Lady Gaga shines in ArtRave stop in Phoenix

Lady Gaga brought her Artpop tour to the US Airways Center on Wednesday night. It was a little weird, a little artsy and a little sexy. It was complete Gaga and I loved every second of her almost two-hour production.

It was outstanding.

Gaga mixed all her talents into this performance.
She sang live on a long, winding stage as she worked her way through three albums’ worth of music. Gaga sang her hits including, “Just Dance,” “Poker Face” and “Born This Way.” She sang “Applause,” “Do What U Want” and “Artpop” from her latest album. She performed at least parts of 22 songs and showed off her incredible vocal range.

Lady Gaga wearing dreadlocks during ARTPOP at tonight's #artRavePhoenix pic.twitter.com/3cOZCDuKZc

— Lady Gaga Daily (@gagadaily) July 31, 2014

Lady Gaga sang while dancing with her 13 backup dancers, and when she wanted to slow down the performance, she sat at a piano and sang from there.

The stage was set up to give this show an intimate feel. There was a center stage that is typical of most concerts. Gaga’s stage had a long walkway that was about 10 feet off the floor. The piano was placed in the center of the arena along the walkway.

Below the stage is where the floor seats would normally be, but there were no floor seats for this show. Instead, Lady Gaga’s fans, known as “Little Monsters” stand on the floor, looking up towards the stage.
This is where Lady Gaga’s greatest talent shines. It’s the way she interact with her fans.

During the show, Lady Gaga said, they are “the most authentic fan base of this millennium.” Wednesday night they proved her right.

Thousands of fans knew every word to every song. When Lady Gaga said “jump” they all did. When Gaga asked them to wave their hands or clap, they did that, too. It was truly an amazing sight to look across the arena to see almost everyone participating in this show.

These “monsters” are a diverse group, too. There were children as young as 7 or 8, there were people in their 60s at this show. There were straight people and gay people alike singing along to the same songs. There were whites, blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans and Asians clapping their hands at the same time. Lady Gaga loved them all.

During the show, fans are constantly tossing articles of clothing and stuffed animals onto the stage. I can picture a few artists getting annoyed with this. Not Gaga. She rolls with it, even encourages it.

Gaga wore some of stage-donated clothes during her performance.

At the end of the show, she invited four fans up on stage as she performed her final song before the encore. She gave those fans something they will remember and talk about it for the rest of their lives.

By doing things like this, Lady Gaga made the themes in her music come to life. The message in “Born This Way” is about acceptance. She accepts that her “monsters” come in all shapes and sizes. She’s brought them together proving that to her the lyrics aren’t just words on a page.
It was something to see because of all the concerts, I’ve been too I’ve never seen an artist relate to her fans the way Lady Gaga does. That’s what set the Artpop tour apart.

Don’t get me wrong, she can perform with the best of them, but she made every Gaga fan feel as if she was performing just for them.