going GaGa

Last November, I bought tickets for the Bon Jovi concert that was coming this March to SLC. Shortly after that, I learned that Lady Gaga was also coming in March, and her concert was just 3 days before Bon Jovi's, and at the same place, too--the Energy Solutions Arena. I knew that Josh really liked Lady Gaga, and I love her songs, so I convinced Josh to let me buy tickets for the Lady Gaga concert as well. I bought the second-cheapest-amount tickets, and figured the seats would be alright, they were half-way up the upper section, and were to the side/front of the stage. For both concerts, I ordered 3 tickets, because my friend Heather (who lives in SLC) wanted to go, too. From November to March, I looked forward with eager anticipation to attend the concerts, and I made plans for Josh and I to have a short vacation in between the two. The Lady Gaga concert was the beginning of our vacation on Saturday, March 19th. We left the three older boys in Salmon with Josh's parents, and we took Kanyon to Tremonton to my parents' house. We drove to SLC and picked up Heather and went out to dinner before the concert began.
 

One of my favorite parts about the Lady Gaga concert was the fans. I've never seen so many people dress up for a concert! I loved all the costumes and all the out-of-this-world attire! I absolutely LOOOOVED it!!! I didn't get a lot of good pictures of the people from the crowd, but here's an example of some of what we saw:  

  

When we found our seats, I was gravely disappointed. When I purchased the tickets, our seats looked like they would be in front of and to the side of the stage. But the stage jutted out much further than what it was supposed to be, and our seats were exactly parallel with the stage. This would not have been a bad thing except for the fact that there was only ONE screen, and it was facing forward. There were 3 songs in which she sang and danced on a giant platform on the stage, but we couldn't see her because the speakers hung down so low on our side and there was no screen to view her. Everyone that we sat by in our section felt the same way: we got gypped. This is what the stage looked like from our seats...She is singing a song, but you can't see her because of the speakers that are hanging down on the right side of the photo. You can see the screen hanging down in the middle of the photo, but because we were exactly parallel with it, we couldn't see a thing on it. Sooo disappointing.

The Lady Gaga concert was...well, long. The concert was supposed to start at 8:00. At about 8:25, her preshow group, the "Scissors Sisters" performed for 20 minutes. They were alright. I'd never heard of them before, but they put on a good show. They were done at 8:45, and then we waited AN HOUR AND FIFTEEN MINUTES for Gaga. And during that whole time, there was nothing but elevator music playing. There was NO air conditioning, and it was HOT in the building with thousands and thousands of people waiting. At 10:00 the vendors closed, and so by the time she finally came out, there was no more opportunity to buy drinks or snack food. It was prolonged agony just waiting in the heat, and the fans were getting irritated. So by the time she actually appeared, I was already upset between the waiting and the lousy seats without a screen to see. I enjoyed her actual performance (well, what I actually could see of it), and I think that I would pay to watch her again, but next time, I would pay for better seats.

Lady Gaga is all about the costumes, dancers, and fancy sets. Her concert was called "Monster Ball", and she followed a story line as she sang her songs. First her truck was broken down, so she couldn't get to the ball (I loved how the hood opened up to reveal a piano).

Then there was a broken down subway car that was keeping her from getting to the ball.

Then she called somebody in the audience before the song "Telephone", and donated money to a homeless shelter in that person's name, and she talked on the phone with that audience member over the loudspeakers and offered them a backstage pass after the show to meet with her one-on-one.

Some of my favorite songs of the night were "Boys, Boys, Boys", "Alejandro", and "Poker Face"...

At the end of the show, she finally got to the "Monster Ball" and she sang the song "Paparazzi" to a giant monster.

Her encore performance was amazing; she came out and did "Bad Romance" and "Born this Way". It was an awesome ending to her concert.

The show ended at 11:45. She performed for an hour and forty five minutes...and the minute she was done, the air conditioners in the building came on. I don't know what that was all about, but it felt so good to breathe in cool air again!!! I was impressed that she could perform for so long! She is an excellent singer and performer. She doesn't engage the audience like Garth Brooks or Bon Jovi, but she definitely has pure, raw talent, and her music is incredible.

By the time we got out of there, and dropped Heather off, and arrived at our hotel, it was 1:00am. It was such a long night, but it was a fun way to start our couples vacation together!