Lady Gaga performs at Rosemont Friday, January 8. View more photos of the Lady Gaga concert HERE. (Tribune photo by Chris Sweda)
Lady Gaga paused in the middle of her concert Friday at the Rosemont Theatre and momentarily basked in applause from her geeked-out fans, many of them accessorized in Gaga-like finery. Then she yawned and examined her fingernails.
It was just one of many little sarcastic asides in a show that played like one long critique of celebrity, the first of a three-night Chicago residency. The 110-minute set had some pacing problems, and a few slack moments. But overall this was a visual spectacle heavy on ideas rather than self-aggrandizing glamor, disturbing and provocative as much as it was grandiose.
Music? Yes, there was that, too, more of a soundtrack (uptempo electronic music outfitted with rock flourishes) to the visual blitz on a stage that resembled a long hallway of video screens receding into the horizon. The singer born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta 23 years ago has been in the public spotlight for only about a year, and she already has a handful of catchy hits. The latest, “Bad Romance,” was saved for last. Another, the mega “Poker Face,” was performed twice.
Gaga owned 2009 in pop music because she grasped that in this over-stimulated, attention-deficit era, each song, each gesture, each sashay in front of thousands of cellphone cameras needs to be an event or it won’t resonate. In an era where singles rule rather than albums, Gaga sold more than 15 million digital tracks last year, more than any other artist ever. Her hits were accompanied by alluring, arty videos, referencing everything from German cult figure Klaus Nomi to Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo.”
She’s taken her high-concept show on the road and toured relentlessly – just a little over a year ago she was an obscure opening act for New Kids on the Block. The current tour has had its share of bumps. A double-bill with Kanye West evaporated when the hip-hop star pulled out last year, and then as Gaga expanded her theater show, she abruptly moved into larger venues, forcing a last-minute ticket exchange in Chicago that inconvenienced fans.
But there were few signs of dissent Friday, as the audience – a cross-cultural mix that included schoolchildren, gay couples, and packs of Gaga-imitating young women – stood and danced through most of the show as Gaga alternately baited, thanked and sang for them.
And she really did sing – rather than lip-sync – in a tougher-than-expected alto with some gritty, blues-dipped inflections, from the sinister “Monster” to the instant gay anthem “Boys, Boys, Boys.” She managed to belt out the 18 songs live even while working through some energetic routines with about a dozen dancers, strenuous double-duty that performers like Madonna, Britney Spears and Janet Jackson can’t seem to manage without resorting to canned vocals. She sat alone at the piano to pound out a couple of tunes, including an ill-advised slow-paced “Poker Face”; fortunately she brought it back later in its full-on electronic version.
Underpinning many of the songs was Gaga’s skeptical take on fame, which took on the physical properties of a predator. Her many costume changes weren’t so much about emphasizing her sex appeal as they were symbols conjured up in nightmares. She embodied a raven and a fang-baring wolf, rarely playing to sex-nymph clichés that plague most pop concerts. Indeed, many of the costumes distorted or disguised Gaga’s feminine features; in videos that separated the songs, she sported antlers and cloven hoofs, wore hideous masks and was the target of a blue-hued stream of vomit. On “Paparazzi,” she was chained to a metal bar, her celebrity a form of bondage.
The singer reveled in the provocations and salty language, but she also clearly enjoyed expanding the notion of just who a star is and how one should act. Implied in her every unconventional gesture was that there was room for everyone, no matter how much of an outsider, in her spotlight.
greg@gregkot.com
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Click here for photos from Friday night's show.
Lady Gaga set list Friday at the Rosemont Theatre:
1. Dance in the Dark
2. Just Dance
3. LoveGame
4. Alejandro
5. Monster
6. So Happy I Could Die
7. Teeth
8. Speechless
9. Poker Face (Acoustic)
10. The Fame
11. Money Honey
12. Beautiful, Dirty, Rich
13. Boys Boys Boys
14. Paper Gangsta
15. Poker Face
16. Paparazzi
Encore:
17. Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)
18. Bad Romance
Sponsored Link: Amazon's Lady Gaga Store