Lady Gaga bans reviewers from Vancouver shows

by Mike Usinger on Dec 9, 2009 at 4:33 pm

As career moves goes, Lady Gaga’s latest one in Vancouver is a tad odd. On December 8, the management team for pop music’s current It Girl announced that no complimentary review tickets would be issued for her three-day (December 9–11), sold-out stand at Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

That’s not entirely unusual. Occasionally, artists who don’t need more ink will make similar stipulations for their concerts. What’s different in their cases though is that those artists will almost always allow promoters to sell tickets to writers so their shows can be reviewed. In this case, Gaga’s management also stipulated that promoters were not to sell tickets to reviewers either.

There are a couple of ways to look at this. One is that Lady Gaga is indeed being sincere on her breakout album, The Fame, and its recently released follow-up, The Fame Monster. Both records find her ruminating on being famous, with the latter examining the darker side of being so well-known that you can’t order a latte at Starbucks or take a dump in an airport washroom without having someone doing their best to get a shot of you with a digital camera.

Lady Gaga has become so oversaturated so quickly that to add to her notoriety with more press would be nothing short of massively hypocritical. Make it impossible for reviewers to get into your concerts, and you don’t have to open the paper the next day to see a picture of your smiling face, ginch-clad ass, and bubble-wrapped boobs.

Then again it’s just as likely that her live shows suck so badly that she’d rather not have the word get out that, as a performer, she blows worse than Madonna’s acting.

Whatever the reason, mission accomplished. Not that that’s going to stop us from trying to worm our way in tonight, tomorrow, or the night after that. We’ll be the one dressed up as Perez Hilton (complete with Kool-Aid-green hair), doing our best to convince the doormen that our good friend Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta is waiting for us backstage and isn’t going fucking on until she’s seen us in the flesh in the front row.

Comments (36) Add New Comment
Chuckjones
Dec 9, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Reviewers have been nearly unanimous in praising Lady Gaga's shows in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Boston and Camden. The Boston Herald reported that there was a parting of the ways with the tour's music director during her Boston stop. Following that report, she had one show in Camden (I read a rave and a negative review) and then she had a long break while she went to the UK for X Factor and to perform with others for the Queen. And then back in the US for the Vevo unveiling. So, maybe this is a time when the tour is working things out after a break and perhaps with a new music director. And, as you noted too, she's had daily press. Certainly, press will go and review the shows, even if media have to go to a scalp site to get tickets. Let's hope reviewers are honest in their opinions, despite the 'inconvenience' of their companies having to buy the tickets.
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Catchlight
Dec 9, 2009 at 5:55 pm
Can't really blame her for banning the ink-stained wretches after the treatment she got in the Montreal Gazette, which blamed her unfairly for the show starting late and generally just missed the point.

My daughter, who is not easily impressed, was at the front of the mosh at the Bell Centre and said Gaga was amazingly entertaining, despite a few of the usual glitches that occur during the first show of a tour.

Lighten up and enjoy the show tonight, Mike.
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Carrie Graham
Dec 9, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Yup - methinks it's option B. By comparison, maybe Madonna's acting isn't so bad....
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therzo
Dec 9, 2009 at 6:50 pm
I love this. Reviewers are one thing; however, too often reviewers become critics.

What is the sense of critiquing an artist? There is none.

Not a fan of this lady's music, or theatrics, but definitely a fan of this move.
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Steve from Detroit
Dec 9, 2009 at 7:59 pm
I guess if you're 8-13 years old this passes for entertainment.

...If you're over 13 and actually going to see Lady goo-goo Gaga that's pretty embarrassing :-D

40 years ago we had musicians who could actually write their own songs and play an instrument live, like Van Morrison. 20 years ago what passed for music took a nosedive with such pathetic acts as Milli Vanilli. 10 years ago we reached what at the time seemed a new nadir in music mediocrity: Britney Spears--who shamelessly lip-synchs to sold out crowds. Amazingly, the idiot masses want the bar lowered even more! Bring on Lady goo-goo Gaga! All image and no content. Pure tabloid shmaltz.

...what will pass for "music" 10 or 20 years in the future from now? What new lows and can be achieved?? Can the corporate media come up with "musicians" that are even worse than Milli Vanilli, Britney Spears, or Lady Gaga?
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Adam PW Smith
Dec 9, 2009 at 8:28 pm
Actually "40 years ago" would have been 1969, which was the dawn of musicians writing their own music (The Beatles being the example most often trotted out). At the same time many (most?) performers were performing music that was written by writers. And it churned out some pretty spectacular results (Motown).

This, of course, does nothing to excuse trumped up tarts and beefcakes who perform overproduced rubbish that is calculated to be as much like the last piece of successful rubbish as possible.

I just wanted to make it clear that there is no shame in being a performer who doesn't write all their own material - Frank Sinatra, Robert Gordon, The Cramps, Glenn Gould.
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Emily
Dec 9, 2009 at 9:04 pm
steve from detroit you need to get your facts straight. lady gaga does write her own songs, plays the piano wonderfully, and has a fantastic voice. listen to her live versions of poker face or her new song speechless. she is a very talented musician who just happens to make pop music. there's nothing wrong with that.
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Matt from Vancouver
Dec 9, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Steve from Detroit clearly hasn't seen Poker Face played acoustically.

Youtube it, and hopefully you'll take back your woefully ignorant comment.
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John Lucas
Dec 9, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Steve, as Emily points out, Lady Gaga does indeed write her own songs. I'd also like to point out that she has written songs for Akon, Fergie, the Pussycat Dolls, Britney Spears, New Kids on the Block, and Adam Lambert.

See how much it helps to know what the hell you're talking about?
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Adam PW Smith
Dec 9, 2009 at 11:14 pm
"...she has written songs for Akon, Fergie, the Pussycat Dolls, Britney Spears, New Kids on the Block, and Adam Lambert."

And what higher praise could there possibly be?

Honestly folks, she may be decent fluff but let's not talk about her like she's the last bastion of artistic integrity.
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John Lucas
Dec 9, 2009 at 11:38 pm
Adam, I didn't say she was a genius, just that Steve from Detroit didn't know what he was talking about. (And maybe I felt like defending her might redeem me for suggesting she might be a hermaphrodite last week.)

Anyhow, no one revolutionized pop music more than Elvis Presley, and the man never wrote a single song in his life.
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Travis Lupick
Dec 10, 2009 at 12:06 am
Video from Wednesday's show at the Queen E.

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Lillian Henriques
Dec 10, 2009 at 1:47 am
Some old Lady Gaga for Steve and all the other haters. Enjoy the show - I wish I could go!

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sean
Dec 10, 2009 at 2:10 am
well yeah...if you dont like gagagoogoo,your obviously antisemitic.
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Gagafan
Dec 10, 2009 at 6:40 am
Well if the Straight reviewer could't get in last night, maybe readers who did go could post their reviews and photos here!
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Beth
Dec 10, 2009 at 7:40 am
Is she lip synching at the 0:58 mark? How can she sing so strongly with not the slightest wavering or change in tone from her singing of a moment before at the point she puts her head upside down? Maybe it's back-up singers. Hmm. Love the song and her (recorded or live voice) though. And yet, when I watch her choreographed moves, I still wish that Lady GaGa and other contemporary performers were less 'organized' and danced and twirled more like Steven Tyler or pranced and strutted like Freddie Mercury or seemed more possessed by demons instead of being so in control, well, you get the picture. But then, I'm old.
Beth
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MikeD
Dec 10, 2009 at 7:41 am
I've yet to stand in the same building & watch Lady Gaga perform, just watched her a couple of times on television @ various events but I'd like to add that she is out performing most artists out there. She's unique in the fact that her voice is real (friggin wicked not $h!t), she adds her 2 cents in the choreography & if she's good enough to get the attention & invitation to perform for the Royal frikkin family, she's by far welcome to come into Vancouver any day. My wife went to her show last night not really being a fan of hers (got tickets for prize) & was BLOWN AWAY by her voice & the performance of everyone on stage...not just Ms Gaga.
Quit your cryin Steve from Detroit...just cause she didn't come from 8 mile or raised in Flint, doesn't mean she doesn't deserve a little respect. If you all really enjoy music, you'll appreciate what this "lady" does on stage.
Thanks & have a happy holidays y'all.
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me
Dec 10, 2009 at 8:34 am
for the commenter that said only 14 year olds should see her. ummmmmmmmmmm her show is adult themed. obviously you have no idea who she is or how she performs. so therefore u have no f&*kin idea what u are talking about. i would never allow my child to watch one of her live performances. it's inappropriate. but she's still amazing
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me
Dec 10, 2009 at 8:42 am
and steve. she does write her own music, she plays the piano and many other instruments while singing live, dancing for 2 hours straight in 5 inch heels (never missing a note). all the while looking amazing, sounding killer, and engaging the crowd. which few artists do these days. id love to see bands from the 40s do that. and she doesn't need drugs like those tards to get creativity. she does it herself !!! and seriously it was like a broadway/theatre/fashion show on steroids. the girl is pretty damn amazing. stop hating on her u loser. obviously u need to get out of the 1970s and welcome yourself to the 21st century. its a pretty rad place to be and live in
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Steve from Detroit
Dec 10, 2009 at 10:58 am
Ha!

The truth hurts, doesn't it :-D

I'm glad I got all of you pissed off. I'm right and you're all full of baloney!

Lady goo-goo Gaga's fan base consists of 8-13 year olds. She lip synchs all her songs, and represents the next step downward from Milli Vanilli, then Britney, and now Gaga.

Ok, Ok. I have to say one thing nice about her: I think its cool she's a hermaphrodite lip syncher. There, I said it.
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