Lady Gaga performs during Z100’s Jingle Ball in New York City, December 9th, 2011. Jamie McCarthy/WireImage for Clear ChannelIt’s a strange thing, seeing Lady Gaga play to a half-empty Madison Square Garden.The all-star pop concert put on by her hometown’s biggest Top-40 station would, on the surface, seem to be the perfect setting for her kitschy excess. Plus, Mother Monster legend tells us that an 11-year-old Gaga first declared her dream of becoming a singer at Jingle Ball, a bit of trivia invoked repeatedly by the star and the station on Friday night.
“This was the first live show I had ever been to!” Gaga announced early in her set, when the crowd was still at capacity. “Whose first show is this?” she asked, thousands cheering back in response.
There’s the problem: Z100‘s Jingle Ball isn’t really a celebration of the vast pop universe in all its tricked-out glory. It’s a Top-40 playlist come to life for the young and restless – heavy rotation hits only, please. And no costume changes! (Commercials for VitaminWater and Five Points College are OK, though.)
Its lineup isn’t necessarily made up of the biggest stars, but the ones that most effectively pervaded the airwaves in the past year or so. On this night, that meant Gaga, but it also meant Pitbull, David Guetta, Kelly Clarkson, LMFAO, Gym Class Heroes and Demi Lovato, all of whom are nothing if not eager to please. Gaga takes pop theater to a higher power, where challenging eyes and ears to the point that thrill and fatigue become inseparable, somehow, makes sense. No wonder the Jingle Ball and Monster Ball crowds don’t mix.
Gaga followed Pitbull and Guetta, who each play a vital role in their hits, but not the most vital. The superstar DJ shrewdly led fans through his radio and club smashes, from the Flo Rida- and Nicki Minaj-ᴀssisted “Where Dem Girls At” to the unabashedly romantic “Without U,” featuring Usher. “We have 15 minutes to turn this into the best party on the planet!” Guetta shouted jubilantly. “Let’s go!”
