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Je suis Batman
I like it a lot, too - glad we have a street date for the full album so I know how long I have to resist the urge to play it out prematurely!Originally Posted by kel
Joanne had its moments (I absolutely love Diamond Heart and the title track), but it’s so inextricably associated in my mind with the 2016 election that I have little desire to revisit it frequently. As such, I’m even more excited about new, non-ASIB material.
House Always Wins
New song is alright but the video is like old times. I can't believe I found and have been a fan since January 2009. Time fucking flies.
Joanne didn't do anything for me and the last album I liked top to bottom was Born This Way (sans a few songs). ARTPOP was good but had some bad stuff. I miss the electro pop sound, hopefully the new album is like Stupid Love for most of its content.
Last edited by Space Suicide; 03-10-2020 at 11:24 PM.
Je suis Batman
Managed to score GA Pit tickets for the MetLife stadium show, which I’m excited about despite the price. At least the VIP package I “had to” (ha!) purchase includes early access, so it should be an excellent view.
Realize I haven’t seen her since one of the Roseland Ballroom (NYC) farewell dates back in 2014...time really flies.
House Always Wins
Does the VIP include Merch and a meet and greet?
Je suis Batman
There’s some sort of merch package; definitely no meet & greet (presumably for a star of her stature anything like that would be tiny and not marketed via Ticketmaster).
grrr. woof.
chromatica is fucking sick. early 90's house, almost start to finish. "alice" and "enigma" are my favorites, but not a single dud.
House Always Wins
Vastly superior to Joanne. I didn't like that album at all.
Throbbing Member
Just opened up my mind more and gave The Fame Monster a proper listen, really great album, can't wait to explore rest of her discography too if all of it is t his energetic and fun.
Je suis Batman
I totally forgot I posted about The Chromatica Ball right before the world got turned upside down…but finally made it to the show more than two years later.
Will keep this spoiler-free in case anyone else is catching it, but my honest reaction is that it seemed weirdly unambitious and half-baked (for her, at any rate). For context, this was my fifth show, so a lot of my issues may be the tough comparison with the gonzo Fame/Fame Monster era.
The good news is that her vocal performance absolutely killed, as per my prior experience and meeting high expectations. I imagine many of the creative choices were driven by the need to protect the Crown Jewels, as it were. However, even with that in mind, there were missed opportunities. The stage was starkly brutalist and screen-dominated, par for the course in huge stadiums, but the extent to which it was otherwise static and lacking in interesting setpieces surprised me. It was also fairly under-utilized. I certainly wasn’t expect her to be sprinting up and down the two catwalks, but with such a large crew of dancers, it seemed like they could have either planned to use them or just nixed one and sold more GA tickets.
The setlist and pacing was the other aspect that fell a bit flat for me. Song-wise, I went in without many expectations other than for a lot of Chromatica, probably no Joanne, and the full complement of hits. This was pretty much spot-on, but the choices for the first act were bold enough that I remarked “holy shit!” to my husband at the first interlude. I allowed for the possibility that she had more genuine surprises for us…but alas. It’s difficult to unpack this much more sans spoilers, but let’s just say the momentum definitely flagged - particularly with the loooong time spent at the middle stage and the heavy emphasis on Chromatica tracks that IMO have not held up particularly well after two years with the album.
YMMV, of course, and I hope I’m a very lonely dissenting voice here! Anyone catch the tour yet or planning to?
Last edited by roolfdriht; 08-12-2022 at 11:05 AM.
Stubby Member
^Wow, great view! I’m seeing her at Wrigley Field on Monday. It’s strange to think of the stage setup as being stark and brutalist given the elaborate stage setups in the past tours. Looking forward to the show, bought my tickets in 2020, too.
Je suis Batman
We splurged for the Little Monsters VIP tickets with early entry, so even though we checked in at the last moment, we were able to get a rail spot with no difficulty at all - always appreciate having something to lean on!
With so few dates on the tour, it would not be surprising to hear that the overall production design was driven more by profitability vs. artistic considerations. If so, fair enough! It just makes me appreciate even more having had the opportunity to see multiple dates back when she was willing to hemorrhage money on that stuff.
Hope you have a great time at WF and don’t end up sharing any of my minor laments!
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