Lady Gaga bans reviewers from Vancouver shows

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 Comments

Chuckjones

Dec 9, 2009 at 5:13pm

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 5:55pm

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 6:05pm

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 6:50pm

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 7:59pm

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 8:28pm

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 9:04pm

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 9:18pm

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 9:20pm

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 11:14pm

"...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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