Tampa's Amalie Arena could only pack in just under 17,000 people on Friday night when Lady Gaga treated her Little Monsters to a 21-song set that lasted about two hours. Here's what our reviewer had to say.
On Friday, Ms. Joanne played a long sold-out show for just under 17,000 Little Monsters, and while the first stanza of her show — which did feature spirited takes on new and old club-staples “Perfect Illusion” and “Poker Face” — felt languid by her standards (maybe it was the effect of back-to-back shows), things started to fall into their majestic, magnificent places by the time Gaga donned her black Stetson, unleashed some pyro on Joanne stand-out “John Wayne” and got her Kraftwerk on during “Scheiße” from 2011’s Born This Way (which, in 2012, earned Gaga her third consecutive Album of the Year Grammy nom, a feat only previously achieved by The Beatles).
A trio of trippy, mushroom-looking, pseudo-bioluminescent bridges dropped in from the ceiling as Gaga made her way to a second stage where she played “Applause” on a clear piano made alive by a stage illuminated in fluorescent club lights. It was a fitting visual for the only ARTPOP cut of the night, and Gaga continued in the happy-go-lucky vein with her Vegas-ready, horn-drenched feel-good anthem-for-kindness, “Come To Mama,” before telling the story of a young girl from the previous night’s Miami meet-and-greet who asked her how to break into the music industry.
Listen to a playlist of songs from the show below, and read the rest of our review here. Download the playlist via Spotify.
This article appears in Nov 30 – Dec 7, 2017.