bustier with futuristic triangular silver panels to her dancers clad in Louis Vuitton Steven Sprouse-print trousers, co-ordinating with her shoes. Her now-famed fishnet stockings became increasingly ripped throughout the night due to the high-intensity of dancing, prop-climbing and movement on stage.



The highlights of the night were many. Musically, "Poker Face" became the anthem of the night as it was performed twice and was the big tune of moment. First, a Bette Midler-like acoustic piano version of the tune with GaGa adorned in an outfit made of plastic bubbles with a matching clear-cased bubble-filled piano. With her leg propped on top as she played the tune explaining the cheeky orgins of the song to fans curious why she approved of Kanye's revision with "I Poke Her Face." [Well,] she explained to the crowd, Poker Face is "that face you make when giving your boyfriend a blowjob."

And GaGa talked a LOT, to her fans, during the show. Gaga was flippantly and blissfully lost in her own world and everyone in the crowd was witness to what could be aptly described as achieving the namesake of her debut album: The Fame.

"I know you guys are probably saying to yourself, will this dumb bitch shut up already," she said from atop a lighted installation proudly as her crowd begged for more. The audience ate it up and she did, too.

"I promise I will be back, and I want as many people to come next time as possible. I wanna make the tickets $5!"

The man who discovered her also came out during the encore and presented GaGa with a Gold certification plaque for the U.S. sales success of "The Fame."

Note: All text and photos and video courtesy of their respective owners.
[Edited 5/3/09 14:33pm]

More pictures from the show:

Madonna, her daughter Lourdes + Cyndi Lauper

Mara with Chester French [opening act of the night]:




[note: Videos courtesy of their respective owners]
[Edited 5/3/09 15:09pm]

GaGa is so amessing

Mara

Random notes from the night:

- It was amazing at how many people were trying to sneak in the venue. It was like an experience before the show just watching the many, many, many different ways people were trying to get into two sold out shows.

- I thought it was awesome that Kid Cudi "Day N Nite (Crookers remix)" played during preparation for The Face sequence.

- Ahhhhh, I heard Space Cowboy's "Falling Down" right before the curtain opened, I love it. It was cool vibing to that before the show opened.

- No Nadia Oh pre-concert though! And no Space Cowboy! :sullenface:

Alej said:

ALEJJJJJ, I was thinking of you during so many moments of the show. It was CRAZY in there. Ahhhh, you would've loved the whole show. I wish I could teleport this to you so you could experience in some way. I actually dedicate this thread to you. She has to bring this your way.

Mara said:

awww I really hope to see her live someday That would just be fabulous

Closing bow + Gaga pictured with her boyfriend Speedy arriving to Bungalow 8 post-show party + performing live with a houndstooth body plate & matching scooter :


[Edited 5/3/09 14:41pm]

Alej said:

I thought it was cool that her people made ticket prices incredibly affordable. Hopefully she'll keep that up.

Mara said:

And hopefully she doesn't go broke

Alej said:

From what I gather, she isn't in it for the money. At least @ this stage in her career anyway. When she was on stage she said "I'm broke, I spent all my money on my show!"

Very tongue and cheek she is. lol

Mara said:

I know. her

Mara said:

How much were the tickets?
And what would you expect to pay in NYC usually for a star of her calibre?

nd33 said:

Tix were $20 [if you got them back in January when they first went on sale, the 7:30 show sold out within an hour of it being offered, a late show was added @ the same price and that also sold out].

Kids hanging outside without tickets around the venue were paying $40-85 for anyone who had a spare. It was wild.

She's still new so $20 for her show means she is a solid headliner. That's the usual price for act with a good following at a venue like Terminal 5, Bowery Ballroom, Webster Hall, Blender Theater, Irving Plaza, Music Hall of W'burg, etc. which have standing room, general admission floors. $25 or more would be pricey for a venue like the one she performed.

If she takes it to Madison Square Garden or an arena, it will be more. So for now she's keeping it in the standing-room venues. Plus she's still relatively new, so she's building her show. It's been fleshed out a lot more from the first time I saw her @ Highline back in Oct.