My experience at MAYHEM: REQUIEM

[ChicaSkas 23,728]

This was so short notice, I am so greatful, and i want to shout out to a special person for hooking me up at the absolute last minute, at 3:15 this afternoon, and emailing me and offering me a way in.

THANK YOU SO MUCH to that person if you ever see this, you know who you are.

 

 

 

I took LOADS OF NOTES:

 

When we entered, it was around 8:40, I just had enough time to get seated and get waters (it was extremely HOT inside and they had free water cups for everyone) An announcer came on and said multiple takes may occur -- they didn't, it was all ONE take, no technical difficulties that I could sense. I'd say the show itself was around an hour and a half, maybe 1 hour and 20 minutes or so, but without clocks there was no way to tell.

The stage curtain was a Japanese style painting, with waterfalls, green hills, red sky with clouds.

I tried to sketch it but it came out badly. I managed to smuggle inside a 30 page yellow notebook between my pants and my jacket, with a small pen, and I scribbled every single page over the course of the next 90 minutes.

The venue went completely black, and huge pumping synth blared out in no particular pattern, into what became the sounds of DISEASE.

The entire castle is slowly lit up, reminiscent of the Born This Way castle from 2011. As more light brought different parts into view, it became a giant broken down church, with a huge organ like structure emerging from the "bedrock" castle walls, surrounded by broken columns, arches, stone, rubble and rocks. Three separate pianos, were built into the center of the church, under massive silver organ pipes. With one turn of a chair, Gaga could play any of the 3 pianos she wanted on that level. 

There were 3 separate levels, it reminded me of a Christmas village church, with the light streaming out from at least 6 glass windows on the bottom level of the stage, similar to the light emerging from behind the porcelain here:

 

 

 

The different musicians were staged on different "piles" or sections of rubble. Tosh's drum kit seemed to rise directly from the broken pillars and rocks, and Ricky Tillo was at one point playing on top of one of the 3 pianos in the center. 

The castle / church seems to be one giant instrument.

One light burst from the side of the stage as bright as daylight, to bathe Gaga's piano in one beam of copper and gold light, as if a single window in a church was beaming down on her as she sang.

The arrangement for Disease was completely different, the notes in different places, like a live acoustic reimagining of the song. 

The church lighting intensified for ABRACADABRA, which was sung sitting at piano, and with accompaniment on guitars from Tim, Ricky, and a black man I'm not sure who yet, who performed from the highest level of the stage. The vocals of Abra were different from what any of us have memorize. I cannot describe it but it felt remixed into something more repetitive.

Abra had the sound of a funeral dirge, with a new remix intro I've never heard before. Strobes and beams of light shot out in red from the stage towards the audience and at one point gaga gave an unexpected shriek for emphasis before the launch into "Feel The Beat Under Your Feet The Floor's On Fire...."

At one point, she sang almost exactly in the style of Sarah Brightman in The Phantom of The Opera, "SING FOR ME" with great emphasis, the light cut, and green smokey haze filled the stage and was illuminated by green lights. Strobes of green light cut through the fog , and synth built up slowly to give us GARDEN OF EDEN, which was blasted with heavy rock sounds.

Gaga was on lead guitar, and her outfit was giving strong Stevie Nicks:

This is not the most accurate picture, but you get the idea --- all black

For the guitar, both Ricky Tillo and Tim Stewart played right along side her, all three guitars going strong at once.

The lights were all very much in the style as one would see in a church, accentuating the pianos. There was no direct spotlight on Gaga. She would disappear behind the rocky outcrops and around and in and out of the columns / rubble and up and down the different levels of the structure.

The dress was all black and long and flowing, like Stevie Nicks, and with the front open for her legs in all tight sheer all black pantyhose and high black heels. The back of the dress was down to the floor. and her blonde wig hung halfway down to the small of her back.

She wore a veil of black tulle or mesh over her face, I was too far back in mezzanine to tell you exactly what. 

She walked all the way to the top of the stage, up the very highest point, where the organ pipes were illuminated with bright green. Heavy metal instrumentals soared, and she let out a squeak in the middle of Garden of Eden which made me giggle. Garden of Eden had a sort of extended outro, with Gaga, Ricky, and Tim absolutely JAMMING into a big finish. 

PERFECT CELEBRITY was next, and the light shone from the stained glass windows under the pianos, in the colors of blue and silver. One strong spotlight cast light on only on her, and the lights from underneath were beaming through the stained glass. 

From high above the stage, the most incredible phenomenon of laser pointed light, neon, extremely focused pinpoints of light shone STRAIGHT DOWN onto the tops of the 3 pianos, illuminating *only* the tops of the instruments in an extremely bright neon laser focused bright blue light, exactly like the laser cat toys, as if millions of laser cat toys were pointing down and lighting up ONLY the instruments in silhouette. It repeated itself on the rocks, illuminating the rocks in their exact shapes and quivering in the haze of the smoke. 

Also high above the stage were giant loops and dangles of heavy cords, which were shone with flickering lights of blue and green. like an industrial post apocalypse church scene, with an angel singing below. 

Tim and Ricky led the guitars for a completely different arrangement of Vanish Into You -- as Gaga writhed on the floor of the stage, reaching out as though beseeching Ricky Tillo and Ricky Tillo alone. She crawled down every step like she had forgotten how to use her legs and dragged herself down the stage for the most dramatic effect. I don't think I can remember her doing such a writhing crawl ever before. 

She sang upwards directly from her back on the floor. Then got up after the writhing and you could see all the long blonde hair tumble down, just like Stevie Nicks, her vocals actually undulated at one point EXACTLY as Stevie Nicks' does, a powerful animal belt that comes from the depths of Stevie's soul, particularly during Edge of Seventeen -- this exact sound came from Gaga's lips tonight and the Stevie fan inside me thrilled to the core. 

The lights were giving white and silver and grey and they changed intensity. the piano was STRONG and LOUD and it was powerful and in some places those strikes on the keys were louder than her voice and absolutely definitive -- it was bold and strong and all you could hear. 

The arrangement again was completely different under her words, it was like the feel of Vanish but all new sounds and the song took new directions out from under what I've remembered all these months. 

Gaga gave a kind of in place curtsy when she finished Vanish. The crowd went nuts. She walked down to the lowest level and seemed to alternate singing directly to either Tim Stewart or Ricky Tillo, it was as though she completely ignored the crowd, which was understandable, she was in the ZONE.

There was an interlude of extremely eerie synth tones, similar to the Travis Scott interludes at the ill fated Astroworld, intense otherworldly pulses that lifted the soul up and then plunged down into alien like depths of oddities and finally horror synths, like our old friends the Horror Synths of Bad Romance.

At the culmination of the Horror Synths, a brand new KILLAH arrangement burst onto the stage, clomping and lurching forward into our ears in different ways than any of us have memorized.   Lights streamed out in green and the fans clapped to each beat. Killah is now a dark stomp, a dark industrial stomp like Teeth on steroids, back and forth, with each clomp the lights stream green from the stage and every window. Gaga gave a walk like the dead dance, like a horror lurch from a grave, into the camera. 

The piano streamed out impact synth with each stroke. Her singing was jerky and disjointed. At the point where she sings. "Make the ceiling shake for me" the mezzanine shook as fans jumped. Tim Stewart played so hard he was kneeling on the ground. 

The pinpoint perfect laser neon lights shone down again, this time in green and white, laser focused on random rocks, instruments, and objects on the stage. 

The sound was so bold as to be defiant and cocky, full of swagger. Gaga absolutely screamed " YOU KNOW YOURE GONNA DIE TONIGHT" and I swear on GOD the next synth was straight off Nine Inch Nails' "Closer" (I wanna fck you like an animal) and then it darted away from the NIN sound but everyone KNEW the reference.

 

it was GIVING this

 

 

Blue light bathed us all and the stage and ZOMBIEBOY began, but completely different from what you would traditionally associate with Zombieboy. Gaga was on the top of the 3 level stage, like a lion on Pride Rock, and the lights illuminating these giant pipes of the organ and piano she was at (another piano at the very top)

I could just make out a mesh like veil / mask on her face that looked like a white skull from Dia De Los Muertos, but i was very far away in Mezzanine so hopefully other little monsters can clarify. 

This version was heavy on VOCODER, which is HUGE for me as i was a huge proponent of altered Gaga acapella remixes back in the day, such as the Dan Easton Bad Romance Vocoder version, which i featured on a Necromancy Remix project over a decade ago in 2012.

It was giving THIS:

Red fog gushed out into the audience and the lights were all red strobes. A long note of synth gave way to LOVEDRUG.

"RIver in my eyes": totally new arrangement. Gaga was playing guitar with Ricky Tillo. At some point she took off her veil and the crowd went nuts. 

Light streamed out from under neath the stage in the broken church windows. Again it was giving a Christmas village church miniature with a candle inside, illuminating the stained glass windows from within and outwards. 

There were 6 musicians on stage:

Brockett Parsons -- off far to the left with 3 keyboards in front of him instead of the circle piano

Tim Stewart -- higher on the 2nd level but moving all over

Ricky Tillo -- also moving from the bottom to middle levels from what i could see

Tosh The Drummer, fixed on his rubble pile with drums

-- a black man I don't know who he is yet -- stayed on the highest level and middle levels. i think he was filling in for bassist Johnny Good. 

-- Gaga, all over

 

At one point another beam of light as bright as a Klieg light like a true beam of daylight, shone on Gaga's 3 pianos , leading into HOW BAD DO YOU WANT ME --- performed in a TOTALLY NEW WAY to what we know. this was like a Prayer. this was like an orchestral step into the deepest most reverent Taylor-ish ballad from the soul. It was done as you would sing a hymn. With all the passion you would see for a religious song. The chords were slow and deep and reverent. You are in the presence of woman, and woman is God, and this song is God, and I am being taken to a celestial plane. As the glitter of the dust that I am, and that you are and that we all will become, the glitter of dust is shining in this beam of white hot light on Gaga, as she prays on stage. 

Tiny shimmers of synth shine and glisten brightly under

"You panic in your sleep

(Panic in your sleep)

And you feel like such a creep

(Feel like such a creep)"

like the same Christine McVie synth in "Everywhere" by Fleetwood Mac.

Light again emerged streaming from the windows broken under her feet in this broken down church. HBDYWM feels like it's being sung from her soul and each person in the crowd is singing it back and Gaga stretches the big "TELL MEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeEEEEEeeeeeEEEEEE......!!!!"" so far, so much longer than I've ever heard her sing it.

There is only her voice and throbbing exploding synth under it as the song climaxes. It ends too soon and cuts fast into "DON'T CALL TONIGHT",  with a definite vocoder inside there, stomping new arrangement. Gaga is wearing an all black cowl over her head and at some point covers her entire face with the cowl during this song. She picks Tosh to serenade to, and reaches out her arms again seemingly beseeching him to listen to her and pay attention to her.

Brand new intro for SHADOW OF A  MAN -- lasers pinpoint into shapes accross the rubble. One beam of light hits Gaga only as she sings. Shadow of a Man has a markedly slower pace and slower synth and guitar than before. There was a crowd call and response and new bold rectangles of neon light pulse down from the cieling in perfect lasers, framing shapes and the floor and becoming neon pillars of light.

The lasers beam up the sides of the silver organ pipes in bright blue. Again Gaga channels Stevie Nicks with her perfect guttural growl-cry "shadow, shadow of a MAN" with an extended outro.

Gaga sits at the piano and starts into an acoustic version of THE BEAST, again with a different arrangement and notes in different places than what we know. 

She gets up and sings and walks the length of the bottom stage, stepping through layers and layers of rolling churning dry ice flowing and smoking down from her steps and the stage. long extended piano interlude inside this song.

Gaga's vocals bite and have an edge to them "YOU CAN'T HIDE WHO YOU ARE, OH YEAH..."followed by a soft light piano outro.

The church windows are partially illuminated as the music turns almost sinister. Bronzey orange light bathes the piano from a point off stage, and soft piano leads into a new arrangement of BLADE OF GRASS. It's sung almost like a prayer would be, deep powerful synth, "wrap that blade of grass" strobes with red and green lights all around. the energy is again funeral dirge, deadly serious, deeply beautiful and passionate and acoustic. 

Blue lights bathe the whole audience, high synth and Moog synth style synthesizer sounds stream out, more illumination from the church windows. the slow synth builds into a completely different reimagining of DIE WITH A SMILE.

Now here's where it gets tricky --- I could not tell for the life of me if it was Bruno Mars voice or a vocoder Gaga's voice during the first part of the song, but towards the 2nd half it was absolutely Gaga singing. The lights were all blue like the DWAS colorscheme and the neon pinpoint lasers shone all over in perfect blue over various random things on stage. 

Futuristic alien vibes and sounds and pulsations came out over the air. Tim and Ricky stood still as monks, facing the crowd completely motionless. Blue strobe lights and warm blue colored smoke blew off the stage, and there was an odd lurching stomp to Die With A Smile that it normally doesnt have at all. 

Gaga changed the lyrics to "DIE DIE DIE WITH A SMILE" multiple times.

The vocoder was very strong here very Dan Easton Bad Romance.

Completely remixed, vocoder version of Die With A Smile -- a funeral march version 80s version with alien synth.  It ends so softly and completely different from the "real" version of the song. 

Gaga is in full black -- she stands in the center of the middle stage, and her musicians gather around her one by one, to do a big final bow of six.

They all get a standing ovation for about 3 minutes. "CAN'T STOP THE HIGH" is piped in as the getting up and getting ready to leave song, she doesn't sing it. 

She speaks for a moment , a very brief address to the crowd, but they are screaming so loudly they literally drowned her out. I scribbled: "Little Monsters formed an operahouse, they demolished it, and they made music together, and then they put it all back -- together. "

She sang over some pieces of Cant Stop The High, and walked off stage.

House lights slowly came on section by section, and we all left.

I was so happy to see so many of my friends, it was like a family reunion. I am so glad I came, and I cannot WAIT FOR YOU ALL TO HEAR IT.

 

I love you all

love,

your media queen

-- Chica  

ps: I WANT THESE POSTERS OH MY GOD.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 18 hours ago by ChicaSkas
Spelling is hard

[andy232000 12,629]

Slay and at the same time nervous about the new arrangements. I hope they don’t deconstruct the songs too much. Is it like what happened to Million Reasons and Shallow at the tour?

[NUTELLA 16,229]

8 minutes ago, ChicaSkas said:

the slow synth builds into a completely different reimagining of DIE WITH A SMILE.

Now heres where it gets tricky --- I could not tell for the life of me if it was Bruno Mars voice or a vocoder Gaga's voice during the first part of the song, but towards the 2nd half it was absolutely Gaga singing. 

(...)

The vocoder was very strong here very Dan Easton Bad Romance.

Completely remixed, vocoder version of Die With A Smile -- a funeral march version 80s version with alien synth.

Waiting to actually hear THIS in particular...

will be absolute TORTURE 😩🤤

Brilliant recap. Glad you had fun 💚

[Bronco 15,720]

6 minutes ago, ChicaSkas said:

She speaks for a moment , a very brief address to the crowd, but they are screaming so loudly they literally drowned her out. I scribbled: "Little Monsters formed an operahouse, they demolished it, and they made music together, and then they put it all back -- together. "

Honestly, this just further solidifies my thoughts that Gaga "knew" what Mayhem would be when she gave us the brutalist nightmare Chromatica ball staging. Like I know she started writing Mayhem after the tour ended, but the concepts are too consistently tied to that brutalist prison she created for it to have not been the birth of Mayhem. 
 

[Starmie25 20,462]

Your review sounds incredible. The amount of depth you put into this post !

I am so thrilled to hear the show was everything to you and the fans.

Edited yesterday at 01:00 PM by Starmie25

[Schwerk 7,393]

16 minutes ago, ChicaSkas said:

 

-- a black man I don't know who he is yet -- stayed on the highest level and middle levels. i think he was filling in for bassist Johnny Good. 

Johnny is no longer Gaga's bass player, Eric Ingram has been touring with her, so I assume it's him?

Thank you so much for sharing all this! I started reading and I had to Stop myself because this was so good and distriptive that I don't want to spoil the show. 

 

[ChicaSkas 23,728]

7 minutes ago, Starmie25 said:

Your review sounds incredible.

I am so thrilled to hear the show was everything to you and the fans.

I was so incredibly blessed to be there and to go and to be able to attend and see my old friends from concerts past. I was sad some of them couldnt get in, I was sad so many had to pay through the nose -- but the sheer quality and level of art this woman puts out and gives to us is SO HIGH. This was a million dollar production. It was world class, beautiful. 

We were so lucky. I hope it all gets seen in full. 

I gotta go to bed now it's 4am but I LOVE YOU GUYS

 

[weed 75,716]

Sooo detailed! Queen of smuggling in notepads! Lovely to read, very excited to watch. Sounds incredible, I'm just as excited for the visuals as I am for the music

[TinyGa 397]

Thank you SO much for sharing, it sounds unbelievable in the best way. What an experience I’m so glad you got to go. Cannot wait for this to come out.

[MDevacelli 1,596]

With the promo image we have and your description of the stage, it seems to be something like it, is that right?

Spoiler

 

Edited yesterday at 12:20 PM by MDevacelli

[ChicaSkas 23,728]

2 minutes ago, MDevacelli said:

With the promo image we have and your description of the stage, it seems to be something like it, is that right?

OH MY GOD YES THIS IS IT THIS IS VERY CLOSE TO EXACTLY IT OMG HOW

[ChicaSkas 23,728]

wait wow except the pianos were built into the stage

[Rocket Number 9 1,716]

girl this is basically an ethnographic research on the show  i'm so hyped to hear this, thank you so so so much

[Roughhouse Dandy 12,385]

You're always such a life saver in these exclusive moments. The level of note taking is God-like and we're so lucky to have you. Thank you so much for everything you do 💜 I'm so happy you got to go and have a good time. 

Edited yesterday at 02:04 PM by Roughhouse Dandy

[MDevacelli 1,596]

The level of details, the journalism, girl TY so much, I'm so hyped rn I wish I could jump in time to the day they release it 

Edited yesterday at 03:53 PM by MDevacelli