It took us an extra five months, but I finally got to see Lady Gaga’s Mayhem Ball. Initially, my friends and I planned to see her in Chicago in September, but that plan failed.
I bought those tickets in the frenzy of the online ticket queue, satisfied that we were going to have a great time seeing Mother Monster and the sights of the Windy City. But as I put the event in my calendar I realized that instead of Chicago, I bought tickets for a Miami show. I frantically called Barb (aka The Marc Almond Superfan) and we decided to keep the tickets and see the sights of Miami instead. My friends, Karen and Mary’s schedules were open for the Miami trip too. Karen had to fly to Miami the afternoon of the Mayhem Ball, and despite weather delays, multiple Uber cancellations, and rush hour traffic, met us on time.
After a quick dinner, a short drive to the Kaseya Center and a parking lot snafu, we approached the venue 5 minutes before the show. As we waited to cross the street, a decked out fan walking toward us said the show was cancelled. The crowd stood around looking at their phones, some with tears streaming down their faces. A few minutes later, Lady Gaga posted that she had suffered a vocal strain during rehearsal and as much as she hated to, she had to postpone the show. The rescheduled date was TBD.
We downed our sorrows in ice cream and decided to continue with our itinerary which included checking out Little Havana, going for a walk on the beach, and taking an airboat ride, something I’ve wanted to do since I was a kid watching Gentle Ben on TV (boomer reference). We had fun, but it wasn’t quite the same.
The Miami show was rescheduled for March, but we opted instead for a recently added show in Phoenix on Valentine’s Day. Karen and I joined the ticket queue together, but I was required to give her my phone when I got in, so that we didn’t end up with tickets for a show in BFE. We lucked out, getting great seats for less than a car payment.
At the Desert Diamond Arena in Phoenix, we noted that not as many people were decked out for the show as the Little Monsters in Miami. Karen and I took great delight in dressing up again. Her dress in particular drew praise, too bad our photos don’t do it justice. We got our light up bracelets, took our seats and continued to enjoy the fans’ fashion show. Opera music played while a video of Lady Gaga writing on a scroll was projected above the gothic columned opera house set which spanned the stage. The lights went down and the title of the first act “Of Velvet and Vice” appeared on the screen.
Only someone with a talent as fierce as Lady Gaga could weave songs from across her catalog into a five act gothic opera about the battle for control between the dark and light sides of the soul, and draw an arena full of fans waving their hands and grooving to the thumping beat.
The Mayhem Ball was theatrical, energetic, and more entertaining than a Broadway musical. The choreography and costumes were over the top. Her connection with the audience felt authentic and, best of all, her voice was in peak form.
Mother Monster glided on stage in an enormous red ball gown singing “Bloody Mary.” As she transitioned into “Abracadabra” the gown opened revealing a cage full of dancers. Shouting, “put your fucking hands in the air”, she descended through the gown to the stage, hobbled out of the cage with a cane and joined the dancers in a routine that was part broken marionette, part zombie, and all fire. It was a hint of the darkness to come.
Surprisingly, a reimagined version of “Shallow,” her duet with Bradley Cooper from A Star is Born, fit the gothic theme. Gaga sang it solo to her dark alter-ego as they glided down the mist-covered catwalk in a creepy rowboat.
The most striking moment of the night was when she sang “Perfect Celebrity” partially buried in a giant sandbox with a skeleton and several skulls. Caressing the skeleton while she sang added a hint of menace to her lyrics about the love/hate relationship of stardom. The visual metaphor carried into “Disease” as the skulls, who turned out to be dancers, rose from the sand. Gaga writhed and twitched, freeing herself from the sand as if frightened by her surroundings. Tim Burton couldn’t have staged it better.
There was so much to take in, I didn’t pay much attention to the band until a costume change afforded them a moment in the spotlight. They crushed an instrumental intro to “Killah.” Lady Gaga took the stage again, and naturally a giant skull was the backdrop for “Killah,” a song with homicidal metaphors for lust and obsession. It might have been at this point in the show that I thought, “I want to see this again. I wonder where the tour goes from here?”
A dedicated LGBTQ+ advocate, Lady Gaga celebrated the queer community and encouraged everyone who felt like an outsider “to love yourself.” At the end of “Paparazzi,” her catwalk length train lit up like a rainbow. During her piano set she dedicated “Hair” to the Valentine’s Day crowd and thanked everyone for their support over the last 20 years. Her sentiment was heartfelt and had a few of us misty eyed.
The two hour show ended with Gaga, sans makeup and wig, singing “How Bad Do You Want Me” as the camera followed her from backstage, through the audience and onto the stage where she was joined by her dancers. The group waved goodbye and bowed as one.
Despite the drama we experienced leading up to the Mayhem Ball, it was absolutely worth the wait. If a DVD of the show is ever released, I’ll be first in line to buy it, that is if my friends don’t insist on purchasing it for me so I don’t end up buying porn by accident. Until then, I’ll relive the magic by blasting Lady Gaga in the car and watching cell phone videos of the Mayhem Ball online.
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