Lady Gaga

02/03/2010

The best is yeti to come @ SECC, Glasgow

Lady Gaga
SECC, Glasgow
4/5

Fresh from her tearful Brit Awards success the walking piece of art that is Lady Gaga is out to prove she is the new Queen of Pop with Monster Ball – two hours of outrageous, weird, flamboyant fun with flaming pianos, a giant sea monster, green vomit, group masturbation and, of course, crazy outfits.

“All the freaks are outside and we’ve locked the fucking doors,” the ‘Poker Face’ star screams to a Gaga-cloned crowd while wearing a skimpy, box-shouldered, padded leotard.

With 15 outfit changes Gaga doesn’t disappoint. At one point she is dressed as a yeti crossed with a lampshade, an outfit she removes to reveal the Roman soldier-cum-sasquatch beneath.

But it isn’t just her costumes that shock and captivate the audience. At points throughout the night videos of Lady Gaga are projected onto the backdrop; one with her topless, one with a girl spewing green vomit on her and another with her vomiting blood. She bathes in a fountain of dripping blood and gets eaten by a giant sea monster.

Gaga’s music isn’t always the main focus of the show. Songs like ‘Glitter and Grease’ and ‘Forest’ rely on theatrics to keep the audience’s attention but Gaga isn’t just about the music; she is an actress, a dancer, an artist, a performer.

Pop stars are expected to be transformative at concerts but Gaga takes it to the extreme and is walking, talking art. She is pushing the limits of what society sees as art, and sees as acceptable.

Although the impatient crowd is booing before she turns up 45 minutes late in a very underwhelming entrance (she stands static behind a giant curtain, singing) she more than makes up for it as her show takes you on a journey into an alternate universe and you experience the crazy mind that is Gaga.

It is hard to believe that Lady Gaga has only been famous for one year. The new Queen of Pop? Madonna, Kylie – look to your laurels.

By Beth Eckersley