When Lady Gaga sat down for an interview in February, she made a surprising confession about her 2020 album, Chromatica.
“I wouldn’t say I made my best music during that time,” she told The New York Times Magazine.
Sorry, Little Monsters, but it’s true. Did Chromatica, a dance project about mental health and healing, get a lot of people through the pandemic? Yes. Is it Gaga’s weakest album? Also yes.
But just a few weeks after the Q&A, Gaga redeemed herself with the release of Mayhem, her best album since 2011’s Born This Way. And a couple months after that, she upped the ante with the launch of the Mayhem Ball, a statement piece of a stage show rivaled only by her career-making Monster Ball in 2010.
Gaga, 39, brought the sold-out tour to Madison Square Garden this week, commencing a six-night run at the iconic arena in her hometown of New York City on Friday, August 22.
Subtitled “The Art of Personal Chaos,” the two-and-a-half-hour concert follows Gaga battling the so-called Mistress of Mayhem, a red-cloaked antagonist she can’t seem to escape no matter where she goes or which disguises she wears. (In addition to her elaborate costumes, Gaga dons blonde and brunette wigs galore.)
“Find her! Bring her to me!” the Mistress furiously demands of Gaga’s backup dancers at one point, evoking the evilest of Disney villains. By the end, though (spoiler alert), Gaga emerges victorious, declaring, “Monsters never die!”
Gaga’s setlist has a little something for everyone. She does nearly every song on Mayhem and most of her greatest hits, including “Just Dance,” “Poker Face,” “Paparazzi,” “Born This Way” and “Bad Romance.”
The performance begins with Gaga perched atop a 25-foot red gown on a set designed to look like a Gothic opera house. She sings a few lines of her 2011 deep cut “Bloody Mary,” which went viral on TikTok in 2022, before screaming at her Little Monsters to “put your f***ing hands up!” as her Mayhem masterpiece “Abracadabra” thumps through the speakers.
From there, she runs through oldies (“Judas” and “LoveGame” are highlights) and newbies (“Zombieboy” and “Vanish Into You” hit even harder live than the recorded versions). There are also piano singalongs (“Die With a Smile”), unexpected selections (“Summerboy”) and room-shaking dance numbers (“Scheiße”).
But by the end of the night, Gaga literally strips off her over-the-top outfits, makeup and hairpieces for a bare-bones encore, set to the tune of “How Bad Do U Want Me.” Suddenly, both Lady Gaga and the Mistress of Mayhem are gone, leaving only an infectiously grateful Stefani Germanotta standing before nearly 20,000 fans, still pop’s most fearless chameleon.
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