Lady Gaga’s Monster madhouse
Lady Gaga brought her Monster Ball Tour to the United Center for a sold-out show Monday night, in the process proving that if she’s not Madonna’s equal as a singer or dancer, she just might rival her as a conceptual pop artist.
“The Monster Ball will set you free, Chicago!” she proclaimed, going on to call it “a place I created so my fans would have a place to go.”
First appearing behind a scrim, she put her New York University art-school background to use with a high-tech stage show that expressed a persistent message of self-acceptance and personal empowerment, while never letting the jungle groove subside — even if the band’s thumping rhythm section was largely hidden behind the dancers and set.
Talk about the “Madhouse on Madison,” these were some of the sights seen: abundant Gaga wannabees, packs of teenage girls in sequined dresses, glitter on the floor of the UC lobby, a guy in an Aztec headdress, another in a bunny suit (and mask), a guy with a linebacker’s build in lingerie, and Lady Gaga herself coming out dressed in a linebacker’s shoulder pads, then in a series of outfits that were never less than cheeky.
Yet, where the show was concerned, as wacky as it got — with Gaga at one point donning a plastic, see-through frock, matched with headgear right out of “The Flying Nun” — it always seemed to have a point, albeit one to sometimes simply shock. It took glam theatrics on the order of Kiss or David Bowie and on the scale of Madonna, yet it never seemed unfocused as it headed inevitably toward the final homily: “Good night, little monsters. Be yourself. Love who you are. Follow your dreams.”
Of course, a little blood play, a generous helping of salty language and an abundance of simulated sex — straight, gay and otherwise — grants a little edge to even the most comforting homilies, and the fans delighted in it like devotees of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” at one point throwing stuff onto the extended runway stretching into the crowd floor.
“It’s raining unicorns and gay teddy bears,” Lady Gaga gushed, then bit the heads off several Barbies, sparing only a Paul Stanley Kiss doll.
Through it all, the music never stopped thumping, and the fans never stopped waving their hands in the air, especially as the one-hour, 50-minute set picked up pace at the end with the hits “Poker Face,” “Paparazzi” and encores “Bad Romance” and her latest single, “Born This Way.”
If Lady Gaga’s music projects a certain ambivalence, a love-hate attitude toward practically everything, the music never relents with its feel-good groove, and that carries both Lady Gaga and her fans through.
The late start on a Monday night kept younger fans home, but there were plenty of Gaga wannabes, and enough teenage girls and gay men to fill a “Glee” fan convention, along with a surprising number of young adults simply there to enjoy the music and the spectacle.
Lady Gaga’s fellow New Yorkers Scissor Sisters opened, and they went over as well as an opening act can. If the Lord Humungous had a house band in “The Road Warrior,” it would no doubt have looked like this group. Yet, driven by a crack three-piece disco combo and falsetto soul call-and-response vocals worthy of Chicago’s own Curtis Mayfield, they revved the crowd up for the headliner, and left a strong impression of their own.