Gaga for Gaga

(Read more after the jump)
Tonight was just an absolutely incredible experience, a dream come true. I GOT TO SEE LADY GAGA! I am an unabashed "little monster." I don't wear Gaga wigs and costumes but I follow her twitter, I have her albums, I downloaded "Born this Way" the minute it came out, and I also go on youtube and try to download her live renditions. That being said nothing prepared me for the Monster Ball Experience tonight. Lady Gaga isn't just a singer, songwriter, and performer, she's also a woman with an uplifting, gentle message. She might wear skimpy, outlandish clothing, and pepper her concert with some profanities, but the Gaga image is essentially a positive, fan-friendly one. She stopped the show several times to talk about acceptance of gay teens, told the audience to "forget your insecurities," and repeatedly told her adoring fans how the love was returned. It was a 2+ hour lovefest between the Little Monsters and the Mother Monster.

Phoniness, lack of generosity, in a performer is something that can be smelled a mile away, even for highly choreographed shows like Monster Ball. The love and excitement Lady Gaga generates in her "Little Monsters" is not something that can be created by publicity. Lady Gaga gives her all in concert, and her fans give back. It's a wonderful feeling to be able to experience the palpable love, frenzy, excitement. Yes it might be cheesy that she starts off "Telephone" by calling a member of the audience, but since her appreciation of her fans is such a part of her persona, the cheesiness works. Lady Gaga sang for two hours, and until you've experienced all of Madison Square Garden ecstatically screaming the refrain to "Poker Face" or "Bad Romance," you really haven't experienced Gaga. When the audience sings "I'm your biggest fan/I'll follow you until you love me/Papa, paparazzi" the song all of a sudden became a huge expression of love between Gaga and her Little Monsters.

The show started with the propulsive beats of "Dance in the Dark" and ended with anthem renditions of "Bad Romance" and her new single "Born This Way." All of her big hits were there, including an incredible rendition of "Show Me Your Teeth," and she sang two new songs from her new album, the piano ballad "You and I" and of course "Born this Way." The show started with the propulsive beats of "Dance in the Dark" and ended with anthem renditions of "Bad Romance" and her new single "Born This Way," by which time the whole arena was just singing along, screaming, crying. Gaga's singles are all not only insanely catchy but are arena-filling anthems that made me forget, for just a moment, all my insecurities. I believed the Gaga message hook, line, and sinker. But let me stop with the words and let the pictures do the talking.

First, I found a video of "Bad Romance" that kind of captures what it was like:

And as a postscript, as me and my friend were leaving MSG and getting on the 3 train, a woman got on and sat directly across from us. I looked at her for a minute and quickly realized she was Caroline Kennedy, someone I've seen at the ballet and walking around Lincoln Center. She was all alone, and dressed very casually. Obviously she had come from the Gaga concert too -- everyone on the train was at the Gaga concert, it seemed. I poked my friend and he looked at her and suddenly she must have realized that we recognized her, because she smiled at us, waved, said hi. A drunken guy next to us was ranting and she made a funny face. We both got off the subway at 42nd St. and she was still looking at us and said "Getting off too." Finally I worked up the courage to say something to her and I said, "It's great that you support the ballet so much." She seemed surprised that I'd say something so specific and was like "Oh thanks" before me and my friend headed in a direction. But the whole point of the story is -- Caroline Kennedy is a Little Monster too!

Dump truck-turned-piano

Calling some audience member before "Telephone"

A costume change

SHOW ME YOUR TEETH!

The F train

Me and my friend

A real Monster!

"Bad Romance" - a whole arena singing along - incredible

Singing an a-cappella intro to "Born This Way"

Taking a final bow