Ke$ha, Rihanna....and EMINEM!

Your love your love your love is my drug!

When I heard that Ke$ha and Rihanna were playing the Staples Center together I was like WHEE!

When I heard that tickets were a fraction of the price of Lady Gaga tickets I was like SUPERWHEE!

Diana said "Whee!" too.

So we went.




Ke$ha opened.




(Well actually that's a lie. Travie McCoy opened but his performance was unremarkable and not even worth mentioning or photographing.)

But Ke$ha does not disappoint. I was actually more excited about her than I was Rihanna.



You may not remember, but forever ago my friend Tori performed at Whiskey-A-Go-Go and I specifically said that her music was nice and all...but the world needs more chicks who sing songs about getting drunk and stealing stuff and making out with strangers...

And then came Ke$ha!



Two songs that have not received enough airplay and are completely ridiculous are:

"Party At Some Rich Dude's House"

and

"Dinosaur"

Listen and view the lyrics below, they are absurdly hilarious:



Bitch is CRAZY!





After her set there was like an HOUR wait for Ri-Ri to come. (We later came to realize that maybe this was because they needed to leave time to coincide with the arrival and timing of the super secret megastar appearance of Eminem.)

So we ate nachos.



And endless surveyed the completely rando crowd.



Gaga has her "little monsters"...

I guess RiRi has her "little cholas"...



And finally.

Rihanna.




She really does have an incredible voice.



And her body was sick.



There are so many great Rihanna songs that I haven't even thought about in the longest time!

Like "Shut Up and Drive".




And "Disturbia"...




And "Don't Stop the Music"...




And "SOS"...




She's quite a performer.




And then she started in on the opening of "Love the Way You Lie", her new single with Eminem (currently #1 on iTunes). And after she finished the chorus, he just SPRANG up in front of her!

The entire place went N-U-T-S-O.

EMINEM!!!

You can see the video Perez posted below (don't worry the crowd EVENTUALLY stops screaming):



I felt chills for the first two minutes. When I came into this concert, I came in with very low expectations having just seen Gaga last week. I mean how could Rihanna possibly do anything to top Lady Gaga?

I was wrong.

Wow.









Em is still an amazing performer. I'm glad he's back!





Unexpectedly great concert!

Lady Gaga Concert

Disclaimer: This post is my longest ever and is all about Lady Gaga. If you have no interest, in this, or in Lady Gaga in general, you can go ahead and close this page, turn off your computer, and do a swan-dive out the nearest window.

I'm so sick of people saying things "Can someone please explain to me who the f*ck Lady Gaga is?" or "We'll see if she's still 'relevant' this time next year..." or "She is all hype and shock value."

Lady Gaga has rocketed to iconic superstardom in the past 18 months because she is a unique visionary with the talent to back it up.

She has worked hard to get where she is, she understands "The Climb" better than Miley Cyrus** ever will, and she is here to stay.

** - "What the hell does Miley Cyrus know about 'The Climb'??? She's been alive for like a millisecond!" -Connie

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The line for Gaga 2 hours prior to showtime for the opening act was already out the door of Madison Square Garden and around the block.

In 95 degree weather = not fun.



Happily because I just happened to score VIP tickets, I got to hang inside in the air conditioning.




There were a ton of VIPs.



Our area was called the "Little Monster Zone"



And it surrounded the front of the stage and the long catwalk.



I was told by several people that the end of the catwalk was the ideal vantage point because you get a full view of the massive stage (it's four times larger than when she toured at the beginning of the year at Radio City) and you get to see her up close when she dances to the end of the catwalk, which she does frequently.



This is what the view would have looked like from the front-front though.



My friend Alex, sitting up in the nosebleeds, took a picture where you can just barely make me out, a head above the crowd in my green unicorn shirt.



The Little Monster section had a private bar. Yay.



And a big steel barrier to keep away all the peasants. Double-yay.



There were some great costumes. And hair-bows.



This new setup was massive.



For the concert I did my eyes big.



Like Gaga did in "Bad Romance"...



And even though I came solo, I quickly made new friends that I watched the whole concert with: Taylor, Ashley, and Michelle.

(I actually don't remember if those are the correct names. I only remember Taylor because I heart that name.)



Madison Square Garden is the third busiest arena in the WORLD and can hold 22,000 people at concert capacity.

Gaga sold out all three nights.

I had a better view than all of these people...




Plus the people standing around me who were shorter than me.



When she opened the show with "Dance in the Dark" the arena went bonkers.



She sings most of the first song as a silhouette...



And then the curtain lifts and reveals the set.



And the set is SICK.




And every time she walked down the catwalk my little heart would skip a beat.




People compare Gaga to Madonna.

But Gaga has accomplished in 18 months what Madonna spent years working toward.



Part of this, of course, is due to the rapid-release structure of the entertainment business these days.

But nonetheless, in two albums she has released more than a dozen incredible single-worthy tracks and body of music video work that most artists NEVER achieve.

In fact, many of her greatest tracks may remain unknown to the average passive Gaga fan because she produces amazing tracks faster than her record label can release them.

Songs like "Boys Boys Boys"...




Or "MONSTER", which is hands paws-down her best song in my opinion.







The Monster Ball is incredible and worth every penny.






At a certain point, she called a random audience member on their cellphone.



They had a conversation, in the middle of which she gets interrupted by a call from Beyonce.

Which leads us to Telephone.

If you didn't see the video I posted, here it is again.



Being a New York City girl, and having busted her chops putting on shows for tiny rooms of people in the Lower East Side, Gaga spoke about how performing at MSG for the first time meant a lot to her in her young career.



In fact, this is what she twittered the other day:

"Today is what dreams are made of. 3 Sold out nights at MSG in my home town. I used to go watch Madonna, Cher, + the Stones and would cry..."

"I would stare into the brightlights and imagine I could do anything. Be anything. And I would tell myself it would be me up there one day."

"Endless thank yous to my little monsters, my family, and my friends who've stood by me. And thank you New York City, for sticking by me too."

We ate it up.

I mean, as a fan, how can you not...when the person you adore and worship sincerely appreciates you just as much?




Seriously. This show is not to be missed. Even if you are tiniest bit a Gaga fan.





Oh and then there's the LED light tornado.



Which engulfs her.



And allows her to reemerge...



...as a swan of sorts...









Every song came with a new stage setup.

"Alejandro"...




"Paparazzi"...complete with a fame monster...




And then the encore...



"Bad Romance"...











Her overall message is not about just providing shock value for attention's sake, but it's about embracing your inner freak and exposing it for the world to see instead of censoring yourself and hiding it away and blending in with what is acceptable.

Because we are all freaks. Unique and beautiful just the way we are.

(Though I'm sure even Gaga will admit that Photoshop can always help make us even more unique and beautiful.)

Like Fun Fat Asian Man in Pretty Blue Wig!



Thank you Gaga for one of the greatest nights of my life!!!!