Lady Gaga – Rogers Arena – August 7, 2014
This weekend, Lady Gaga brought her North American ArtRave: The Artpop Ball tour to a close in Vancouver. A rescheduled show, the original May date was cancelled due to illness, the anticipation was definitely palpable in the room as Lady Starlight kept the early audience dancing with a DJ set. The hour long gap between Lady Starlight and Lady Gaga coming on-stage created a bit of a lull in the energy but once the curtain dropped to reveal a Botticelli’s Venus inspired set the wave of excitement engulfed the room.
Rising out from centre-stage wearing a bodysuit with wings, the ‘Mother Monster’ drew the applause of her ‘Little Monsters’ as she danced her way around the serpentine stage, backed by a dozen dancers and 5 band members. The excitement continued for the next 90 minutes, countless costume and wig changes (many happening onstage on the fly), and 22 songs. Starting off with ArtPop and running through a selection of songs from “ArtPop”, plus favourites from her other albums, “The Fame” and “Born This Way”, only slowing down for a couple of stripped down piano versions of Dope and Born This Way. The concert appeared to go off without any glitches, if there can be one fault of a Lady Gaga show is that it’s too rehearsed, even the spontaneous moments are scripted and planned with precision. Much credit goes to the artist and her crew to make sure that props and people are perfectly placed on cue. With such a heavy workload; singing, dancing with taking just a few short breaks during the set, Lady Gaga fed off the energy from the wildly diverse crown as much as they fed off the vibrant performance before them. Although they had to wait an extra 3 months to see the superstar, I’m sure most everyone felt ArtRave: The ArtPop Ball was worth the wait.
With North America wrapped, the tour takes a short break to regroup and start off again on the European leg in September.
Follow more from The ArtPop Ball on Twitter @LadyGaga or #ArtRave