.
Lady
GaGa
vamps.
Sings,
too.
By Adin Vaziri
___December 14th, 2009
San Francisco Chronicle
SGATE.COM
Lady Gaga vamps. Sings, too
.
.
Most of the girls at
Lady Gaga’s concert at
the Bill Graham Civic on
Sunday came dressed like
the star of the show.
And the boys,
well,
most of them came
dressed like her, too.
.
.
In just over a year,
the 23-year-old singer
from Yonkers, N.Y. –
known to her parents as
Stefani Joanna Germanotta –
has gone from playing tiny venues
for curious onlookers who probably
didn’t take her all that seriously
to playing two sold-out nights
at the city’s largest concert hall
for people who think so highly
of her they were willing to track
down black lace leggings
for the show.
.
.
The gesture shouldn’t
be taken lightly.
Lady Gaga is the closest thing we
have going to a certifiable pop siren.
.
.
Her first album, “The Fame,”
has sold nearly 2 million copies
in the United States and served
as a launching pad for five No. 1
singles on the Billboard pop chart,
including the dance-floor staples
“Poker Face“ and “Bad Romance.”
.
.
Her label recently repackaged
the set as “The Fame Monster,”
fleshing it out with eight new songs
that all sound like scientifically
engineered earworms.
.
.
But you get the sense the music,
which Lady Gaga has helpfully
labeled as “soulless electronic pop,”
isn’t really the point.
.
.
Her success has just as much to do
with her willingness to wear practically
anything (or almost nothing) and the
brazen way in which she aligns herself
with pop royalty.
.
.
Before she took the stage Sunday,
the audience was prepared for her
arrival with a run through
Michael Jackson’s greatest hits.
.
.
During her 90-minute performance –
not so much a live concert as a
meticulously choreographed spectacle –
Lady Gaga also evoked Kanye West
with the futuristic set,
Britney Spears in her heavy-lidded
stage movements,
Courtney Love with her interminable
between-song monologues highlighted
by four-letter squelches and –
who else? – Madonna for, oh,
just about everything else.
.
.
Lady Gaga‘ s steep emphasis
on style over substance meant that,
apart from a piano,
the only instrument that appeared
onstage the entire night was a keytar,
which was hauled out during a
high-voltage run through
“Just Dance.”
.
.
She performed her biggest hit,
“Poker Face,” twice –
initially as a stripped-down cabaret
romp that seemed to confuse her fans,
especially when Lady Gaga pulled
out a prop machine gun and started
firing at them.
.
.
“Do you like my show?”
she said.
“If you don’t,
I don’t care because
you can f- leave.”
.
.
She was more engaging when
offering gratitude rather than
demanding it.
“I love San Francisco so much,”
she said.
“I’ve played every single gay
club in this whole town.”
.
.
The middle section of the show
was given over to the ecstatic
disco anthems that gave her
traction in the first place,
such as “The Fame”
and “Paparazzi,”
offering the singer the perfect
excuse to parade around in
everything from a shiny red bikini
to a black-feather overcoat.
.
.
“Take my picture,”
Lady Gaga demanded.
“Make me a star.”
.
.
To those in the room,
it was a foregone conclusion.
The only dilemma was what
they would wear next time
she was in town.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
