Lady Gaga returned home last week and no, I don’t mean back to some cosmic planet from which she seems to hail. Gaga returned back to her hometown New York City for a concert at Madison Square Garden. To help celebrate her return to the place where she got her start in grimy clubs, she selected glam band Semi-Precious Weapons as her opening act.
Semi-Precious Weapons managed to do the unthinkable which was momentarily get the crowd of “monsters,” to momentarily get Lady Gaga off of their minds and focus on the band’s exuberant energy, danceable tracks and captivating stage presence. Lead singer, Justin Tranter is perhaps the closet thing to a male Lady Gaga, with his animated and delightfully crass stage antics that proved irresistible to concertgoers.
After the band’s set, the crowd waited with anticipation for Lady Gaga to arrive and arrive she did. Gaga’s silhouette appeared in the far right corner of the stage with the thumping beat of “Dance in the Dark,” as she increased the audience’s anxiousness for her full appearance. Finally, midway through the song the crowd got a full look at Gaga as she descended the stairs down into the depths of what appeared to be a dilapidated city’s back alley.
While the props—amongst them a beaten down car that later turned into a makeshift piano—were impressive there was a disturbing dark undertone reflected in the flashing neon lights of her set. Words like “drugs” and “death” flashed during the show for no apparent reason. This nature of Gaga’s dark tendencies is perhaps her greatest mystery and one that begs further analyzing.
However no one at the Garden was in the mood for analyzing since the crowd was on its feet during most of her show for hit after hit including “Telephone,” “Alejandro,” “Just Dance,” “Paparazzi,” “Bad Romance” and more.
Gaga served the crowd with numerous costume changes, stylized choreography and her witty outspoken banter that consistently brought the crowd to cheers. Perhaps what was most touching was to see the self-described “monster,” almost break down in tears from the realization that her dreams have come true after years of growing up feeling like an outsider.