Lady Gaga at Minute Maid Park

Lady Gaga takes adoring Houston Little Monsters to the edge of glory in dazzling Minute Maid Park concert

Lady GaGa concert Minute Maid Park 2022 Katelyn Besse

Katelyn Besse channels her best Lady Gaga.

Photo by Johnston Farrow

Global pop sensation, Academy and Grammy Award-winner, fashionista, modern day provocateur, and downright talented artist, Lady Gaga brought her acclaimed Chromatica Ball tour to Minute Maid Park on Tuesday, September 13 and took fans on a thrill ride of lights and sound.

It’s been a long five years since Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta played for her devoted fanbase of misfits and outcasts — aka Little Monsters — in Houston. But she more than made up for the absence with a stunning two-and-a-half-hour performance that included four acts, a finale, an encore with costume changes, insane visuals, and enough pyro to level a city.

Not to mention, she played a varied setlist of mega-hits from her five No. 1 albums sure to please all those in attendance.

Around the ballpark, Gaga’s icon status to the LGBTQIA+ community was apparent. Gaga’s local contingent of diehards showed up en masse dressed in neon colors, fishnets, glitter, and funky wigs for a night of anything goes, including several Gaga impersonators from each of her vibrant musical eras.

After a short prelude on the massive stage screens, Gaga’s five-piece band and crew of a dozen dancers kicked into the No. 2 hit, “Bad Romance” from 2009’s The Fame Monster. With a black and white set design that recalled German impressionist films, Gaga performed the entire song encased in a statue-like, iron maiden tomb with her body slowly breaking out.

Her once-in-a-generation voice took center stage early and often with little banter between songs during the first half of the show. The catchy-as-all-get-out No. 1 songs that launched her career, “Just Dance” and “Poker Face” wrapped up a killer start to a show many had been waiting for due to pandemic cancellations. Dressed in grey baggy pants and grey ruffled sleeves, Gaga looked otherworldly.

After another interlude, she kicked into the Alice in Wonderland themed “Alice” from 2020’s Chromatica, suspended from a ledge like a Gotham gargoyle in red leather, once again letting her pipes do most of the work. But then the show amped up and turned into a dance party with the beat-driven “Replay” and The Fame Monster’s “Monster,” which had clawed hands in the air, a signature of her Little Monster fanbase.

Act III showed that Gaga’s recent Vegas residency paid off with her choreographed moves never getting in the way of her vocals. After the industrial goth sounding “911,” sexy Chromatica track “Sour Candy” had Gaga taking center stage for a solo dance number, leaving her visibly catching her breath between songs. The synth-heavy “Telephone” was a highlight with an impressive pyro display that quite literally brought the heat and raised the temperature of Minute Maid.

Another highlight included “LoveGame” from her debut album that cut into Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg’s “Ain’t Nuthin’ But a G Thang,” as she introduced her band. After going into the crowd during the Hi-NRG house inspired “Free Woman,” Gaga slowed things down on a smaller stage that sat on what looked like second base near centerfield.

After acknowledging the deafening applause, she finally addressed the crowd:

“It’s such a privilege to be on stage to perform for you, it’s a great honor of my life…to feel all the love tonight. I look out there and see lot of people who know exactly who they are. Some of you may not know who you but you’re going to find out and if someone asks you about who you are, you could say what I always say, ‘I was born this way.’”

A fantastic, slower version of No. 1 hit “Born This Way” once again showed off her voice as she encouraged the LGBTQIA+ members in the audience to celebrate and own their pride before song evolved into an unhinged dance freak out with her full band kicking in.

Act IV featured mostly solo numbers with Gaga at the piano, including a stirring version of A Star Is Born’s “Shallow.” That said, she added her own flair, doing “Shallow” as a science fiction creature with what looked like tentacle horns, an interesting choice. Of course, she nailed the high octave drama that earned her an Oscar for Best Song.

She dedicated the other Academy Award-nominated song from that film, “Always Remember Us This Way” to her longtime friend Sonja Durham, a Houston native, who had passed away in 2017 from breast cancer. Overcome with emotion, Gaga could barely finish the track but soldiered through to move onto a slowed down version of the No. 3 smash, “The Edge of Glory.”

The energy in the ballpark picked up for the last part of the show with Gaga dressed in a black, bedazzled, black leather jacket and fishnets recalling her album cover from Born This Way. She closed the set with more house-inspired dance tracks, including the disco torch song, “Fun Tonight,” the Pet Shop Boys-esque ‘Enigma,” and the bass drop-heavy No. 1, “Rain on Me.”

A requisite encore gave the star one last chance to shine on what might be her next Oscar, the Top Gun: Maverick ballad, “Hold My Hand.” Dancing in front of a line of fire with monster claws on her right hand, she belted out the tune, a fittingly majestic ending to a truly epic show.

Overall, the standout of the night was the diverse mix of fans. All ages, teens to senior citizens, were represented. Parents brought their kids. Couples and friends dressed up together. It was rare kind of event with the power to bring people together with a one-of-a-kind ringleader to lead the way.

Setlist
Prelude
“Bad Romance”
“Just Dance”
“Poker Face”

Act I
The Operation (Video Interlude; contains elements of “Babylon”, “Enigma”, & “Chromatica I”)
“Alice”
“Replay”
“Monster”

Act II
Flowers (Video Interlude; contains elements of “Enigma”, “Babylon”, & “Chromatica II”)
“911”
“Sour Candy”
“Telephone”
“LoveGame” containing snippets of “John Wayne” & “Ain’t Nuthin But a “G” Thang” by Dr. Dre

Act III
The Birth of Freedom (Video Interlude; contains elements of “Alice”, “Chromatica III”, & “Sine from Above”)
“Babylon”
“Free Woman”
“Born This Way”

Act IV
Tamara (Video Interlude with elements of “Venus”)
“Shallow”
“Always Remember Us This Way”
“The Edge of Glory”
“Angel Down”
“Fun Tonight”
“Enigma”

Finale
Sonnet elements of “Flaming June” by BT
“Stupid Love”
“Rain on Me”

Encore
“Hold My Hand”

Katelyn Besse channels her best Lady Gaga.

Movie Review

New movie Friendship pairs Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd in a bizarre bromance

Photo courtesy of A24

Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd in Friendship.

Comedian Tim Robinson has gained a cult following thanks to series like Detroiters and I Think You Should Leave, in which his brand of cringe comedy is on full display. The former Saturday Night Live writer/performer has had a few small movie roles over the years, but he’s now getting his first starring role in the off-kilter Friendship.

Robinson plays Craig, a mild-mannered suburbanite with a wife, Tami (Kate Mara), and son, Steven (Jack Dylan Grazer). Craig has a boring life that involves little more than going to his middle manager job while wearing the same clothes day after day, anticipating the next Marvel movie, and helping Tami out with her at-home floral business.

He gets a jolt of energy when Austin (Paul Rudd) moves into the neighborhood. The two men seem to hit it off, with Austin — a weatherman at a local TV channel — even taking Craig on a couple of impromptu adventures. But when Craig commits a couple of faux pas at a group gathering at Austin’s house, their bond starts to fracture.

Even though the film is written and directed by Andrew DeYoung, it’s clear that Robinson had a big influence on the style of comedy it features. There are no big set pieces with a slew of jokes coming one after another. Instead, the film forces the audience to try to vibe with the very particular type of wavelength it’s giving off, one that could almost be called anti-comedy for the way the laughs come out of left field.

The 100-minute film is full of random comedic moments, like Steven kissing Tami on the lips, Craig being obsessed with his plain brown clothes, a group sing-along, and more. More often than not, it’s the way Craig reacts to both normal and abnormal situations that gets the laughs. The character is needy and oblivious, two traits that combine to make many of his actions cringeworthy.

Perhaps most importantly for this type of movie, many things in the story go unexplained or don’t make sense. Seemingly crucial elements are brought up only to fade away just as quickly, while other parts that appeared to be throwaway sections get callbacks later in the film. DeYoung and Robinson are determined to keep the audience on their toes the entire time, never knowing what to expect next.

Robinson has the perfect face for a story like this, one that’s bland enough to blend into the background but memorable enough to sell the jokes. His demeanor is also excellent, never becoming too expressive, even when he gets angry. With long hair, a mustache, and a certain swagger, Rudd is a great complement to Robinson. Only in a film like this would an everyman like Rudd be considered the suave and cool one.

There will be some that will see Friendship and come away wondering what the hell they just watched. But anyone who goes in knowing that they’re about to witness a comedy that challenges their sensibilities will likely have a great time.

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Friendship is now playing in select theaters.

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