5/5
You Shall Go To 'The Chromatica Ball'.
Monster luck! I couldn't believe mine. In the 11th hour I found an official, stage left ticket to pop powerhouse performer and massive movie megastar (the Oscar winning 'A Star Is Born', her 'House Of Gucci' and portraying Harley Quinn in the forthcoming 'Joker: Folie à Deux' sequel) Lady Gaga's sold out 'Chromatica Ball' stadium tour in the Belluna Dome of Saitama's Seibu Lions baseball team, just outside of Tokyo, Japan. Knocking it out the park, despite some credit card cancellation and international bank calling difficulty at two in the morning (for them). Printing it out at a 7Eleven (how convenient, Japan) and counting down the days (all two of them).
But then my Ladybug look turned out to be like Brad Pitt's that I saw in 'Bullet Train' for a wonderful weekend, the previous day. I sure needed a Shinkansen to help me Sunday. It wasn't that I worked seven straight days and burned the candle at both ends. It was the law as fate would have it that my last lesson on what was supposed to be my day off finished the very moment this concert started. Hello, Murphy! And this gig was in Saitama, not actually Tokyo. An hour or so from where I actually was in Osaki (thank God it wasn't Osaka). Not to mention three trains. But gigs never start right away...right? And there's always a support act! But as I Instagramed my friend who went to the Saturday set, she told me it started on time (this is Japan) and finished just shy of 9pm. WHAT?! That's when most gigs back home start. I'll never bemoan the wait for the lights to go out ever again.
Almost thankfully in a campaign day where I had more lessons than the ones I learned tonight, two students cancelled. But not the last one (it's all good). If he had I could have left at 16.30, when the doors of the ballpark actually opened. But instead I had to wait. And then a little longer to wrap the day up. And then of course I got on one wrong train out of three (this is Tokyo, and the Chicago Loop like Yamanote Line). And then ran (still in a suit) off the third and final line for the field. Next to another late worker who felt like a kindred spirit, convenience store printed ticket also clutched in hand. Temp checks, sanitzed hands and searching for seat 269 in block one hundred and something later, I was moments away. Bowing with arigatō gozaimashita to the helpful arena staff. As fans camped out outside just to hear this home run. I wish I could do that for the forthcoming champion Golden State Warrior NBA game against the capital Washington Wizards at Japan's very own Rui Hachimura in the Saitama Super Arena that sold out in seconds. Only to reappear on resell sites immediately for extortionate amounts in the thousands of dollars and pounds. Something needs to be done about that. This last minute gig?! 8,500. Yen! You do the Googled currency convertor math.
Running around and rounding the bases, going Gaga I could hear one of this generations greatest iconic voices as she compelled the crowd on a piano with a crown of roots and branch thorns like a 'Game Of Thrones' as she breathed in this lions den like the house of a dragon. The lord of her own rings of power. A million cell phone lights like reasons illuminating this dome like lighters before this roof is on fire regulations. I may have missed more than the first act, but I made it. Even if I was far from the 'Shallow' now.
'Paparazzi', 'Poker Face', 'Just Dance', 'Bad Romance' (which I spent the entirety of quarantine dancing to, on repeat whilst eating yogurt...and I wondered why I was single, back then), 'Million Reasons'. One hour down and one to go, I probably missed them all. But I still wouldn't quit the show. Even though in this FOMO age, I'll never check the set-list. I know what I lost out on, but it would break my heart. You know the greatest hits. I just hoped at that moment that I hadn't missed the 'Top Gun: Maverick' hit that always gets be choked up at its crescendo before it's epic end, like I missed Tom Cruise (that's not the reason, I promise) at the premiere of the biggest blockbuster of the year in none other but Yokohama, Japan (MY NEW HOME!!). That monumental movie welcoming us officially back to the multiplex, 36 years in the sequel making and almost feeling that long. Just like Gaga, whose signature hit from the new film scoring star (the soundtrack to her Oscar winning movie with Bradley Cooper is basically a duets album like her legendary ones with the great Tony Bennett, who I was also lucky enough to see live in New York) and 'Chromatica Ball' tour invited us back to the stadium sound of stage shows. On hold two years after her 'Chromatica' classic album that took this reborn the movie star back to the dancefloor came out of the planets pandemic's quarantine.
Thanking Tokyo (is this it? I thought in fear) and saying how much she likes the city, addressing the crowd like a postal code. No one was mad that this was actually, neighbouring Saitama. We had all waited too long for specifics. And even though artists always say how much they love aforementioned city they are performing in. We just know this Gaga globetrotter was genuine. We can see how she would have an affinity with this neon soaked city of Harajuku girls like Gwen Stefani. Hollering back in Met Gala fashion that goes banana like spelling said word (but I had been teaching all day, so you'll forgive me if I don't). Celebrating the culture and saluting the resilience of Japanese people, rocked by an earthquake a decade gone, but still raw in heart.
This fame monster in her massive ball, gave it up for all. All as I turned into the annoying concert goer with a 'Telephone' like Beyoncé. Holding up for the best friend back home who did the same for a Haim gig I couldn't make it back for (I'll be home for Christmas) and the girlfriend who couldn't make it here thanks to corona (get well soon, baby), who thankfully has Maroon 5 to look forward to this fall with her girls. But then it was time to settle in. Even though I couldn't do so with my row until intermission, before more encores than "what the hell you waiting for", for the showstopper with more classic choreography and costume changes than the Cirque de Soleil for her Warhol pop art exhibition. Despite being on the aisle seat (I didn't want to disturb. Where's Mr. Usher ("watch this") Raymond, when everybody loved and needs him?
Sure I was a homer away from either stage. But this is the age of social distance after all. Off the charts and on stage one of the greatest performers of our generation, let alone amazing artists is still somehow, so underrated. Especially on this post 'Joanne' tear where I became fan (hey, I took me until 25 to love The Beatles and I was born one train away and less time than it took to get to this gig) of music and movies at an unstoppable clip like a Dylan songbook or Streep searching filmography. What a show and what a voice for my first post-pandemic gig in actual years (Norah's got next, next month) and my first in Japan. If you want to do clichéd comparisons it's like watching this generations Madonna, Prince, Springsteen, Streisand, Billy Joel, Bowie and Elton, all rolled into one genre defying metropolis from New York at the Garden. But from Madison Square to right here in the new Times Square of Tokyo's Shibuya crossing scrambling, there's no one else like her. She's her own redefining star, making HERstory and all the ones of the little monsters who were previously reduced to the margins.
Vowing to hop back on a plane as soon as the land of the rising sun needs her, as she exited left. Now you say that, I need my time back for the hour I missed, but I ain't complaining. I missed the lions share, yet it still roared. The best show I've been to after Prince and The Boss. Imagine if I'd seen the whole thing? Next time...both of us will. "All I ever wanted was love", 'Stupid Love' she sang. All before she hit the deck for her Ariana Grande assisted (not here. We're not that lucky) 'Rain On Me', before it absolutely did that here in rainy season buckets and sweet symphony. But between the socially conscious chords of 'Angel Down' ("I confess I am lost/In the age of the social/On our knees, take a test/To be lovin' and grateful/Shots were fired on the street/By the church where we used to meet/Angel down, angel down/But the people just stood around.") for America in the Far East and singing "We could be Jokers, brought to the daylight" (how fitting) on the energy of 'Enigma'. The best at the moment was saved for last. As she held our hand for an evoking encore that breathed fire from the stage to the bleachers, soaring like dragons (imagine). The top gun had given us a maverick performance and after all that, did I cry tonight, you ask? Every last tear, my Monsters. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Set-list Picks: 'Rain On Me', 'Angel Down', 'Hold My Hand'.
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