By Stephanie Alexander
Staff Writer
All the little monsters of the Metroplex were united at the American Airlines Center for Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Ball on Jan. 29. The heavy rain didn’t stop the dedicated fans from camping out the night before at the venue.
However, the weather and traffic prevented me from catching one of the opening acts, Lady Starlight. But I still was able to see the second act, Madeon. Both openers were DJ type, electro house style music.
There was a bit of wait in between Madeon and Lady Gaga, which made fans restless and called for dance fights on the floor and numerous attempts at making the wave work through the whole arena. (Didn’t work)
The curtain went down, Gaga’s castle, “The Kingdom of Fame”, was revealed, and the show started. She made her entrance upon a mechanical horse and opened with “Highway Unicorn (Road To Love)”.
The main theme of the Born This Way Ball was to embrace your true being and not caring about what other people think. She had multiple moments of gratitude toward the audience in mentioning, “..five years ago I was a waitress in New York, and I worked real hard, and here I am..” Her stories were encouraging and empowering.
As all the little monsters sang every word to every song, Gaga said something that will always stick with me, “Don’t be here to worship me, be here to worship you.”
Later in the show, she chose a few lucky fans to join her for a few piano performances, along with later during the encore. She also called a wining fan during the concert and preformed a slow version of her hit song, “Born This Way”, on the piano.
During the phone call to the wining fan, which was sponsored by Virgin Mobile along with the tour, Gaga proudly told the crowd that by the wining fan answering Gaga’s phone call, Virgin Mobile would be giving $5,000 to a shelter. She also said that just by attending the Born This Way Ball, some of the ticket money would go to local shelters. Gaga is very philanthropic.
Gaga teased the audience in saying that “Scheiße” would be her last song, but after a 10 minute break Gaga came back for a perfect encore. She preformed “The Edge of Glory” which just felt like such a unifying moment between her and the audience. Maybe it was the lyrics, maybe it was because we knew that it was really the end, but it was great, and after, she walked around her hexagonal runway and sang a slow, dragged out version of “Marry The Night”. This felt almost like the end of Barney, everyone coming together singing in unison to end off the night.
Each song had it’s own outfit, set up and impact on the crowd. There were some older costumes, like the egg, the meat dress and she even came out as a motorcycle.
Gaga has been performing the Born This Way Ball since April 2012 and the tour won’t stop until late March. She has had seven different legs of this tour, including places in Africa, South America, Asia and Europe as well.
With only few break days, if any, between show days, she told the fans that she sees all the little monsters in her mind, and that she is always thinking about us.
The only thing that disappointed me was that Gaga didn’t always sing full songs. She would sing the first verse, the chorus, and then that last verse. Gaga did have a set list of over 20 songs, and incorporating a complete theatrical show with that is a lot of work for anybody, so I understand why the would cut the songs short, but it was still disappointing.
If you don’t respect the art of Gaga and appreciate the understood madness then it’s not the show for you.
