Las Vegas Weekly

December 18, 2009 · 11:51 AM

Photo Gallery: Lady Gaga sings, dances, jumps, floats and strips down

By Robin Leach

Lady Gaga performs at The Pearl inside the Palms on Dec. 17, 2009.

Photo: TVT

At one point, she was a platinum blonde sex goddess playing the piano, and the next moment, she whipped out a laser-firing, sound effects machine gun. Bang, bang! Then moments later, she returned to the stage as a sparkling silver-sequined robot and stripped down to just a red bra and panties before winding up in a sexy white jumpsuit singing from a spinning, suspended gyroscope.

It was a flamboyant fashion forward spectacle of electronic lighting scenes, edgy art videos and smoke. The speed and number of the dizzying costume changes were breathtaking -- think Madonna on steroids 20 years ago. Lady Gaga is simply amazing. She promised that Las Vegas would be the best show of her Monster Ball Tour, and she delivered.

As Palms owner George Maloof told me last night: “This is phenomenal. It’s without doubt the best theatrical show we’ve had since the Palms opened eight years ago. She is simply incredible.”

Last night’s Lady Gaga show was added after the initial first and only show tonight sold out in less than an hour for the 2,500-plus-seat Pearl Theater. “I think we could have sold out five consecutive nights of shows without any problem,” said George, who inked a deal with the 7 million worldwide album sales singer to use her hit “Poker Face” in his Palms TV commercial and Web campaign.

Rock legend Matt Sorum, formerly of Guns ’n’ Roses, attended with his four-girl rock group Darling Stilettos, who open at the Palms tonight after the Lady Gaga concert. He told me: “I thought I’d seen everything in rock and roll, but she is out of this world.” Tonight’s show at the Palms is expected to draw a celebrity contingent from Hollywood, with Paris Hilton and Eva Longoria Parker leading the charge. We’ll have real-time tweets during the evening.

While at the off-Strip Las Vegas resort, Lady Gaga has hit celebrity chef Kerry Simon’s restaurant in Palms Place. She began there yesterday with a late protein breakfast/lunch and then returned pre-show for dinner. Kerry told me: “She loved our menu creations. She has this extraordinary aura wherever she moves.”

Yesterday, we reported that Kid Cudi exited last minute from the tour in a backstage drama as Lady Gaga’s opening act. He’d allegedly fought a fan during a Canadian tour stop a week ago. Kanye West was originally part of the tour, but he departed, too, in the fallout after interrupting Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards. Semi Precious Weapons opened for the former East Village performance artist from New York, who’s birth name is Stefani Germanotta.

It was the ultimate avant-garde fashion and techno popera extravaganza with the most electrifying, high-energy choreography you could imagine. It’s a shame she’s nixed reviewers and photographers from her concerts because the full spectacle of her showmanship deserves to be on show. But she did invite fans to fire away with their cameras -- and even turned it into part of her performance. Our photo gallery is from my digital camera.

She jumped! She danced! She paraded! She floated! She hung! She draped herself over a lighting truss to rise above the stage. She was a glamorous goddess and fashion icon one second and a stripped-down slut the next. I use that word safely because of her wickedly wild and outrageous language that punctuated her songs.

The audience loved her: Girls dressed up to imitate her, and guys leapt at her every command. The spectacular on stage was matched by the raw, wild response from the jam-packed theater and dance pit.

George summed up: “Not only has the response to our ‘Poker Face’ ads with her been the best we’ve ever had, but we’ve never had so many calls and texts begging for tickets at any price since we opened back in 2001. I’ve never seen anything like this. She is truly a phenomenon.”

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

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