Lady Gaga's eighth world tour, The Mayhem Ball, arrived at London's O2 Arena with a two-hour, 30-song set divided into five acts. The show opened with a lengthy film featuring Gaga in a ruff and leg of mutton sleeves, pensively writing on a scroll with a large feathered quill, which drew a slow handclap from the restless audience. When she finally exited the screen, the crowd erupted in cheers as the real Gaga appeared atop a giant scarlet crinoline dress, reminiscent of crocheted toilet roll covers.
The dress was pulled back to reveal a cage with dancers, setting a tone of striking absurdity. The tour accompanies her album Mayhem, a return to electronic dance-pop after a decade of experimenting with country, jazz, and soft rock. The show reaffirms Gaga as pop's most unrepentant oddball, featuring backing dancers dressed as sexy 17th-century bubonic plague doctors and a loose plotline involving Gaga battling Mother Mayhem, also played by herself.
The imagery draws from Lewis Carroll and Greek mythology, with themes possibly exploring warring impulses like the Dionysian and Apollonian. While the show lacks the chaotic edge of her early tours, it compensates with slick choreography and special effects, including turning audience members on screens into glowing-eyed zombies. Gaga also performed while half-buried in a sandbox, fondling and pretending to strangle a plastic skeleton.
The songs are loosely grouped by genre, with Euro-influenced bangers upfront and big ballads like Shallow, Die With a Smile, and Edge of Glory in the finale. The devoted crowd, some wearing T-shirts demanding 'Justice for Artpop', went berserk throughout. Though the narrative makes little sense, the lurid spectacle is undeniably entertaining, leaving audiences punch-drunk and gleeful.
