Saturday, February 27, 2010
"I’m your biggest fan/I’ll follow you until you love me..."
In November my friend, Kate, in Dallas sent me a Facebook message asking if I wanted to join her and her cousin, Victoria, to see Lady Gaga in January at the Chicago Theater. Even though I had not gone gaga for Gaga yet, I was like, “Sure!” I mean spending time with some out of town friends from home and go see live music is a no brainer for me.
Kate is probably the biggest Gaga fan and up until tickets were secured she was bouncing off the walls and constant communication between us was going on. My friend Samantha is also a huge Gaga fan so I sent her a message asking if she wanted to come spend the weekend with me (she lives in Okla.) and see the show. She was in.
When I got the tickets the concert gods were smiling down upon me, because for the 3 nights she had scheduled I ended up getting 5 tickets (got on in case another person wanted to go) for the final night, and all three shows had sold out in under a minute. Woweee zowee!
Time passed and we were all jazzed about the show. However, our bubble burst, a day after Christmas, when we found out she had cancelled her Chicago Theater venue and was moving to the Rosemont Theater, thus everyone getting their tickets cancelled and refunded. The silver lining was those who had tickets were able to purchase the same number for the same date in a pre-sale. We again planned and plotted strategically and were able to secure our 5 tickets. Whew!
When Sunday, January 10th finally got here we were all super excited. We got all gussied up in our best sassy, sexy Gaga inspired duds and headed over to the venue. Kate’s friend Pearson also joined us and he, like Kate, is a massive Gaga fan. After grabbing a few drinks, taking promotional photos we decided to take our seats. We missed the opening-opening act, Semi Precious Weapons, but in all honesty it was okay. They were the band that had opened for Ladyhawke and I didn’t really care for them then so I wasn’t interested in seeing them now.
The opening act was a guy named Jason Derülo, who was kinda like a watered down Usher type guy combined with the appeal of one of those Disney acts. However, he was kinda obnoxious and a bit inappropriate. Not that I’m some prude, but he would say things like, “Last time I was in Chicago I had a one night stand and it was awesome!” And people would cheer, especially the five 14 year olds who were sitting behind me. I was like, “You people are morons! Don’t cheer for a one night stand! What a douche!” But no one cared and he continued on with his music about finding the right girl and being ready for sexy time. Ug. So awful.
Even though I was not a Gaga superfan before the show, I liked the songs I had heard and I knew I would see a good show. Her outlandish costumes and persona would guarantee it. Also, the amount of crazed glittered up fans meant there was going to be an awesome energy throughout the show. And guess what? I was right. The show was AMAZING and completely converted me into this crazed Gaga fan.
Costume changes, dancers, interesting lighting and stage picture, pre-recorded video pieces…everything but the kitchen sink. Every detail was well thought out and precise. Very similar to when I saw Madonna, and by that I mean the amount of time, effort, and energy to put into this show was big time. Gaga was very good about interacting with the crowd. Sharing stories of meeting her “Little Monsters” (the names for her fans) and even gave us a hand gesture to show our solidarity to one another. At one point she laid down on the stage and went into the whole “Clap for Tinkerbell if you want her to live” bit until the applause was roaring from the crowd and she stood up and went into song.
Even though I didn’t know the names to most of the songs she did play the ones I knew. Her set list, I’m guessing, due to the flashy show doesn’t vary. But I really don’t think people in that crowd cared. We all ate up ever last bite.
1. Dance in the Dark
2. Just Dance
3. LoveGame
4. Alejandro
5. Monster
6. Teeth
7. Speechless
8. Poker Face (on piano)
9. The Fame
10. Money Honey
11. Beautiful, Dirty, Rich
12. Boys Boys Boys
13. Poker Face
14. Paparazzi
Encore:
15. Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)
16. Bad Romance
I would definitely go to a Lady Gaga show again. I had so much fun and she entertained us from start to finish.
xoxo,
Stefania
P.S. For more information about this tour, The Monster Ball Tour, Wikipedia has a good write up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monster_Ball_Tour
P.S.S. Some fun photos:
This guy had made razor blade glasses (how he got them in the venue, I’ll never know) a la the “Bad Romance” video
Samantha and I in the Monster Ball
Me channeling Gaga
Kate is probably the biggest Gaga fan and up until tickets were secured she was bouncing off the walls and constant communication between us was going on. My friend Samantha is also a huge Gaga fan so I sent her a message asking if she wanted to come spend the weekend with me (she lives in Okla.) and see the show. She was in.
When I got the tickets the concert gods were smiling down upon me, because for the 3 nights she had scheduled I ended up getting 5 tickets (got on in case another person wanted to go) for the final night, and all three shows had sold out in under a minute. Woweee zowee!
Time passed and we were all jazzed about the show. However, our bubble burst, a day after Christmas, when we found out she had cancelled her Chicago Theater venue and was moving to the Rosemont Theater, thus everyone getting their tickets cancelled and refunded. The silver lining was those who had tickets were able to purchase the same number for the same date in a pre-sale. We again planned and plotted strategically and were able to secure our 5 tickets. Whew!
When Sunday, January 10th finally got here we were all super excited. We got all gussied up in our best sassy, sexy Gaga inspired duds and headed over to the venue. Kate’s friend Pearson also joined us and he, like Kate, is a massive Gaga fan. After grabbing a few drinks, taking promotional photos we decided to take our seats. We missed the opening-opening act, Semi Precious Weapons, but in all honesty it was okay. They were the band that had opened for Ladyhawke and I didn’t really care for them then so I wasn’t interested in seeing them now.
The opening act was a guy named Jason Derülo, who was kinda like a watered down Usher type guy combined with the appeal of one of those Disney acts. However, he was kinda obnoxious and a bit inappropriate. Not that I’m some prude, but he would say things like, “Last time I was in Chicago I had a one night stand and it was awesome!” And people would cheer, especially the five 14 year olds who were sitting behind me. I was like, “You people are morons! Don’t cheer for a one night stand! What a douche!” But no one cared and he continued on with his music about finding the right girl and being ready for sexy time. Ug. So awful.
Even though I was not a Gaga superfan before the show, I liked the songs I had heard and I knew I would see a good show. Her outlandish costumes and persona would guarantee it. Also, the amount of crazed glittered up fans meant there was going to be an awesome energy throughout the show. And guess what? I was right. The show was AMAZING and completely converted me into this crazed Gaga fan.
Costume changes, dancers, interesting lighting and stage picture, pre-recorded video pieces…everything but the kitchen sink. Every detail was well thought out and precise. Very similar to when I saw Madonna, and by that I mean the amount of time, effort, and energy to put into this show was big time. Gaga was very good about interacting with the crowd. Sharing stories of meeting her “Little Monsters” (the names for her fans) and even gave us a hand gesture to show our solidarity to one another. At one point she laid down on the stage and went into the whole “Clap for Tinkerbell if you want her to live” bit until the applause was roaring from the crowd and she stood up and went into song.
Even though I didn’t know the names to most of the songs she did play the ones I knew. Her set list, I’m guessing, due to the flashy show doesn’t vary. But I really don’t think people in that crowd cared. We all ate up ever last bite.
1. Dance in the Dark
2. Just Dance
3. LoveGame
4. Alejandro
5. Monster
6. Teeth
7. Speechless
8. Poker Face (on piano)
9. The Fame
10. Money Honey
11. Beautiful, Dirty, Rich
12. Boys Boys Boys
13. Poker Face
14. Paparazzi
Encore:
15. Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)
16. Bad Romance
I would definitely go to a Lady Gaga show again. I had so much fun and she entertained us from start to finish.
xoxo,
Stefania
P.S. For more information about this tour, The Monster Ball Tour, Wikipedia has a good write up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monster_Ball_Tour
P.S.S. Some fun photos:
This guy had made razor blade glasses (how he got them in the venue, I’ll never know) a la the “Bad Romance” video
Samantha and I in the Monster Ball
Me channeling Gaga
