After a short one-day work week, my girlfriend and I headed to Miami for NYE. My big Christmas gift to her this year was tickets to see Kid Cudi and Lady Gaga in concert on NYE in Miami. While this is not my type of musical taste, I played the part of the good boyfriend, smiled and went to the show.
After getting a little, or a lot, lost on the way to the show, we arrived in time to see the first band. Semi Precious Weapons, out of New York City, took the stage as I was getting our first round of rum and cokes. This flamboyant band was loud and proud of who they were. Each song while not great, was very catchy. Still today I have a couple of their hooks/choruses in my head. The thing that stood out the most was their between-song chatter with the chord. The lead singer pawned off the band’s t-shirts, one of which said (and the singer said this often), “I can’t pay my rent but I’m fucking gorgeous.” Before their final song, they told of a story of the first time Weapons played with Lady Gaga. In New York City, 2006, in front of 12 people. Quite a long way considering this concert as well as every other show on The Monster Ball Tour is/was sold out.
After the many awkward moments that Weapons brought on it was time for the performer who I was looking forward to see the most, Kid Cudi. On the way to the show I was listening to “Day N’ Night,” “Pursuit of Happiness,” and “Make Her Say,” in anticipation. He’s a rare artist who can both sing and rap. Unfortunately, Cudi was nowhere to be found. Apparently he had a little incident in Vancouver prior to the show. I had no knowledge of this when I watched one-hit wonder Jason Derulo take the stage. His song, “Whatcha Say,” gets played entirely too much on the radio already and I did not want to hear him sing/see him lip sync. Although he is a Miami native, he hardly had an inspired performance. The crowd had little reaction for Derulo, who even had a hard time getting a lucky lady on the stage to sing her a song. The biggest applause/cheer of his set was when he announced Gaga was up next.
Time for another round of rum and cokes. I needed another drink after that performance. With Gaga up next, the James Knight Music Hall was finally full. The crowd was becoming anxious before the lights went out and Gaga took the stage. She came out after an intro that was too long to “Dance in the Dark.” Although this was a song that has not been released to radio, the crowd sang in unison. This performance was troubling as Gaga was behind a mesh screen that looked like a grid. She danced and sang behind it for the duration of the song as her costume occasionally lit up. It was an interesting effect at first, but wore on as the song progressed.
Luckily, that was the only song where Gaga was more of a backseat to the special effects. Throughout the night the crowd sang every word. One of the first concerts where there were not a lot of awkward silences when the performer played a song that has not been released.However, there was an exception. “Show me your teeth,” almost seemed to weird out the crowd. Off her new LP, “Teeth,” had little to no bass and the crowd was definitely not into it. Gaga played the big hits, “Just Dance,” “Love Game,” “Poker Face” and “Paparazzi.” She even played a new version of “Poker Face” on the piano.
What stuck out to me more than the songs was the love Gaga had for her fans and their love for her. It actually felt genuine, though with $45 being the cheapest tickets it is easy to argue that’s why she loves them. But I don’t think that is the case. Between every song Gaga reminded the crowd how much she “loved her little monsters.” Her rags-to-riches story has been told repeatedly, but she seems truly grateful of where she is at this point of her career.
As a whole, my first pop concert was very entertaining and eye-opening. I have a preconceived notion that all pop stars are just stars with no talent. However, Gaga proved that a pop stars can sing, write their owns and play instruments. Derulo, well, he fit the stereotype. Gaga stole the show and rang in the new year hoping for more success for her “monsters” and for world peace. (How cliche, ha). But what I’ll always take from this show is the genuine love Gaga has for her devoted fans, especially her “gays who have been with me since the beginning.” Although it was worth the price of admission, I will leave Gaga in my memory as I do not foresee spending money to see her again.
COSTUMES/SPECIAL EFFECTS: Nothing new here. We’ve seen Gaga have Kermit the Frog outfits on TV and seen her perform at the VMAs and AMAs with ridiculous costumes. They were the same tonight. If you watched SNL when Gaga performed, you saw her sing and play the piano with rotating metal spheres around her. She did this at her NYE show as she came on for her encore. She also had her standard performance in a cube. Although it was nothing I hadn’t seen, the effects were still awesome. They definitely helped to create a party atmosphere and make it more than a concert, it made it a show.
