sammi says

Last Thursday I was fortunate enough to attend the Lady Gaga concert in St. Louis. In the weeks leading up to the concert there was all kinds of talk that Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church (based out of Kansas City) would be protesting the show because of many reasons but mostly because she's a gay-loving whore. If you're unfamiliar with Westboro Baptist they are the fools who protest soldiers funerals with signs that read, "God Hates Fags" and say the war and soldier's deaths are God's punishment to us for our acceptance of homosexuality. It's pretty messed up and I really don't care to talk about their diluted beliefs. Many liberal, open-minded St Louis citizens decided to start their own protest of Westboro Baptist (organized through Facebook, very official) saying all concert goers and everyone else willing to stand outside should head to the Fox Theatre and participate in same-sex makeout sessions, yell and scream vulgarities and all kinds of other debauchery to piss of the protestors. Now, I started to get excited about not only going to the concert but being a part of a social movement and seeing young people standing up for their lifestyles. Then a huge snowstorm hit most of the midwest and Westboro Baptist didn't see fit to travel in the poor conditions. Victory is ours!

On to the concert. The show was opened by Semi Precious Weapons who I had heard of, but never really heard their music before. It's definitely in the same vein as Lady Gaga. Their showmanship was entertaining. A good warm up. Next was Jason Derullo. An absolutely terrible performance. This guy is a joke. For starters, the song, "What You Say," makes me wish I was deaf. The rest of his music sounded exactly a like and he put on a pretty lame set with a few dancers. All the high schoolers in the audience seemed to love him. I found the fifteen Michael Jackson songs played over the sound system before the show a much more entertaining. Everyone was clearly excited for the show, especially this woman. She got a standing ovation from the entire balcony when she was finished dancing.

Finally, it was time for the main act. The show opened with "Dance in the Dark," not my favorite song, but I was glad she did it early on and saved some of my favorites for the end. The stage was framed and set up with three large screens (two on the side, one in the back) that were playing images and interesting backgrounds that changed continuously throughout the show. Turns out, a live band was behind those screens which we saw when they were slightly raised towards the middle of the show. The next song was "Just Dance," in which Gaga, wearing a light-up dress was raised above a glass box playing a keytar. During "Love Game" Gaga was wearing a sort of marching band hat and even had a baton/disco stick. Crazy costumes ensued for "Alejandro," "Monster," "So Happy I Could Die," and "Teeth."

"Speechless" came towards the middle of the show. Gaga sat at a militarized looking, spinning piano. (At one point she even took out a fake machine gun and pretended to shoot the audience, not exactly great timing consider there was a shooting rampage in St. Louis that morning.) She dedicated "Speechless" to the audience but must not have been aware that the planned protest was cancelled or maybe she just assumed we all knew about it, because she kept making references to free love, acceptance and even said that we're (the concert-goers) are the normal ones and "the freaks are outside and we locked the f-ing doors." Which would have been especially poignant had there actually been protestors outside. Regardless, I enjoyed the sentiment and it fit well with a song like "Speechless."

Next came some of my favorite songs, "Fame," "Money Honey," "Beautiful, Dirty, Rich," "Pokerface," a real crowd pleaser and "Paper Gansta." Perhaps the most bizarre yet intriguing performance was "Papparazzi." The stage was dark with twinkling white lights in the background. Two dancers came out holding a pole horizontally above their heads with Gaga's hair attached to it. Her wig had two rings attached to it which made her able to slide up and down the pole. At one point she stepped out of the framed in stage and onto a lighting rig which was raised halfway off the ground, all while attached to this pole. It was definitely a spectacle.

For the encore Gaga was brought onto stage in her signature orb and performed "Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say," and of course, "Bad Romance," ending the show with a bang. The concert was amazing. It was a highly innovative extravaganza. My ears rang for days. It was one of those shows you leave and think, "Wow, I really just saw something." Easily worth my sixty bucks.