NOTE: I will add photos/video content from the concert later, want to go ahead and get this post written 🙂
Monday 23 February 2026 was the fourth of a four night stand of Lady Gaga’s The MAYHEM Ball Tour in Los Angeles (yes we in Los Angeles can say these were the Los Angeles dates as well as say the Kia Forum is in Inglewood and we all know exactly what we mean 🙂
I had missed the earlier leg of the tour (last year) in Los Angeles and was quite excited to finally see a date. I had floor tickets, stage left, Section E, row 9, seat 5. I also was a VIP at the KIA Club prior to the show so had the dinner and the custom Lady Gaga event cake.
You would never know it was a Monday, the crowd was decked out and highly engaged. And the show ran just minutes shy of 3 hours, starting at 8:45pm and ending at 11:37pm. (No opener though the special effect of a giant three-dimensional Gaga writing with a quill pen on a scroll that occurred between ticketed start time of 8 and the show start was very impressive and mood setting.) The show was organized into five theatrical acts and then there was an encore.
Just physically, with the number of nights on this tour, many consecutively, and the difficulty of the choreography and singing in these performances, it’s absolutely flat out impressive.
The setlist is here:
Though the “commercial” (I guess you would call it) name of the tour is The MAYHEM Ball the actual name is “The Art of Personal Chaos (The Manifesto of MAYHEM)” and in total was one of the most elaborate, intricate, and immersive narrative original experiences in a concert setting that I have been a part of.
If what you want is a play by play or narrative summary, you will have to (preferably) go yourself while the tour is still on or get that somewhere else; I am going to discuss themes and responses/emotions I had to the experience while they are fresh.
By the way, though I always have been into Gaga and all of her many manifestations, I surprisingly have only seen her live once before, when she first was breaking big. That was 21 December 2009 at what was then called the Nokia Theatre in downtown Los Angeles at LA Live. That setlist is here: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/lady-gaga/2009/la-live-nokia-theatre-los-angeles-ca-73d32601.html
She’s come a long way, and the path hasn’t been linear. Gaga (like myself) has many different creative phases, for example her “Jazz & Piano” Las Vegas residency she did for six years at Dolby Live at the Park MGM. I resonate with this because Gaga refuses to be categorized in any one genre or style (or look or persona or really any way at all).
This show here on this tour brings together a lot of different elements of her entire creative output and life and then goes more over the top with many of them than she ever has before. This is a BIG show, it’s a big flex too, artistically, commercially, statement-wise, everything. It’s dripping with ambition. And she’s a big time rock star in it, make no mistake. Like a ROCK STAR. The interesting thought I was having in the early stages of it was whether she could do all of that and still be the accessible oddball person standing up and representing all the Little Monsters.
Turns out she could! And quite effectively. But I am getting ahead of myself.
I’ve seen other concerts where the artist weaves their music into new and complex narratives (most recently Halsey, twice with two different narratives actually: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/halsey/2025/hollywood-bowl-los-angeles-ca-6b5a5e6e.html, https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/halsey/2025/hollywood-forever-cemetery-los-angeles-ca-4b4edb92.html). Gaga certainly pulled this off in both a larger and more effective way than I’ve ever seen. The concepts did flow and you could follow the narrative themes. The musicianship was impeccable, in whatever genre. The dancers/characters were large numbers and a dizzying visual feast of endless variety.
All the effects were over-the-top and need to be seen in person as descriptions do no justice. Giant queens whose dresses are also cages containing writhing dancers, the pull of paparrazzi depicted as literally an arena-spanning garment, waking up in a grave – with others!, ….. it goes on and on. The versions of Gaga’s catalog woven into this epic narrative, reworked in whatever way was appropriate for the larger work, all succeeded. With some artists, if they had taken such liberty with their own known works, the audience would at least partially rebel. Not here, because clearly the greater overall was dominant and effective.
At times the power and dark themes of the earlier acts were almost overwhelming and it was designed this way to set up the most effective and emotional part of the performance later. Even the absurdly long loud climactic sounds held and elongated by the musicians between events were overpowering. Almost to the point of being too much and then there would be relief as it moved off it just in time.
By Act III it was still overwhelming but the mood had shifted a bit into more joy-like relief. I said joy-like not joy because there was still a dark thread, I mean we were doing Dead Dances with giant skulls after all. But it had shifted. Enough to know I was fucked 🙂 and wouldn’t here my clear favorite off the latest album “Can’t Stop The High” because it potentially could have fit in the earlier act moods and narratives but clearly didn’t now – and to her credit I knew Gaga wouldn’t do something counter to the broader narrative elements at play.
Act IV is when the performance transcended to a new level of both brilliance and intimacy. A very Cirque de Soleil “O” influenced section where Gaga and her partner were literally on a boat floating across the catwalk – you have to go experience it! – utilized “Million Reasons” and “Shallow” to bring the narrative and the performance and the entire audience to what initially would have been a quite unexpected destination amidst all the excess.
Gaga alone. At the piano. And her true power and talent and real person-ness and all of it was…. RIGHT THERE. And you didn’t need any of the rest of the huge production because this was the part that touched you so deeply the tears were there, the feelings were there, everyone was one, everything was transformed.
The entire piano segment was almost indescribably good and the absolutely high point was “Hair”. It was one of the most moving experiences live I have ever had, and it meant a lot to me personally on my own journey…. and from the reactions of everyone around me, apparently to all of them as well. (In one of the most diverse crowds you will ever see.)
From then one we all were one and the return to the large production and “Bad Romance” plus the drop-your-guard no makeup encore were both celebratory and coasting in a way, because “Hair” was the climax and the rest was just cuddling.
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There is one area that I must discuss that significantly detracted from my overall enjoyment and even my maintaining the vibe throughout. This was Gaga’s completely over-the-top and near constant screaming to “Put your fucking hands up!” or some variation (“arms” “claws” whatever) in literally nearly every song until the Act IV. There were also various other admonitions like to stand or make noise.
Lady Gaga is by no means the first of artists I greatly enjoy live to have this affliction. Ozzy drove me crazy with his way way way too often “Let’s Go Crazy” / “Go Crazy” and Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden said “Scream for me Long Beach” or whatever city was literally constantly. And both of those due to their frequency and overuse were annoying.
Gaga’s constant “Put your fucking hands ups!” and all the variations were much worse than either Ozzy or Bruce, both because it fits her overall persona less but especially because it did not fit the surrounding meticulously constructed theatrical presentation or narrative. Certainly, doing it one time, early and angrily, would fit well within the initial act, especially the initial entrance piece as the gigantic queen, and would be an effective way of proving the headset mike is live as well. But the overuse annoyed me and threw me out of the moment each and every time she did it, no matter the variation. I would be submerging into the world she had effectively created and deeply vibing with whatever song was being performed and without fail, every time she did this, I would lose momentum on both of those fronts and just be annoyed. I was silently begging and wishing her to not do it anymore.
I’m definitely a believer in it’s way way better for the audience to do something on their own then be TOLD to do something. That’s true in sports, concerts, anything. If the game is exciting the crowd will respond, they don’t need announcers or graphics saying to make noise. If a crowd in a concert wants to stand up, scream, dance, whatever they want to do, THEY WILL. I recently saw TWICE at the same venue (25 January 2026 This Is For World Tour) and you can see videos online of literally the whole crowd mimicking the moves of Jihyo as she led them like some fantasy army and IT HAPPENED SPONTANEOUSLY.
There are literally TikTok videos making fun of this aspect of the concert so obviously I am not the only one. See here: https://www.tiktok.com/discover/every-time-lady-gaga-says-put-your-hands-up
Certainly getting the crowd to scream (say between songs maybe or Paul Stanley having a contest to see which part of the arena is loudest during his solo bit) or KPOP people asking for noise during ments does NOT detract…. there is a way to do it. And that way is NOT during songs… unless it’s very occasion and/or an admonition to sing. Asking people to sing is almost never bad.
All of what I am complaining about here disappeared almost entirely during the best parts of the concert (number 24 and on in the setlist) by the way.
If Gaga can eliminate this one bad crutch/habit/whatever, her achievement in staging a performance like this will be even more impressive than it already is.
– Eric John, CEO, Erotique Entertainment
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