In-A-Gaga-Da-Vida

Well, eeh...oops! What was that?! Seems like I wound up working as stagehands for Lady Gaga last Thursday night at Hartwall Arena. We were quite a big bunch of local roadies but were all allowed to watch almost the entire show for free. I wouldn´t have paid for it but free of charge? Come on...of course I checked it out! It was real fun to see us bearded mid-thirty guys with Motörhead shirts, Misfits caps and Entombed patches among all these überstyled teens and twens. By now I maybe don´t have to explain anymore that this kind of music ain´t my cup of tea but I never disliked her stuff too much either. Plus I think there is something about her. In a way she´s a modern Madonna, talent combined with lots of shock-value and all. The show was BIG and explained the huge number of my collegues. Let´s see...we had a full band, five backround singers, twenty dancers, podiums, staircases and a glowing cube on stage, a giant monster fish, a catwalk into the audience, lots of neon signs, video projections, all kinds of props, a subway car replica, a real Mad Max style car and plenty of gay pride with sexual undertones (or overtones?). Ah yes, and she changed her outfit at least five times. I don´t know if you need all this but with todays kids, maybe you do. Just four musicians on stage? Boring. No glitz, no glamour? Zap to another channel. This was a video game and Lady Gaga pushed the buttons on her adoring crowd. Did a lot of propagaganda, too. She thanked her fans to an almost unbearable extent (at one point I saw her enormous face on one of the screens and wondered if I really saw tears in her eyes), she encouraged them to be proud of themselves, no matter from where they are or what they are or bla bla bla and talked a lot of unity talk. Pathetic, yes but hey! Message and attitude were thin, perhaps even calculated but alright! Rather that than some ungrateful fuck on stage who doesn´t communicate at all with the fans. Very few get away with that.

The Gagamobile leaves Hartwall Arena. 

What did the trick for me was seeing her perform a song alone, just playing piano and singing a slow ballad. Again lots of talking in between (she ridiculed and definetely eliminated rumors she would lip-sync) but that was the part of this whole extravaganza where she showed that she is a really good and talented musician. It was also the calmest part that proved she doesn´t need the circus around her to appear good. But to avoid confusing the teenagers who need explosions and five different things happening simultaneously to feed their ADHD they at least set her piano on fire. What a laugh...

CONCLUSIO: I am not a fan now but I am convinced that Lady Gaga is one of the good people. Whoever is a fan of her and/or her music has my blessing. Not that I think anybody would care...

POST SCRIPTUM: We packed and dragged her shit into the trucks until 4am.