Last night, Lady Gaga played the final London date of her artRAVE: The ARTPOP Ball at the O2 Arena. As a fan of the underrated Artpop album, I went to see it on Thursday. Sorry, but I can only say that the show was over-hyped and under-whelming. Anyone who expects it to be a combination of popular culture and high art, will be left disappointed. The concert is more about “RAVE” than “art”, which is – probably unintentionally – reflected in the stylization of the tour’s name.

The set featured almost the whole of Artpop, leaving out only “Fashion!”, and reducing “Jewels n’ Drugs” to a brief interlude. Gaga’s earlier albums were represented only by a handful of songs each. Yet worryingly, it was “Just Dance” and “Poker Face” that caused the most ecstatic reaction from the audience…

However unnecessary and lengthy her speeches between songs were (and you could argue they were even more pretentious than on previous tours), no one could deny the power and versatility of her singing voice. One of the highlights was “Do What U Want”, which she performed sat on a large silver hand, elevated several meters above the stage.

photo: ZADDY

A set of three ballads showcased Gaga’s impressive piano skills. She took to her favourite instrument to belt out the tear-jerking “Dope”, the love anthem “Yoü and I”, and a stripped-down version of “Born This Way”. An interesting addition was “Partynauseous”, an unreleased track, which may find its place on the rumoured sequel to Artpop.

Costumes left much to be desired. It looked like she just came in to Cyberdog in Camden and bought a bunch of random beaming stuff… If that was a way of making trashy look classy, it failed. Outfits were either uninspired or overdone, and Gaga looked best wearing minimalist pieces. Such as the red leather jacket paired with a wig of black curly hair, which she unfortunately wore only for several minutes. Or the “Venus” outfit, which simply was a massive dark blonde wig and the “seashell bikini”.

Gaga wore some outlandish costumes

“Swine” was followed by a confusing bridge to the concert’s finale, “Gypsy”. The music just stopped and lights went off abruptly. What was probably designed as a moment of suspense, looked more like a power cut. I noticed a lot of people leaving their seats way before the show actually ended…

I love memorabilia and I usually treat myself to something from the merchandise stalls after concerts. But having flipped through this tour book, I have to say with regret that it’s the worst program I’ve ever seen. It’s full of cheap looking collages on garish backgrounds, with virtually nothing to read.

That was the second time I’ve been to a Gaga show (the first time was the Born This Way Ball two years ago, which was slightly better), and it appears to me that as much as I like her music, something is lacking in her live shows. Her voice may be praised as superior to Madonna’s, but she’s yet to surpass the Queen of Pop as a live performer.