Review: Lady Gaga brings Born This Way Ball to Phoenix
By Joe Golfen
Lady Gaga sure knows how to make an entrance.
The pop superstar arrived onstage at US Airways Center in Phoenix on Wednesday, Jan. 23, singing “Highway Unicorn (Road to Love)” while riding through the gates of an elaborate three-story castle atop a human-powered robotic horse and dressed in a fearsome, “Alien”-inspired outfit.
And that was just the first song.
The nearly two-and-a-half hour show, a stop on her worldwide Born This Way Ball, highlighted everything that has made Lady Gaga such a phenomenon. There were outrageous outfits, elaborate set pieces, sexy dance numbers, and messages of self-respect and gay rights. Plus, all those hit songs.
And while much of Gaga’s shock value has worn off with time,
that packed arena of screaming fans made it clear that her star wasn’t going to be fading away anytime soon.
That’s not to say there weren’t a few shocking moments. While she skipped the controversial “gun bra,” which some fans found insensitive in light of recent school shootings, the intro to “Born This Way” did feature Gaga giving birth to herself out of an inflatable pregnant belly, complete with enormous legs and a well-placed zipper
The tightly-choreographed show seemed as much a Broadway-style musical as it did a pop concert, complete with a loose story about Gaga being an alien from G.O.A.T. (Government Owned Alien Territory), sent to study the music and fashion of Earth in order to take it over.
Mother G.O.A.T., a floating, “Max Headroom”-style head would occasionally address the crowd, talking about the need to capture Gaga, who herself spent some time explaining her alien origins and plans for world domination. Meanwhile, the pop diva went through an impressive range of costume changes, all designed by famed fashion labels Versace, Moschino and Armani.
But for all the theatrics, it was really the music that drove the packed arena crazy. The crowd went absolutely insane for songs such as “Born This Way,” the title track from her multi-platinum 2011 release, as well as “”Black Jesus † Amen Fashion” and “Bloody Mary.”
The stage featured a circular runway that jutted out into the crowd, allowing fans a close look at Gaga and her dancers as they paraded around.
Gaga emerged from an enormous egg for “Bad Romance,” much like the one she arrived in at the 2011 Grammy Awards, and “Judas” found her fighting to break free from a pair of burly, half-naked captors.
For “Heavy Metal Lover,” Gaga recreated the hilariously ridiculous album art of “Born This Way,” laying across a three-wheeled motorcycle, with her arms forming the front forks of the bike and turning her face into the headlight. This Gaga bike was soon mounted by a female rider, who drove it around the runway a bit more sensually than your average biker might.
A lively version of “Poker Face” featured Gaga tied to a rack alongside cuts of beef while wearing her famous meat dress (though this time it looked pretty vegetarian). During the song, Gaga and a few of her dancers were fed into enormous meat grinders, and while the results weren’t as gory as they might be at a Gwar show, it was over-the-top fun.
Between songs, Gaga spent a long time talking to the crowd about how she always dreamed of being a pop star and the hard work it took to get her there, thanking the crowd many times for their years of support. She even sang “Happy Birthday” to one of her dancers, a 23-year-old called Black Jesus, who seemed genuinely moved when the crowd started to sing along.
“Five years ago, I was a waitress in New York City,” Gaga told the crowd at one point as they erupted in applause. “Now there are 15,000 people in Phoenix singing every word to my songs.”
While she probably says something to that effect each night of the show, Gaga really managed to sell the audience on her gratitude. She didn’t come off as phony or arrogant, and the crowd returned that gratitude to her tenfold. A significant portion of the audience even came dressed in revealing Gaga tribute costumes, practically making blonde wigs, spandex and giant white sunglasses the dress-code for the pit area.
At one point in the night, Gaga called a girl in the crowd on her cell phone to invite her backstage and to tell everyone that the call was part of an ongoing promotion with Virgin Mobile, and that $5,000 would now be donated to a local homeless shelter. Needless to say, the lucky fan was delighted.
The night drew to a close with “Paparazzi,” during which Gaga defeated the menacing Mother G.O.A.T. using a magic “disco stick,” a nod to her tune “Love Games.”
After ending the show with “Scheiße,” Gaga returned for an encore of “The Edge of Glory” and “Marry the Night.”
Before she hit her final note, Gaga looked into the massive crowd and asked them “to never forget me, because I’ll never forget you.”
But after the 25-song spectacle she’d just put on, Lady Gaga needn’t worry about slipping her fan’s minds anytime soon.
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