It feels like a lifetime ago when, in the darkest days of the pandemic, Lady Gaga released “Chromatica” in May 2020.
It was essentially a way to free yourself from the closure of the walls you climbed and escape to another planet where the clubs still pumped beats – instead of hand sanitizer – in a world where masking and social distancing never existed. .
But maybe Chromatica was a victim of timing: there was only so much that an album designed for dancing alone could do when there was no place to dance.
And as if “Chromatica” never happened—aside from the futuristic get-up that, to Gaga, almost resembled grocery shopping right now—she came out strong at the Chromatica ball at MetLife Stadium on Thursday night with three of her biggest pre-Covid hits: “Bad Romance”, “Just Dance” and “Pokerface”.
bam. bam. bam.
Born an artist, Stefani Germanotta wasn’t about to wait for no dang encore to give the people they’d been waiting for for over two years. And sure enough, the Little Monsters who had come from all over the New York area to worship Mother in her only local performance of her summer stadium trek that ended up being more about the fans than the coins.
By the time she did her first costume change—and the first “Chromatica” song, “Alice,” there was almost no other place to go but to go downstairs. But whether it was a golden oldie like “Monster” or an overlooked newer jam like “Sour Candy,” Gaga left no doubt that a star was reborn.
And really, this is a rebirth that has taken place since the disappointment of 2016’s country pop turn “Joanne.” After her Oscar-winning reset in ‘A Star Is Born’, Gaga is once again determined to ride your disco stick.
Although she seems to have always been there, Gaga is only 36. And she’s far from ready to settle in Tony Bennett territory.
But if anything, those Bennett collabs prove exactly what a vocal dynamo Gaga is — there’s no question that she sings live all the time. And it’s hard to think of a few singers who can hoof, strap, and, yes, even play an instrument with the full power that she can.
While the show reached a lull with fewer “Chromatica” snippets like “Babylon,” it was nothing short of cathartic to hear a song like “Free Woman” in the liberating environment in which it was to be experienced.
But it’s telling that “Shallow”—the Bradley Cooper duet from an “A Star Is Born” that’s more Ally Maine than Lady Gaga—was the more recent hint that got the most responses. Meanwhile, she tenderly dedicated another “Star” song, “I’ll Always Remember Us ThisWay,” to Bennett during an extended piano section that lasted a little too long.
And when she split “Born This Way” into a piano ballad before reciting it, it reminded you exactly what she can do at the peak of her ability — if she’s on the right track, baby.