Lady Gaga, Love For Sale

Can the virtual/physical hybrid for concerts and experiences create a similar or better experience? I am not sure, but I am going to give it a try. It’s already happening, so I may as well embrace it rather than waiting 10 years to get on board.

People are still stuck on saying that they can't wait for things to go back to normal, but some of us are already in the future. I think it's hard for some to accept that things are never going back to what they were. No matter how hard or for how long they hold on ever so tightly.

The MetaVerse, Oculus and the other names that will eventually become a part of our daily lives are already here and on sale. I don't think we realise how much over the next few years the world is going to change again with Web 3.0 and the next phase of the internet, so brace yourselves because it will happen quickly. Just like that, we will be so far into a digital future that everything we have now will seem so dated.

With the events and entertainment industry and artists having to pivot and accelerate faster than they probably anticipated into the virtual space, it's still quite early to know how the physical experience will change and evolve. 

Versuz and D-Nice got me through 2020, so I was already in the meta concert world. I joined more live performances for free on Instagram than I would ever go to in person or have the opportunity to. When we are stuck inside, I have no problem attending virtual concerts and experiences. I didn't really have many other social alternatives other than to pick up my phone and go in, but I do miss the vibe and shared experience of a live concert. 

With stadium concerts and festivals slowly coming back, I am unsure if I would go anywhere where 50,000+ people or even 50 people are in attendance and breathe everywhere with their masks off. Not yet, anyway, and when I do, I will probably be selective.  

It has to be worth the performance, especially as so many more concerts will be live-streamed going forward. Although it's impossible to create the energy you get from a live music event through any form of technology right now, I have no doubt that something will come along sooner than we think and make me walk back that statement.

After my first in-person hybrid concert, Lady Gaga's Love For Sale, it's hard for me to gauge if these types of hybrid events will work. I think that was more because of the genre. Love For Sale is a jazz album, and for this type of performance, I would prefer to experience it in the same location as the artist in a small intimate venue with massive chandeliers. It was being live-streamed at Westfield centres in the UK, US and Europe. I was in one of the fan zones, which was not the location of her live performance.   

Lady Gaga is a great artist. She has evolved so much since we came to know her as Lady Gaga and her craft continues to evolve. Although I hadn't planned to go and it was very last minute, I am glad I went. It wasn't a long performance, and I got home much earlier than if I had gone to see her live, which is a bonus of not having to travel with a tube load of commuters.

That it was in the middle of a shopping centre during trading hours, literally in the middle of the mall, was a different experience. It worked, though. Surprisingly, there were not crowds of people who had turned up expecting to see Lady Gaga in person; everything seemingly went according to plan. It wasn't a jump-out-of-your-seat type of experience either, and yes, there were seats, tables, table service and cocktails. The vibe was set as a formal one, and the experience would be different depending on the artist and genre.

Inside the open-top black box, there was formal seating, pink cocktails and the experience of a Jazz club all inside an East London shopping centre. It was less chaotic than I thought it would be being placed in the middle of a shopping centre with such a high footfall. 

Her voice is very soulful and powerful, and Jazz looks and sounds so good on her. She looked stunning and gave a great performance, and it was nice to see her perform after speaking so openly about her health struggles prior to this. It would have been a bonus for  Tony Bennet to join her on stage, too, as he collaborated with her on the album, but that sadly didn't happen, but they can’t complain it was free after all. 

Visually on the screen, the old-school glamour look and feel was created well. She looked like she was in a Jazz club and transported back to '60s decadence. She worked the stage like a 60s jazz performer; her voice was flawless, and the band was great, as expected. As for the experience itself, it did feel more like an outdoor cinema experience but indoors whilst cordoned off in an exclusive area with people being able to look straight in from their aerial view.

Although Gaga did a shout-out during the performance to some of the 21 Fan Zones, which were across 10 countries, this type of experience for me hasn't quite managed to get a good level of connection with the fans. It has a Zoom-type feel. You are watching and connected by technology but not in the experience of the moment.   That is probably because I am comparing it to an in-person concert. All the babies born in 2020 and beyond may never get to know what I mean. I will be the one that will have to let go of the past, eventually. 

I didn't stay after the performance. Once Gaga was gone from the screen and the confetti machine started doing its thing, I was off. The cocktails were lovely, but home is where it is at the moment.   

The hybrid concerts will continue, and I am sure I will go to a few. Although large-scale events are also back with no limits on capacity, Covid seems to want to live forever, so we will have to wait and see how that develops. I may be back on Instagram watching concerts again.  

It will be interesting to see how these experiences evolve and become more immersive over the next few years. I will remind myself not to be so rigid in what I think the future me will be doing in a few years. Who knows,  I may become so much of a hermit that the only way anyone will see me is as an avatar in the MetaVerse.

Lady Gaga 

Love For Sale