By Quinn Smalley
Lady Gaga performing at the Mayhem Ball Tour at United Center in Chicago on Sept.15
Is it 2008 again? Lately it seems as though the millennial pop divas of the late 2000s and early 2010s are having career second winds. One of them being Lady Gaga, who released one of the most well received albums of the year, “Mayhem.” An album so good she made the world forget about the Joker 2 film the year before. Then, Kesha released her first effort without Dr. Luke called “.”, Marina and the Diamonds dropped the Diamonds and released her long awaited comeback album “Princess of Power”, Rihanna is rumored to be returning to music later this year and Katy Perry’s Lifetimes Tour has been doing well. It’s an exciting time for pop music fans, especially if you’re a little monster eyeing tickets for The Mayhem Ball Tour Gaga has been on this summer.
The album “Mayhem” is considered a return to form and being compared to previous efforts such as ”The Fame Monster” and “Born This Way”. “Mayhem” has revitalized Gaga’s career in unexpected ways. Earlier this year Gaga headlined Coachella for the second time, bringing the tragic, high octane, gothic fantasy of “Mayhem” to life in a nearly flawless performance dubbed “Mayhem in The Desert.” The performances of “Mayhem in The Desert” were critically praised; it was a performance good enough to make any critic of the album take back their words. Now she’s taking the mayhem on tour.
One of the “Voices of Mayhem” being displayed on stage pre-show at the Lady Gaga Mayhem Ball performance on Sept. 15 at the United Center in Chicago.
Gaga performed at the United Center in Chicago on September 15. Gaga transformed the venue into a macabre opera house that some fans might find familiar. The stage was a scaled down recreation of the iconic Coachella set with some new surprises. The arena was filled with excitement from fans and ominous opera arias (many songs unrecognizable besides a few numbers from “Carmen”) and an interactive message board on stage called “Voices of Mayhem” which gave fans the opportunity to send messages to be displayed on stage.
Messages from fans old and new, as young as nine and as old as 75, had their messages projected on screen. Before long, the messages stopped, and a video of Gaga dressed in a dramatic Elizabethan styled garment made of striking red velvet appeared. She silently and ominously wrote on a piece of parchment before transitioning to the opening credits: “Lady Gaga Presents: The Art of Personal Chaos.”
Act 1: Of Velvet and Vice
The dark opera opens with the song “Bloody Mary” with Gaga emerging from the darkness of center stage as the Lady In Red, revealing the bottom half of the red velvet costume, a towering skirt. The next song, “Abracadabra” queued the skirt to open to reveal a cage with her dancers within. Gaga descended her skirt to join the dancers on the stage for the chorus before returning to begin the next number, “Judas,” which was met with roaring applause. The number is a fan favorite that has not been performed on tour in 11 years since the ARTPOP Ball tour.
The real highlight of Act 1 was, “Pokerface” in which Gaga is found facing off against a Lady in White that ends with Gaga killing the woman donning a cane and running off stage screaming “Off with her head!” An interlude movie of the Lady in White falling into the depths ushered the audience into the next act.
Act 2: And She Fell Into A Gothic Dream
Lady Gaga performing Paparazzi at the Mayhem Ball Tour at United Center in Chicago on Sept.15
Suddenly, Gaga, now the Lady In White, awakens half buried amongst a mass of skeletons (her dancers) and begins to sing the moody “Perfect Celebrity”. “Disease” followed by “Paparazzi” and “Love Game” chronicles the recovery and resolve of the Lady in White to get revenge on the Lady In Red. The theatricality that fans come to expect from Gaga cranked to 100 the entire time.
Act 3: The Beautiful Nightmare That Knows Her Name
After another set and costume change, the song “Killah” begins. Gaga, dressed in a giant black gown with huge roses cascading down the skirt, rose from a gigantic skull’s eye socket that seemingly appeared there out of thin air. Switching gears to the campy disco track “Zombieboy”, a set of stairs descend around the giant skull. The Netflix “Wednesday” series tie-in track “The Dead Dance” brought in a mid-act costume change making Gaga look like one of the porcelain dolls featured in the music video.
Act 4: Every Chessboard Has Two Queens
The audience started to see the show slow down a bit after a truce is struck between Lady Gaga and the Lady in Red. They accept one another as two halves of a whole and Gaga begins to sing a soulful rendition of “Million Reasons.” After, the Lady in Red offers a ferry ride over this show’s version of River Styx while Gaga sings “Shallow.” The way the ferry moved across the stage was so smooth you’d think it was on water.
Eventually getting across the stage to her trusty piano, Gaga surprised fans with a stripped-down version of a thought to be forgotten fan favorite track from “Born This Way”, “Hair.” At this point of the show Gaga took the time to talk to the audience, giving her heartfelt gratitude to the dedication her fans have shown over the years in Chicago, “especially during ARTPOP.” Gaga closed this act by showing her closeness to her fans, running down to the floor to sign memorabilia and take photos while singing, “Vanish into You.”
Lady Gaga performing “Born This Way” at the Mayhem Ball Tour at the United Center in Chicago on Sept.15
Act 5: Eternal Aria of The Monster Heart
Finally, Lady Gaga returned to the stage as the Lady in White, galvanized and surrounded by plague doctors attempting to resuscitate her, only to wake up and burn the whole opera house down in a fiery and triumphant performance of “Bad Romance”. But as one last gag after leaving the stage, fresh faced Gaga appears on screen, backstage in a baseball cap, and for the encore begins to sing “How Bad Do U Want Me?” as she makes her way with her crew to the stage for the final curtain call.
Lady Gaga performing “Bad Romance” at the Mayhem Ball Tour at the United Center in Chicago on Sept.15
Throughout the show there were endless words of encouragement, hope, self-worth and acceptance. Those themes resonated with a lot of fans that night, with a lot of teary-eyed little monsters in the crowd. The love between Lady Gaga and her fans could not go unmissed and that atmosphere along with the unforgettable spectacle that was The Mayhem Ball is the reason why you shouldn’t miss this show. Luckily for Arizonans, you won’t need to travel outside of the state to catch the mayhem in person! Over Valentine’s Day weekend in 2026, Lady Gaga will be taking residence at the Desert Diamond Casino Arena Feb. 14 and 15.