The lady is a tramp, and that’s just the way we like her.
At Radio City Music Hall last night, for the first night of her four-night residency at the landmark theater, pop culture’s it girl — Lady Gaga — worked the beats of her dance-driven hits with lusty sex appeal, raunchy banter and choreography as tight as her formfitting costumes.
Despite her Grammy nominations and her run of hit singles that topped last year’s charts, Gaga isn’t just about the music. Yes, the fans loved her tunes last night, but they had equal appreciation for her glamhappy sense of style (imitated by girls and boys) and her in-your-face attitude, which seems to punctuate every song.
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When she gripped her crotch and snarled to emphasize lyrics in the song “Teeth,” for instance, the gesture didn’t seem all that inappropriate.
The same can’t be said about her X-rated banter or the simulated orgy that accompanied the tune “Alejandro.”
Although the guys in the house appreciated Gaga’s effort, parents who had kiddies in tow had to wonder what they’d gotten themselves into.
Look at any of the eight costume changes and you know the Gaga experience isn’t designed for children, although there were plenty of them in the house bouncing and screaming like little monsters.
Songs, including “Boys, Boys, Boys,” “Love-Games,” and “Just Dance” put young and old alike in a shimmy-shimmy-shake frenzy.
The energy that the audience brought to this show, in turn, seemed to charge Gaga, but those who saw her play Terminal 5 last year are familiar with her lady-of-perpetual-motion style.
That’s where the similarities between the two shows ended. In the opener, “Dance in the Dark,” and the songs that followed, Gaga delivered an extravaganza that made her past live work seem puny in comparison.
But the novelty of kitsch, no matter how sexy, can wear thin. That’s probably why her version of “Poker Face” was retooled into a bluesy mid-tempo piano ballad that was so far from the studio version, many in the audience didn’t immediately recognize one of the most played songs of 2009.
Another big difference between this show and the club tour was in how Gaga shifted her priority from style to musicianship as the performance gained momentum.
Early in the concert last night, it was all about recorded tracks and dance beats. Later, the arrangements included a live band that reacted to her vocals.
She provided her own piano accompaniment on the song “Speechless,” lending the ballad an honesty that you’d never expect from a woman who earlier in the night told the crowd, “I hate the truth. I prefer a giant dose of bulls- – -. ”
There were a few soft spots, such as the weary “So Happy I Could Die,” but it was easy to forgive the lulls when the rest of the show was so engaging.