Sara Hammerzmith

Alright! It’s been two years since Mother Monster last had her feet on Swedish grounds, at least when it comes to tours. But this time it was time for something, new, if you like: the Artpop Ball, also called artRAVE.

I’m in all honesty, as I said a few days ago, not too fond of “Artpop” compared to her earlier work, but it doesn’t change the fact that I, and Sofia for that matter, were beyond excited to see her again. But as usual, we came to the venue pretty late, during the last song of the first opener. We decided to first hit the merchstand, to pick up the ever so traditional tour-programme and hit the bathrooms before heading down to the standing area.

And I must say, when I entered the doors before going down the stairs, I was somewhat blown away. What a fucking setting she had! It literally felt like coming to some other kind of world, with the stage being literally ALL OVER THE PLACE! Like what the hell. I tried to capture it, but I don’t think I truly got it.

Despite the place looking crowded, we scored pretty good places, as usual. I don’t know what it is – we get there pretty much right before the shit starts, but always score decent places. Maybe it’s because we don’t have too high standards about spots for this, I don’t know. But we were pleased.We stood right in front of that dark singular platform you can see, next to the big white one.

After a minute or so, Lady Starlight entered the stage and started pumping up the rave. She gave us a pretty decent DJ-set, kind of setting the atmosphere for the night. I have never actually been to a rave-party, but this is somewhat what I’ve always pictured they’d be like, looking to the music, lightning and atmosphere.

Once Starlight had left the stage, the waiting started. And we waited. And waited. We sat down on the floor in the meantime, to make sure not to wear out our feet too much before the danceparty and I just love all the looks people gave us. If they only knew how often we actually go to concerts… haha.

A little bit after nine, the curtain finally fell and “Artpop” started with Lady Gaga coming out of the floor with her golden catsuit and wings. The arena practically exploded when she came out.

She followed up quickly with “G.U.Y” (which is one of the songs I DO like a lot on ArtPop) and later “Donatella”. Somewhere here she took off her wings and also the bathing suit, dressing down to the sea-shells and flowerpanties. I don’t remember exactly where. She continued on with “Venus” and “MANiCURE” before introducing “Just Dance”. While the intro was playing, she was down getting changed into a dress that brought us all the way back to the The Fame era. Me like.

In the white dress she fired of a medley containing “Just Dance”, “Pokerface” and “Telephone” before she disappears again leaving us to a pure “rave” moment (I don’t wanna call it rave, to make sure I don’t offend actual ravers). I must admit, I loved everything that was going on – the lightning, the odd dances, all the confetti spraying out ALL OVER THE PLACE, together with the music.

Before we knew it, she was back in a squid-like costume, and this could only mean one thing. Monster. The Fame Monster.

“Paparazzi”.

You guys might remember the giant fish-monster she had on stage for Monster Ball, called “The Fame Monster” and asked us to help photograph the monster to make it go away? Well, the fish isn’t there, but she has become one! It was fun nonetheless, haha.

After “Paparazzi”, they brought out this giant hand shaped like a monsters paw, that was actually a chair, in which Mother Monster took place when firing off one of her newer hits – “Do What U Want”. I don’t know how to describe this to you, but it gave me this… glamorous feeling, if you like? When she’s sitting up there in her monster paw that’s manicured and all. Loved it.

After “Do What U Want” she headed over to her piano and gave us a little speech about needing your friends and needing yourself before giving us a heartbreaking performance of “Dope”, followed up by “Yoü and I”.

For the next song, she pointed out a fan in the audience and invited her up on stage with her. It was a girl called Riia, and it always makes me so happy to see Gaga do this to her fans. With Riia next to her, she sang and performed and acoustic version of “Born This Way”.

A little later on the set, she sat down and looked at all the gifts and letters that had been thrown to her, and found a little frog and a letter from a fan, and managed to detect who had given her the letter. She talked a bit to her from stage, and went on to invite her to a meet&greet. Just fucking love it. What I do not like though, is when Gaga asked if she had any friends with her, A LOT of people around the girl started raising their hands and be like “We are her friends!” and the girl in question illustrated to Gaga that she only had 2 friends, and I tell you, it was more than two people who raised their hands… I guess some people are willing to do anything to meet their artists…

Anyway. After “Born This Way”, Gaga took Riia with her and left the stage for a costume change. When she came back, the started off yelling out the words “Edge of Glory” and then starting a new medley, beginning with “Judas” (oddly enough?!) and later followed by “Aura”, “Sexxx Dreams”, “Mary Jane Holland” and then moving onto “Alejandro”. I never really understood why she mashes it all up in medleys, but with that being said, it was still good.

She went back to the center of the stage and started giving a small speech about being yourself no matter what, doing yet another costume change, this one right before our eyes though and then hitting off with “Bad Romance”. And I can tell you one thing – while the crowd had been very active, there’s nothing like a “Bad Romance” dance party, that’s for sure.

After “Bad Romance”, she continued on with “Applause” and “Swine” before leaving the stage before encores. I’m always a bit surprised when people STILL leaves as soon as this happens – come on. Unless the lights have been switched on in the venue there’s more to come!

And of course it wasn’t. She came back out with gorgeously long blonde hair and a dress to die for before sitting down before her frozen piano, talking about love, equality, pride, and how we should always remember this day, when we were all united, we were all monsters before starting off the last song of the night.

See, if you see the setlist, it should really be “Marry The Night” who comes now, or possibly “The Edge Of Glory”. And while I love both of those two, I was still a little disappointed my favorite song off Artpop, “Gypsy” hadn’t been in the setlist. And then she started singing.

“Sometimes a story has no end….”

Wait.

What.

Wait. WAIT. WAIT. HOLD THE FUCKING PHONE.

SHE PLAYED “GYPSY”. SHE REALLY FUCKING DID.

Oh my god, I completely exploded on the inside. I usually have such bad luck with favorite songs, and hearing not just a favorite song, but specifically “Gypsy” made me cry, basically. I just stood there and absorbed everything that was Lady Gaga, everything that was Gypsy. Oh my god, I can’t even tell you enough how much I love this song and how much it means to me or anything, but the fact she chose to use it as her last song on the whole rave, makes me just… ahhh. Oh mylanta.

But yes. After “Gypsy”, she said good bye and left the stage for good for this time.

While I do think she performed extremely well, as an artist, the show itself wasn’t anything like it’s been in the past. The Monster Ball are my favorite show so far, both song-wise and performing-wise, and I’m not sure why it’s become like this, but then again – every artist and band needs to have a little bit of a “down-era” in order to get back even massiver, just look at Lordi.

Over all though – Thank you, Mother Monster. Thanks for the show, for the night, for the courage, for the music, for the songs and for everything you have ever done to me with your music and your speeches and just being you. Seeing Lady Gaga is for me not only seeing an artist. It’s so much more than that. And I can’t wait until she comes back-

Paws up, little monsters!

// Sara

SETLIST:
Artpop
G.U.Y
Donatella
Venus
MANiCURE
Just Dance / Pokerface / Telephone
Paparazzi
Do What U Want
Dope
Yoü And I
Born This Way
Judas / Aura / Sexxx Dreams / Mary Jane Holland
Alejandro
Bad Romance
Applause
Swine
—-
Gypsy

This entry was posted on October 1, 2014 at 9:48 pm and is filed under Concerts, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.