The Monster Ball

On Saturday night, I went to see Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball.

I’ve always been a huge fan of hers. In fact, I liked her before any of my friends did and I got them hooked before any of her songs even went to number one. I saw her open for New Kids On The Block back in 2008. She only played for about twenty minutes with a mash up of four songs and “Just Dance” in it’s entirety. I felt like I was the only one in the stadium who knew who she was and felt like a freak because I knew all the words to her songs when no one else was singing along. But that was ancient history. We all know she’s a superstar now.

In 2009, I saw her again, during her Fame Ball at a tiny club in Seattle. The show was all hers and it was awesome. I loved her even more. But lately I’m kind of sick of her. Don’t get me wrong, I love the music. I’m just sort of over her shocking ways. To be honest, they aren’t that shocking anymore, she’s just annoying to me now. So I wasn’t really looking forward to going. I bought the tickets months and months ago, when Bad Romance was the hottest single and I was actually excited back then. But the morning of the show, I tried to sell my ticket to a few friends. I wasn’t willing to take a cut in payment ($107 for a CRAPPY seat), so I went. I smiled and convinced myself it would be fun. And it was. Kind of.

There is no doubt Gaga is an amazing and talented singer, pianist and songwriter but man is she theatrical. It got old pretty fast. I loved the songs and dancing and sets, but she made the concert into a play. She and her friends were trying to get to The Monster Ball and had all these obstacles in they way. It was pretty dumb. She also had a zillion set and clothing changes so for about ten minutes between each one or two songs, they closed the curtains and put on some stupid video of her in pretty clothes twirling around in slow motion. B-O-R-I-N-G. It totally ruined the flow of the concert, sitting down and standing up every ten minutes. I’ve been to pop concerts before (Britney and Gwen) and they leave their dancers out there to entertain us along with songs and video clips to watch. Gaga was having none of that.

But she sang beautifully, looked fierce (yes, I said fierce. How else do you explain her?), and put on a two and a half hour show with full force. I enjoyed the show, but it wasn’t my favorite and I don’t know if I’ll go back to see her again. I think three times is enough, especially at that price.

Take a look at some of my (horrible) photos from the show.

(You can't really tell, but there is a huge "monster" behind her)