“For Those Of You Who Did Not Come For ArtPop Then We Are Sorry – But This Is The artRAVE!”
– Lady Gaga (30/8/14 at All Phones Arena Sydney)
On the 30th of August All Phones Arena was taken over by Little Monsters and became the #artRAVE: The Artpop Ball, Lady Gaga’s latest tour to promote her album ArtPop. If you came to hear Gaga’s past hits you may have been disappointed the focus on the show was ArtPop, but as Gaga always does she put on an amazing show. Lady Gaga always makes sure the crowd gets up and enjoys themselves, she announced to the crowd “get up, don’t waste your money” and “this is the artRAVE and you must grab a glow stick and a drink or GET THE FUCK OUT.”
There was a beautiful moment when Gaga read a note from a fan that was thrown up onto the stage, saying how Gaga gave him the strength to come out to his family and to live freely as himself. The note ended asking if he could give her a hug to thank her, which she then instructed to “make sure he comes backstage.” She also continued her message of freedom and love and highlighted her amazing vocal talent with an acoustic version of Born This Way and sang about how her fans are so important to her in a rendition of Dope, saying “this lyric is about you – my heart would break without you…I need you more than dope.”
The stage, lighting, dancers, costume and wig changes were all amazing as usual, one costume change taking place front and centre of the stage with Gaga freely baring all. But the main highlights of a Lady Gaga show is her passion for her fans, her message for being yourself and being accepting and loving of others and how incredible she sounds live. The passion is reciprocated from her fans and you can feel the joyful energy in the arena through the show. During the final song Gyspy, fans joyfully made a dance circle at the back of the arena dance floor.
The only disappointing aspect was this particular show was 2 songs shorter than the other Australian shows, with my personal favourite from ArtPop Aura and Judas being skipped because Gaga was sick. It was great however to hear an interlude of the song Ratchet in between costume changes, the track not yet released was said to be cut from ArtPop and was to feature Azealia Banks.
One of the best things about going to a Lady Gaga concert is going wearing whatever you want and seeing how other concertgoers are dressed up. The night is always filled with an appreciation of self expression, artistic expression and being who you want to be.
What is interesting is this tour was not as popular (ticket sales wise) as the Born This Way Ball (which was a spectacular show), most likely because, let’s be honest, the promotion of ArtPop was not the best. I actually really love ArtPop and it has great songs for singles, but with the delay between music videos and apparent disagreements on which singles should be released, radio airplay really suffered. I think it is also important not to compare Gaga to other pop stars on the charts at the moment, even though she is a mainstream star she is perhaps not as universally accessible as her counterparts, and she doesn’t try to be, which is not a bad thing at all (and why her little monsters love her).
Lady Gaga’s next album is a Jazz album with Tony Bennett called Cheek to Cheek, which is a big change from ArtPop. But it will be sure to highlight Gaga’s vocal talent.
ARTRAVE SYDNEY SETLIST
- ArtPop
- G.U.Y
- Donatella
- Venus
- MANiCure
- Just Dance
- Poker Face
- Paparazzi
- Do What U Want
- Dope (acoustic)
- Born This Way (acoustic)
- The Edge of Glory
- Sexxx Dreams
- Alejandro
- Bad Romance
- Applause
- Swine
- Gypsy
Thank you and until next time Lady Gaga.
Ally GreekName Blog 