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Lady Gaga and her fiance Michael Polansky marked one year of being engaged on April 1, and thanks to Mayhem, I think it’s going to continue to be a very long engagement. Mayhem, the album formerly known as LG7, came out on March 7, and later that month Gaga announced the Mayhem Ball tour which will run from July through November. That tour comes after Gaga performs in Brazil and Singapore in May, and those shows come after Gaga headlining back-to-back weekends at Coachella — the first of which just went down last Friday! The set included 20 songs across two hours that were organized into five storytelling acts. Billboard critic Lyndsey Havens called the show “a genius commentary on fame,” as well as the unofficial kickoff to the Mayhem Ball:
Titled “The Art Of Personal Chaos,” the two-hour show may have been disguised as a concert, but what took place was nothing short of a carefully crafted commentary on fame and performance — and the toll of keeping both up.
Or, as two Gagas from different eras said on screens bookending the stage, staring at one another but speaking to the masses: “This is the manifesto of mayhem.”
It’s a fitting concept for a headlining show that follows an album of the same name; Gaga’s Mayhem arrived in March and debuted atop the Billboard 200. And for an artist like Lady Gaga, it’s a concept that is rich in inspiration. It seems she was so inspired, in fact, that the only way to clearly organize and present her ideas was through five distinct acts, including an anticipated finale — but all seamlessly woven together thanks to stunning and challenging choreography from Parris Goebel. And, of course, Gaga’s catalog.
Her set naturally leaned heavy on new material, especially since her Coachella gigs across the festival’s two weekends unofficially kick-off her upcoming The Mayhem Ball tour. But the way in which Gaga reimagined or perhaps recontextualized some of her older hits made them feel impressively fresh and forced fans to reexamine the idea of fame — all the while spotlighting Gaga’s genius.
Fame is a concept that has long fascinated the artist — hell, she named her debut album The Fame. And it featured breakout hit “Paparazzi.” It doesn’t get more on-the-nose than that. While Mayhem dives back into the familiar subject, it does so in an unfamiliar fashion by bringing a gritty and industrial edge to Gaga’s electro-pop.
The sonic universe came to life on Coachella’s main stage, with an expansive set design that depicted an opera house — though it looked just as much like a medieval castle hosting a demonic rave (feeding into another of Gaga’s taglines for the weekend: “Dance or die”).
The entire performance felt like a living, breathing entity — in large part because Gaga wore a headset, which captured each and every controlled breath she took. But also because of the storyline, which across its five acts revisited various Lady Gagas of the past — all of whom, as the show proved, are still very much alive in Gaga despite being dormant. Or, in the case of this performance, despite being left for dead.
…And while at times fame, and all that comes with it, may make Gaga feel like she is stuck in a bad love story, tonight she made the story entirely her own. Tonight, she delivered a poignant and entertaining take on what it means to be a superstar — and did so while further solidifying her own role as one of the biggest.
If you’re a monster like me, I highly recommend reading the full Billboard review. The show sounds theatrically fantastic! And I wonder how much of this Coachella set is the blueprint for the Mayhem Ball shows. I always love seeing how Gaga regroups songs for different performances as her catalog grows. So for my fellow music nerds out there, I’m including the lineup. Act 1: Velvet and Vice kicked off the show with “Bloody Mary” (sidenote: I’ve always wished Gaga had made a music video for this song!), “Abracadabra,” “Judas,” “Scheiße,” “Garden of Eden, “Poker Face.” Love it, these tracks definitely go together. Act 2: And She Fell Into a Gothic Dream began with Mayhem’s grunge-tacular “Perfect Celebrity,” then “Disease,” “Paparazzi,” “Alejandro,” “The Beast.” To me, “Perfect Celebrity” and “Paparazzi” make sense together, while the other three make sense according to the “gothic dream” title. Act 3: The Beautiful Nightmare That Knows Her Name featured “Killah,” “Zombieboy,” “Die With a Smile,” “How Bad Do U Want Me.” Act 4: To Wake Her Is To Lose Her included “Shadow Of A Man,” “Born This Way,” “Shallow,” “Vanish Into You.” I love “Vanish Into You!” Right now it’s the Mayhem track I most often listen to on repeat. And then, Finale: Eternal Aria Of the Monster Heart was the one and only, “Bad Romance.” Gah, now I want to see Gaga in her second Coachella show!