“Top 2010 concert slide shows: Lady Gaga and her fans”

Top 2010 concert slide shows: Lady Gaga and her fans

Posted: 01 Jan 2011 09:00 PM PST

Love her or hate her, it's getting hard to remember life before Lady Gaga, the flamboyantly theatrical dance-pop provocateur who arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday for the first of two nights at Staples Center.

In just two years, the sudden superstar formerly known as Stefani Germanotta has sold 13 million or so albums, racked up seven Top 10 singles, made music videos matter again, and become the most talked-about pop star in recent memory.

Lady Gaga fans, dressed for the occasion, pause for a photo before the first of her two shows at Staples Center Wednesday.

KEVIN SULLIVAN, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

So while indie artists merely play gigs, and mainstream rockers appear in concert, Gaga comes to town and it's an event, a happening, a show with a capital S and an exclamation point, attended by giddy fans who packed the arena to find out what tricks and treats her Monster Ball Tour would deliver.

And after six stage sets, 10 costumes, 19 songs and more than two hours of over-the-top performance, those devotees were not disappointed.

The show opened with a tease: Lady Gaga behind a curtain in oversize silhouette, bathed in purple backlights as she sang the opening lines of "Dance in the Dark." When the curtain finally lifted halfway through the number, it revealed a multi-level post-apocalyptic set – think "Mad Max" meets "Escape from New York" – that would change half a dozen times throughout the night as the storyline of the show unfolded.

For in the same way that her debut, The Fame, and its follow-up, The Fame Monster, can be considered concept albums about the pursuit of love, sex, money and celebrity (as well as their perils), this Monster Ball tour is also centered on those themes, with Gaga as Dorothy in the Thunderdome, leading her followers ("All you've got to do is follow the Glitter Way!" she says early on) through the danger to that perfect party out there in the night.

Is it a bit of a reach? Maybe. Silly at times? Of course. But would you expect anything less of Lady Gaga? Of course not.

Given that so much was happening in the arena on Wednesday, we'll break down the rest of the night in bite-sized categories, starting with…

The songs: As you'd expect the biggest hits got the biggest responses. "Just Dance" early in the night got the crowd doing just that. "Telephone," the tune Gaga recorded with Beyoncé, was a highlight in the middle of the set, while the show closed with her best hits: "Poker Face," "Paparazzi" and the irresistible "Bad Romance," which had the entire audience on their feet dancing and singing along.

Most songs were done as extravagant production numbers, with up to 10 dancers joining the band. But calmer highlights came during two slower songs performed at the piano midway into the show: "Speechless," which Gaga performed as a duet with Elton John at the Grammys here in January, and a new rock ballad, "You and I," which found her channeling Elton a little, smashing the keys with her stiletto boot heel while standing on the bench and keyboard itself.

The costumes: The what-will-she-wear-next? question is a large part of Gaga's fame. Just people-watching before the show fascinated for the sheer variety of similarly inspired outfits fans wore. We counted at least 10 costume changes, everything from the relatively tame (for her) nun's habit with see-through latex mini-dress during "Lovegame" to the rubbery black bikini she donned for those two songs at the piano.

Most beautiful might have been the white fairy gown, headdress and wings Gaga wore to sing "So Happy I Could Die." Most entertaining? Has to be the sparks-and-flame-shooting bra and panties she changed into to battle a huge animatronic monster that wrapped her in its rubbery tentacles during a show-stopping performance of "Paparazzi."

The persona: At 24, Lady Gaga's fame has come so fast you sometimes feel like her stage persona is still developing. The song-and-dance work is terrifically appealing, yet some songs were drawn out too much. "Teeth" got larded up in pseudo-religious chatter and a lot of talking about how Jesus would love everyone.

And while there were plenty of sincere moments, such as her shout-outs for gay pride and equality before singing "Boys Boys Boys," at other times her between-songs patter was either too much Mötley Crüe ("Are you guys ready to ----ing PARTY!?!") or self-congratulatory (a nice thank-you to fans -- "I was once a very strange girl in a not-so-strange town and you all believed in me" -- segued into thanks to her record label and her agents).

After a second night at Staples -- where only two years ago she was second opening act for the New Kids on the Block reunion and last fall was set to open for Kanye West's almost instantly scrubbed tour -- this Monster Ball just rolls on. If you missed it, she'll return to Staples for another show on March 28.

Semi Precious Weapons opened just as they have since both the group and Gaga were still playing bars to small audiences in New York City four years ago. After hearing them play a shrill set of pseudo-glam rock, however, it's clear why she's now a superstar and they're still mostly unknown.

Photo by Kevin Sullivan, The Orange County Register.

Lady Gaga at Staples Center

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Lady Gaga fans, dressed for the occasion, pause for a photo before the first of her two shows at Staples Center Wednesday.

KEVIN SULLIVAN, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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