The Great Road Trip to Chicago, with Young Maddy was a huge success! We had so much fun. Hardly know where to start. Here is Maddy ready at the hotel, to go off to see Lady Gaga. That might well be a good place to start, I am thinking, as the concert was kind of a high point.



Our host for the Event was Mr Drew, pictured here with Maddy. By a strange coincidence, he is also our own Miss Kitty's Sweatheart, and that he is. Really smart too. He is on the tour just now doing lighting. There are, obviously, a LOT of lights.



Mr Drew gave us a full backstage tour, which for me was as cool as the concert. I love the logistics of big tours, and seeing how they work. It's pretty amazing the amount of work, and things that go into a show. This set was by far the most complex I have ever seen. The stage screens alone, not the audience video feed, but for the graphics on stage were several MILLION dollars worth of equipment.

This is a view, if you can see it, taken on the stage looking out into the empty hall, from behind the big screen. When lit and working, this screen is transparent, and can have any graphics one wishes on it, while you still see the performers behind it.



The Stage Manager came only with us and answered as many questions as I could think of very happily. Everyone on the crew was really welcoming and so nice to us. Shows could not HAPPEN without the Crew, and they are the ones that make it happen. They put it all up, make it run, and then take it all down, only to do it again the next night.



And with a set like this, that is no small endeavor. This picture (taken by Maddy, as are all the Lady Gaga shots) is hard to see, but this box actually has a small circle in it that she stands on, and it rises about 12 feet UP. That was one piece. Most of the stage, even in theaters which HAVE a stage to start with, is built each night for the show.



Lady Gaga does a really lovely show. She is rarely still, and dancing plays as much a part of the show as does the music. She does her own singing, and what's more, is does a LIVE version of her songs, it's not a set canned number. She sings it the way she feels it should be sung, and the version you hear is not a carbon copy of the cd, which I love.



It's a sexy show, but it doesn't get lewd. There's a fine line, and I think she stays mostly on the right side of it. Think Cabaret, or Burlesque. Would I recommend it for a 15 year old? Depends on the 15 year old. Maddy has been to a lot of shows in her life, and knows about performance. She loved it.

It being Chicago, our Lady Gaga did a bit from the musical, one of my favorite songs "He had it coming...." and did it well, that girl can SING.



Her fans are also very cool. They love her. A lot. And she loves them. Her little Monsters she calls them. Very like Tori fans to Tori, or Melissas to her. It's a whole Tribe. Or whatever one calls a group of Monsters. I got to talk to a lot of them, and they are wonderful.

One of the things she talked about most on stage was how much she loved her Monsters, and how it was THEM that made her alive, and made this worthwhile. And how much she loved them, appreciated them, and knew how they felt. I think that is one of the most important and coolest things a really great artist does, and knows. It's about the fans.



I would have liked to meet her afterwords (And Maddy REALLY wanted to) but the show started quite late, nearly an hour after set time, and then our hosts had a un-scheduled meeting that happened directly after, and so that part didn't get to happen. (Next time, Maddy, for SURE)

We did take lots of books from the Boss, for the Crew, and Lady Gaga. This made the Crew Folks very happy, books on tour are NEEDED, and we passed on Lady Gaga's to her, and I am sure this will make her happy too.



I loved the show. I am really glad I got to see her on her first big tour. I really want to see how she grows up, and what she does. I don't think she is the sort of artist, and she IS an artist, that isn't going to stay put in the same place, but is going to keep growing, and changing.

And I want to see this.

Maddy took this photo as we were driving home, out my window, from her seat.

I think it is just about perfect.

Love and Gaga,
Lorraine