Lady GaGa Monster Ball Review

“In the Monster Ball all the freaks are outside, and we lock the doors,” declared Lady GaGa, over screams from thousands of fans. And that was it, her 2 hour blockbuster show had begun, and with 20 costume changes, a burning piano and a 40-foot live mechanical monster… this was no show for the faint-hearted… (See Video Below)

GaGa’s pace is incredible. The show didn’t seem to pause for breath… One minute she was in the backstreets of New York, complete with neon signs and burlesque dancers, the next she’s flipping up a car bonnet to reveal a piano before belting out more hits. Then before you had time to realise the scene had changed, she was on the subway with her disco stick or drinking blood from a fountain. And although starting late, the star graced the O2 Arena stage for just over 2 hours, managing to fit in almost every record from her double-album, The Fame Monster.

The show, which resembled more of a stage production than a concert, was all held together by a slightly tenuous, but altogether brilliant narrative about GaGa and her friends getting to a party. Taking you on a journey, GaGa’s show seemed to descend into madness, becoming more extreme and bombastic as it went on – and she was the Dorothy who didn’t want to go home. By the end when GaGa screamed at the audience to, “take the monster’s picture” to kill it, and then appeared inside her trademark spinning vortex to finish the show – no one seemed to batter an eye lid how strange the performance had become… but nevertheless breathtaking.

Highlights from the evening have to be GaGa, or Stefani Germanotta as she’s known to her friends, belting out “Brown Eyes” and “Speechless” on a burning piano, and chatting to the audience about her father’s illness. Plus, I will never forget her astounding mechanical fairy costume that looked as if it were living and breathing on her…. simply amazing.

Walking out at the end, a friend asked me if I thought there were any bad bits. But how can you criticise a show that seems to break all the rules of pop concerts? GaGa scrapped her US version of the tour because she was ‘bored of it’, and created this masterpiece for Europe in just 4 weeks. This girl is doing something no one else is doing – When Lady GaGa fans buy her music or a ticket to her show, they are not just listening to sounds, they are given a ticket into a fantastical world where anything is possible. And that’s why we love her.

Even GaGa herself joked her fans resembled a cult, as she stopped to chat to the audience last night and asked us all to raise our hands in the shape of a monsters claw, the international symbol of GaGa. Well I’m afraid I raised my hand with the rest of them… I’m hooked. She’s a legend… Forever GaGa.