Lady Gaga: The Monster Ball Tour, Madison Square Garden

 (2011)

Lady Gaga: The Monster Ball Tour, Madison Square Garden Blu-ray delivers great video and reference-quality audio in this exceptional Blu-ray release
Five-time Grammy winner Lady Gaga headlines her first solo HBO concert event when Lady Gaga Presents The Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden debuts Saturday, May 7. Taped Feb. 21 and 22 at Madison Square Garden in her hometown of New York City, the special spotlights the pop sensation on her sold-out world tour, accompanied by a ten-piece band and ten backup dancers.

For more about Lady Gaga: The Monster Ball Tour, Madison Square Garden and the Lady Gaga: The Monster Ball Tour, Madison Square Garden Blu-ray release, see the Lady Gaga: The Monster Ball Tour, Madison Square Garden Blu-ray Review

Starring: Lady Gaga

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Lady Gaga: The Monster Ball Tour, Madison Square Garden Blu-ray Review

Lady Gaga conquers New York.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, December 19, 2011

Let's clear one misconception up right away: Lady Gaga is most definitely not following in Madonna's footsteps, at least not in any meaningful way. Whatever imprint Madonna left on the pop cultural landscape, musical or otherwise, has been all but eradicated by Lady Gaga's presence in merely a few years' time. This insistence that Lady Gaga is the "new Madonna," simply upping the shock value to considerable new levels, ignores a few (maybe even more than a few) salient facts, not the least of which is Lady Gaga can sing. I'm not here to disparage Madonna, and I actually like some of her midcareer albums, but only the most charitable would ever call her a world class singer. She's nasal, thin and has a peculiar Minnie Mouse quality, especially in her earliest recordings. Around the time of True Blue her voice matured significantly, and she almost certainly took some voice lessons to help with control and timbre, but Madonna is an event, not a singer. By contrast, Lady Gaga is both an event and a singer, and that mere fact separates her from her supposed progenitor in no small way. The fact that Lady Gaga didn't simply rest on the laurels of what is really a rather incredible voice shouldn't detract from the fact that first and foremost the woman born as Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta is a musician of considerable strengths and nuance. But Lady Gaga quite obviously recognized a long time ago that pop music superstardom is not built on voice (or in fact talent) alone, and is as much about image as it is about anything intrinsic like the ability to sing. And that brings us to the exterior element of Lady Gaga's persona, one which in fact can be seen as an evolution of sorts of Madonna's career long attempt to push the cultural zeitgeist envelope. Once again, though, comparing Madonna to Lady Gaga is a bit like comparing a gnat to a dinosaur. Where Madonna poked and prodded at sexual taboos and lascivious onstage behavior, Lady Gaga simply throws all caution to the wind and quite simply goes for broke with both the most outré costumes imaginable and an overtly suggestive style and dance moves that leave little if anything to the imagination.



All of this is not to say that Lady Gaga has not learned her Madonna taught lessons well, for she certainly has. Therefore, Lady Gaga: The Monster Ball Tour – Madison Square Garden starts with a Truth or Dare-esque black and white filmed opening that sees Lady Gaga dropping into a corner market in New York City to pick up some coffee and gum before she makes her way to the Garden. Sitting in her limousine a few minutes later, we hear an over the moon fan in the road who has recognized her and she waves to the man like a queen observing one of her subjects. That queen analogy is actually brought up by Lady Gaga herself a few minutes after that when she's backstage starting her elaborate make up and costuming regimen. For a moment she begins to break down, lamenting that she still feels like the outcast kid she was in high school, and that she doesn't want to disappoint her fans. Is it contrived or is it real? It's hard to say, but Lady Gaga for all her bluster and bravado does seem appealingly vulnerable a lot of the time.

The concert itself is a nonstop array of amazing costumes and energetic dance moves. A brief recounting of Lady Gaga's choices in apparel includes everything from biker chic to a bright purple miniskirt with gigantic epaulettes, replete with a bright yellow wig and weird purple sunglasses that completely hide her eyes, to one of her oddest costumes yet (and that is really saying something), a sort of vinyl plastic nun's habit, see-through no less, with wide brimmed cornette that would put Sally Field's Sister Bertrille to shame. Later Lady Gaga appears in a huge white gossamer gown that actually seems to have hydraulics as part of its machinery (only in Lady Gaga land could one even think of a dress being mechanized), as it slowly opens up of its own accord to reveal both her face and her body as the song gets underway.

One of the best things about this concert is despite its artifice, even its artificiality, there's absolutely no question that Lady Gaga is actually singing. What a novel idea for a live concert, and one that seemed especially refreshing after having just sat through the Britney Spears Live Femme Fatale concert Blu-ray, where Brit's live voice was all but buried in the pre-records. Here Lady Gaga is out front, proudly flaunting her vocal wares, including in some nice, relatively quieter moments, including a nice ballad which she accompanies herself on in a keyboard built into the massive set. (In fact about the only musically themed question that may arise in this concert is how in heaven's name she can play the piano with those fingernails). Just as refreshing, and again in stark contrast to the Spears outing, is the fact that Lady Gaga doesn't just acknowledge her audience (repeatedly), she actually interacts with them, and not according to any prefabricated script.

Lady Gaga's set list includes:

• Dance in the Dark
• Glitter and Grease
• Just Dance
• Beautiful, Dirty, Rich
• The Fame
• Lovegame
• Boys Boys Boys
• Money Honey
• Telephone
• Speechless
• You and I
• So Happy I Could Die
• Monster
• Teeth
• Alejandro
• Poker Face
• Paparazzi
• Bad Romance
• Born this Way

Lady Gaga: The Monster Ball Tour, Madison Square Garden Blu-ray, Video Quality

 

Lady Gaga: The Monster Ball Tour – Madison Square Garden arrives on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. While the sharpness of the image here is truly spectacular at times, this transfer is hampered by two recurrent issues which may bother more persnickety videophiles. Because of the aggressive lighting scheme, especially an ultra- saturated blue that bathes the stage and players at various moments, a lot of the action dissolves into posterizing on several occasions. This same aggressive lighting scheme, including a sort of lit wand that Lady Gaga holds (and aims squarely at the camera), also results in noticeable banding, as well as some heavily blooming whites. If you can overlook this issues, though, the rest of this concert looks fantastic, with bright, brilliantly rendered colors, exceptional fine detail and generally solid contrast (within the limits of the lighting as mentioned above).

Lady Gaga: The Monster Ball Tour, Madison Square Garden Blu-ray, Audio Quality

 

Lady Gaga: The Monster Ball Tour – Madison Square Garden features two Dolby TrueHD mixes, a 5.1 surround mix and a 2.0 stereo mix, both of which offer Lady Gaga's hook laden dance ready music with sterling fidelity. While some of Lady Gaga's actual albums can suffer from too much emphasis on the bass, the mix here is really superb, allowing Lady Gaga's agile vocalizations to penetrate through the swirling dance rhythms. That said, there's certainly no lack of low end, especially on the 5.1 mix, which offers incredible bass and kick drum as well as numerous low frequency synths and guitars adding to the thunder. The arena noises are well modulated and aren't too distracting from the music onstage, and hall ambience is really well rendered on the 5.1 track. There's really some surprising clarity in the multilayered band accompaniment here, and Lady Gaga and her backup singers all sound fantastic throughout the concert.

Lady Gaga: The Monster Ball Tour, Madison Square Garden Blu-ray, Special Features and Extras

 

• "Born This Way" A Cappella (1080i; 3:16) is not the same version as is shown over the closing credits, but part of the concert done on Lady Gaga's last night at the Garden.
• Backstage at the Monster Ball (1080i; 12:50) features scenes of Lady Gaga backstage before the concert, including a meeting with Liza Minnelli.
• Photo Gallery

Lady Gaga: The Monster Ball Tour, Madison Square Garden Blu-ray, Overall Score and Recommendation

 

When Lady Gaga looks out on the cheering, adoring throngs in Madison Square Garden and says, "I'm gonna kick your ass, New York!," there's little question she means what she says. For all the culture shock Lady Gaga supposedly engenders, there's simply no denying the woman's protean talents, which are abundantly on display throughout this concert. Despite this being a huge and completely glitzy affair, at its core The Monster Ball Tour features something that is all too often lacking in megaconcerts like this: a little thing called "heart." Lady Gaga has heart in abundance, and all I can say is, more power to her. This Blu-ray looks really sharp most of the time and sounds incredible, and this release comes Highly recommended.

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