If you haven't been under a rock the past couple of weeks, you'll likely have heard that Lady Gaga's in town for a couple of concert dates at the brand spankin' new SM Mall of Asia (MOA) Arena. And you'll likely have heard that certain religious groups are up in arms and would dearly love to see her gig(s) cancelled.
These aforementioned groups cite her "immorality" and "lewd behavior and attire," branding her as some sort of demonic pied piper who might lead the youth astray with songs like the controversial “Judas.”
While we understand how these groups may feel that the aforementioned song is disrespectful toward Christianity, we cannot help but also think that it's pretty hard to seriously bristle at a song whose hook goes, "Juda-juda-ah-ah-as" repeatedly. It just sounds too silly to be truly evil.
As to Lady Gaga's attire, or the lack thereof, her dishabille is really nothing Madonna hasn't done 10 times over through the years. And check out Miley Cyrus' costumes. Bra tops and virtual panties onstage! Heck, the "Wowowee" girls' costumes are thrice as lewd and inspire thrice the pulchritude!
Of course, Lady Gaga's version of the bra-top and panties outfit is a tad more garish. Last night at the MOA Arena, she opened her concert in an outfit that made her look like a comic book super villain. Her bra top looked like it was fashioned from Kevlar. We wouldn't have been surprised if Spider-man had suddenly fallen from the rafters to engage her in battle.
It's exactly this strange, comic book kind of outlandishness that this writer finds interesting about her. And so, bearing in mind the little known 12th commandment—thou shalt not be overly serious—we witnessed her concert with an open mind, a freethinker's eyes, and a musician's ears.
Some conservatives bristle at her set design. There's a castle-like structure onstage. It's supposed to be a chapel. We detected no offensive misrepresentations of how chapels are supposed to look, nor any demonic or satanic overtones. No inverted crucifixes nor any evidence of blood sacrifices.
Indeed, we found the sheer ambitiousness and visual spectacle of the set design rather impressive.
Thankfully, Lady Gaga changed out of her Kevlar bra top and into a poufy pink/white tutu.
Don't get us wrong, though. We're not exactly Gaga fans. Long have we felt—and last night's concert proved it—that Gaga's music lacks subtlety. The electro-synth sounds were rather strident. And so too, at times, was Gaga's voice. We should've brought ear plugs. Thanks to the strident frequencies amplified hundreds of times over by The Arena's brand new state-of-the-art sound system and broadcast over thunderous new loudspeakers, our hearing may just have lost a couple more notches in the 1 to 1.5 kilohertz range.
Oh, but kudos to Henry Sy's new Arena. Its sound system is great! Sightlines are fantastic! The Arena seems to be an ideal alternative to the Araneta Coliseum—for musical and sporting events alike.
And furthermore about the controversial “Judas,” perusing the song lyrics with an open mind reveals a surprising number of possible metaphors. Give the song half a chance and it might surprise you with its unexpected depth.
As this is a concert review as opposed to a poetry/songwriting workshop, we shall spare you a literary analysis of Lady Gaga's "demonic" oeuvre.
But seriously, give the song a chance. It might surprise even the most dyed-in-the-wool Katoliko cerrado.
Reacting to protests against her concert dates, her songs and her lifestyle, and to attempts at censorship of “Judas,” Gaga said at one point, "I'm not your government's creature, Manila!"
Awright! Rock 'n’ roll!
Same goes for her stance on homosexuality. Speaking about her song "Born This Way," she waxed eloquent on how hate crimes all over the planet have just got to stop, and expressed hope that her song might help foster awareness that it can be OK to be outside the norm.
If this is the anti-Christ, she's not as bad as they said she'd be.
Indeed, we must profess a certain grudging admiration for her techno-punk rock 'n’ roll rebel pugnacity and balls out take-me-or-leave-me stance.
Would that the songcraft caught up to the politics.
But her crew? Amazing. Just flat out amazing. The dancers were incredible! And so was the band. (If we're not mistaken and if the interwebz is to be believed, her backup band is The Darkness, a British band that did quite well for itself before it caught the Mother Monster's eye.) The drummer was just insane! And he had the endurance of an Asgardian, pounding out relentless rockin' grooves from start to finish.
A few caveats, however...
Her songs all sound alike. Quick, play “Bad Romance”! Now play “Poker Face”! Right? They're the same song!
The good news is, it makes for a kick-ass set, as the songs flow and dovetail easily into one another. The bad news is, it's just lazy songcraft and lazy musicianship.
As a singer, while she won't be winning any singing contests any time soon, she's undeniably competent. She sang reasonably in tune the whole night, although again, her vocal tone can get quite strident at times.
As a dancer, she's quite good (in our uneducated opinion).
As an artist, while we stop short of calling her visionary, we must give her props for having a daring, original vision and the guts to follow through on it with daring statements and garish musical spectacle.
When her songcraft and musicianship catch up to her politics, she'll truly be a monster.
'Til then, as long as she takes her own song to heart—just dance!—she should be ok.
Kudos to Ovation Productions for putting up a satisfying show, and for not caving in to the attack of the killer squares. Kudos too to SM Mall of Asia for their great new venue, The Arena, and also for not caving in to conservative pressure. –KG, GMA News
source: gmanetwork.com
