Sadly, it was just another pop arena show, made notable only by Gaga's pottymouth and predictable poses in various musical forms. She just managed to deaden the pop thrill of her singles, by having heavy duty slap bass dragging the beats down into the abyss of empty virtuosity and getting a few solos that sounded like they fell off the back of Michael Jackson's Thriller. Gaga does follow in the footsteps of David Bowie, in that she constantly changes her identity. Yet these changes are so frequent that they suggest not a fluid, open sense of a sensual self, but a panicking teenager who can't work out which mask to wear to the prom.
The only claims Gaga seems to have towards the edginess I thought she had came during her shouted interludes at the audience. It's funny how different her voice sounds when she is not singing - and she did have a moment or two when she had the vocal chops that Madonna has never mastered. Sadly, one of those moments was in the introduction to that one about The Edge of Glory, and it is a load of 1980s cod-rock bullshit.
Anyway - the shouted interludes made a great deal about how she was all for LGBTQ rights, and anyone in the audience who isn't is on the wrong side of history, and everyone in the audience agrees and if they don't then they can get out and... is it just me, or is this a colossal act of appropriation? And in a week when the Pope tried to force the Curia to accept homosexuality, making a big play for gay rights is... kinda acceptable and safe?
Unlike Gaga, I can still remember a time when Derek Jarman got more than pelters off the newspapers for doing a film about Edward II which played up his sexuality. I remember the homophobic headlines in The Sun. And I don't see them anymore. I see politicians falling over themselves to be inclusive. And when some clown (usually from UKip) decides to be homophobic, everyone shouts at them.
And then there was that bit when she was standing there in a bra and thong and shouted that her talent and her fans had helped her in the 'misogynistic music industry.' The only ironic moment in the whole thing...
I am obsessed with working out why certain genres work (like, rock seems to be based on a balance of aggressive and vulnerable sensibilities, the feminine and the masculine, if you will). I was hoping Gaga would have something to say about the nature of pop, but the music was a grinding mess of rock and electronics, and she seemed more interested in shouting naughty words than inciting anything like a conversation with the audience.
The support act (not the first one, Breedlove, who was just out of place) Lady Starlight played techno that was exactly like the stuff I used to love in about 1994 - bleeping, relentless and sounding, frankly, well out of date. Starlight paused in her set to say how Glasgow had had many important musicians... 'but more importantly,' the crowd looked fabulous. That was probably a revelatory moment.
And it wasn't a rave, either.
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