MANILA, Philippines?Lady Gaga sure knows how to make her audience go wild.
During her concert Tuesday night at the Araneta Coliseum, delirious fans screamed so loud, we could have shattered our eardrums. A Coliseum official estimated the crowd at around 13,000?with sold-out patron and lower-box sections and SRO bleachers. Many in the audience were girls who seemed to have found a new pop icon.
From the multimedia pizazz of her stage act, to the theatrical flair of her costumes, to the celebrity life indulgence of her songs, it was obvious that Lady Gaga had crafted an attention-grabbing identity to create maximum impact in the music scene.
For the artist who struggled in New York before getting the break, success has certainly come sweetly, big-time.
At the Big Dome, the shrill cries of joy from the multitude that knew all the songs from her multiplatinum selling 2008 debut album, ?The Fame? would subside only when the star of the show walked offstage for costume changes.
Lady Gaga?s act?a pastiche of Andy Warhol-inspired short films, theater musical choreography, sci-fi heroine outfits, dance club ambience and, surprisingly, rock ?n? roll noise attack?banked heavily on visual appeal. And with audio levels cranked way up high, there was no way one could miss the bombast.
Right on the first song, ?Paparazzi,? she unveiled the dominant theme of her repertoire: The thrills and pleasures of the glamorous life. It?s a life that throbs with sex, a sub-theme previewed with gusto in ?LoveGame,? whose engaging dance rhythms were only heightened by the tune?s lustful lyrics: ?I wanna take a ride on your disco stick ... ?
Her vocals bore shades of Madonna, Gwen Stefani and Cyndi Lauper. Very apparent were her own pre-recorded backup vocals that came with the club-mixed minus-one music, plus support from a drummer and two guitarists, introduced as ?my band from New York City.?
Her love of theatrical dazzle?she?s been quoted as saying she was influenced by glam rock?was demonstrated from start to finish. But it seemed she only scratched the surface, limited as she was to striking poses and strutting along with her three male dancers, even as the sight of her preening on a scooter wheeled onstage while singing the album?s title track looked pretty cool. And while she nearly stunned us by strapping on a guitar synth, it turned out to be a mere distraction, a rock-star prop that she twiddled with for a few seconds.
But she was quite effective in the reggae-tinged ?Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say?), which followed two hotly applauded numbers, ?Boys, Boys, Boys? (a twist on Motley Crue?s ?Girls, Girls, Girls?) and her first hit single, ?Just Dance.?
Turning slutty
The screams got louder when she appeared in a bawdy, bubble bath see-through costume and sat down to play ?Brown Eyes? on piano. A rock ballad that she co-wrote as a nod to Queen, the song had her doing weird kicks in between lyrics?we half-guessed she was channeling Jerry Lee Lewis or Elton John?which elicited boisterous laughter from the crowd.
But that was nothing compared to what came next.
Still seated at the piano, the Lady turned slutty as she proceeded to play a slow version of ?Poker Face? while spreading her legs wide apart on the extreme ends of the keyboards. She went on to strike various sexual poses, intermittently striking the piano keys with her foot, before ending the tune with a nasty drawl: ?F***er face!?
Some of the guys near us howled in amusement; those in shock may have pinched themselves silly: ?Is this really happening??
Lady Gaga didn?t stop there, but went for the jugular, cracking X-rated jokes which probably harked back to her days as a club performer with burlesque as part of the act.
For a minute we actually thought she would strip all the way.
