The “concert” was a collision of  performance artist and dance diva. Backed by a DJ, three male dancers and all kinds of recorded vocal tracks, Lady GaGa was more entertaining than expected on Monday at the jam-packed Fine Line. For 75 minutes, she entertained a sell-out crowd of club kids with her calculated antics: high energy dancing, low-energy philosophical babble, campy and resourceful visuals and costumes (and fab oversized sunglasses), and irresistible beats that you had to dance to if you could find room to move.

Of the five outfits, my favorites were the Judy Jetson getup with the marvelous shoulders and, of course, her version of bubblewrap, with clear, round plastic bubbles of various sizes secured somehow to a beige leotard. She wore that oufit when she sat at an upright piano, made of clear plastic and filled with clear round plastic balls left over from either her outfit or a Barney’s Christmas display.

The big surprise of the night was a slowed down, cabaret reading of “Poker Face” in the bubble outfit at the piano, complete with GaGa using her stiletto heels (clear plastic, of course) to play a la Jerry Lee Lewis. Later, she did the hit version of “Poker Face” to the delight of the crowd.

GaGa did most of the songs from her CD, “The Fame,” and one hilarious new ballad, “FutureLove,” sung to a plastic male mannikin at the plastic piano. I guess the piano pieces proved that she can sing, though the rest of the night she was either lip syncing or singing over her own recorded vocals.

GaGa found  the absurdities in performance art and dance music, capping it all with “Boys Boys Boys,” wearing a militaristic marching outfit and pumping out the dance beat like the Village People on estrogen.

Look for more on GaGa’s show in Wednesday’s Star Tribune.

What did you think of the show?�

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 at 9:15 am and is filed under Concerts, Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.