The Monster Ball grossed over $200 million and became the highest grossing tour for a debuting artist with over 200 dates worldwide.
The Born This Way Ball, as all of you little monsters already know, kicked-off last Friday at the Olympic Stadium in Seoul, South Korea, with a full attendance despite government censorship for minors. The show was a grand success for a tour that will be above average for sure. Millions of fans exploded Twitter with tweets awaiting updates and photos and videos and what not, from the kick-off. However, the show has received mixed reviews among monsters.
The show doesn't have a clear storyline yet. However, this hasn't stopped fans from experimenting from what they know about Gaga to create one. For instance, we've seen a lot of "'tis about Gaga escaping to create a new race, but the government and other groups are trying to capture and stop her" which seems like a very valid story if you ask us!
Some fans praised the show saying that it really showed what Gaga is all about and includes every aspect of her, from her great vocals, to her incredible dancing, and her heart-warming piano playing. Others disliked the show, saying it seemed like everything didn't fit together and that it was in no way better than her past tour, The Monster Ball.
Us? We personally cannot exactly conclude what we think of the tour so far since it's only been one date. We would rather not judge it until we actually go see a live show. However, from what we've seen, we can say that we like it, but it seems like Gaga wants to please a lot of people with only two hours and a hectic schedule.
When doing the setlist, we can imagine how hard it was for Gaga to select the songs to play. She obviously doesn't want to disappoint anyone, even though she did. Many fans are angry with the fact that there's no 'Dance in the Dark' or 'The Queen.' We love both songs and were expecting to see 'Dance in the Dark' in the setlist, but we understand why Gaga doesn't have it on the setlist and we applaud her for it. The setlist is pretty long with all of her major hits and singles in it, however, this makes it hard to perform everything in its entirity. For instance, we think having Telephone and LoveGame smashed up wasn't that great. Everything seems fast-paced and does not seem to allow people to enjoy every act thoroughly. That's one of the things we thought wasn't that great about the show.
We love the opening song. We absolutely love it! And we want her to keep Highway Unicorn (Road To Love) there for the entire tour, but we do dislike what's visible during the show. Oh yeah, that's right. Nothing! From the videos, we can barely see Gaga riding in on the unicorn. The bright lights make a cool lightning effect, but it is all dark and the fans seem to wait for a long time to see Gaga, but they really never see her until Government Hooker.
The stage is the best thing this tour has so far. We haven't come across a single "little monster" that disliked it. The castle is beyond amazing. The variation of lights is also awesome. The sound seems to be off-the-hook. Every visual aspect of the show is a thumbs-up from us. We really never thought Gaga would be able to out-do the Monster Ball stage, but she did.
Some of her performances seem weak from what we've seen, but others are pure excellence. "Americano", "Bad Kids", "ScheiBe", "Heavy Metal Lover", "Bad Romance", & "Marry The Night" are beyond great with the awesome dancing. "The Edge of Glory", "Hair", & "You & I" are good enough. "Just Dance" did not exceed what she did with the song on the last tour, plus she barely dances. "Poker Face" seems to be the song that will never be changed as far as how it is performed in her entire career and we praise that. "Born This Way" did not seem as exciting as it did when she performed it on the last tour as was "Judas".
So, overall...
Overall, it's hard to rate the show, but we think it's pretty good and decent for what this Born This Way Era has brought to the Haus. We think it's a perfect stadium-show and should be played mostly in stadiums. After seeing Gaga at the last Monster Ball south of the US, we were impressed by how good she looked and performed at a stadium, so we think it's great she's adding them to this tour worldwide. We are not sure if it is going to overcome the huge success of the Monster Ball, but it surely may. Ticket sales are somewhat proving that. If Gaga sticks to her promise of 110 shows (doubt it!) and still passes the $200 million mark, we are going to applaud her for a job well-done. For now, we can only say, good luck Gaga!
Show Rating (As Of Now): 8/10
Show Rating (For The Monster Ball By The End Of The Tour): 9.5/10
