Lady Gaga’s return to Melbourne has been a long time coming. Eleven years since she last set foot on a local stage, she arrived at Marvel Stadium over two huge nights on Friday and Saturday with the Mayhem Ball, a show built to overwhelm, provoke and entertain in equal measure. With a reported 60,000 people filling the venue, each night, the scale matched the occasion, and Gaga delivered a concert designed to pull focus from the first cue to the last blackout.
From the opening moments when she arrived atop of a large red birdcage-like structure, the tone was set for an epic theatrical performance, built on a dark, stylish world she commanded with ease. The staging swung between gothic drama and chrome-bright futurism, and even with the stadium’s scale, it always felt pointed and deliberate.
Gaga moved through the hits that shaped her early career, but the show anchored itself in her current era. Those newer songs sat confidently beside the classics, with Born This Way and Poker Face predictably shaking the stadium. But no matter what she was singing, the costumes, choreography and staging were everything you would expect from this world-class performer.
I attended on night two. This second Melbourne show came with an advantage: Chromatica tracks finally made an appearance having reportedly been absent the previous evening.
The emotional hinge of the concert arrived when the spectacle peeled away. Gaga at the piano, delivering 1000 Doves and Marry the Night brought an edge of intimacy and honesty that cut through the theatrics and reminded everyone why her catalogue holds up as strongly as it does.
One of the most striking elements of the night wasn’t on the stage at all. The wristbands handed out on entry turned the audience into a living light field, shifting in sync with the music – especially during the dozens of times Gaga commanded us to put our paws or hands up in the air (and she asked a lot – I’ve seen someone claim online it was 97 times). At full sweep, the effect made the stadium feel like it was breathing along with the show.
There have been grumbles from some corners about the scale of the stage, which some felt didn’t fully embrace the stadium setting and would have been better suited to an arena. This same criticism does pop up a lot when artists opt for a venue like Marvel over, say, Rod Laver Arena.
For what it’s worth I paid very good money for some pretty average seats with a limited view of the main stage and screens. Tickets had sold out for this show in minutes, so I had to take what I could get while playing Ticketmaster roulette. But the sound at Marvel on Saturday evening was better than I’ve ever experienced there. Maybe because the roof was closed, or maybe just a testament to Gaga’s incredible vocals.
The night ended with an encore featuring Bad Romance and then a second encore with How Bad Do U Want Me and Rain On Me. The two hours Mother Monster spent with us passed quickly like a fever dream, nobody wanted it to be over. Melbourne waited 11 years for this and it felt like the right way to break the silence. Gaga promised the audience she wouldn’t be away so long next time – and we hope she is true to her word.
