As Lady Gaga was nearing the end of the Mayhem Ball last month, there was hope she would release a concert film just like she did for the Chromatica Ball two years ago. And lo and behold, Mother Monster announced Mayhem Requiem, huzzah! Only it is NOT a concert film of the tour! No, our Lady of Gaga pulled a fast one on us and recorded an entirely new conception of Mayhem. Mayhem Requiem was filmed in Los Angeles in January before a live audience of Little Monsters who got to witness an intimate performance of every track on Mayhem performed in the same sequence as on the album, with Gaga playing synths and piano against a backdrop of the opera house set pieces featured in the touring show. Except for Requiem, the set is crumbling rubble and the songs are pared back to just the music and just this album. The whole production was released last Thursday on Apple Music:

As the curtain rose at the Wiltern, it quickly became clear that Gaga was writing the next chapter of the “Mayhem Ball” experience in real time: It was Gaga performing in the charred rubble of the opera house, the gray stage littered with broken columns and jagged slabs of concrete bathed in flashing lights and fog. This wasn’t a phoenix rising; it was Gaga, dressed like she was attending her own funeral, wallowing in the wreckage and mourning what was lost at the “Mayhem Ball.”

…“Mayhem Requiem,” which was filmed and released on Apple Music and in select AMC Theaters on Thursday night, was the other side of the “Mayhem Ball” coin, a show stripped of arena-sized pop spectacle. There were no fiery explosions or massive set pieces that cycled in for fistfuls of songs. It was instead a relatively static performance, save for a very flashy light show, that focused on the heartbeat of “Mayhem”: the music. For much of the evening, Gaga sang with her back to the audience, her face shrouded by a hood or veil, as if to shun the spotlight. She was flanked by a full band but was without her army of dancers. And while Gaga minus the bells and whistles may sound like a slog on paper, she’s such a dynamic presence that the performance still felt propulsive and alive, even though it was a requiem for the dead.

Throughout the performance, Gaga was stripped down even further than she was at the end of the “Mayhem Ball,” exploring just how elastic her songs can be when retrofitted with new sounds. Much of that sound was inspired by the macabre, dialing back the throbbing percussion of “Mayhem” and instead settling for droning synths that recall the ‘90s splotch of new-wave and goth pop. That was the tone set with opener “Disease,” its pace tempered and its chord progressions rearranged. Gaga flailed at the front of the stage, wedged between a synth player and guitarist, transforming the “Mayhem” opener into what felt like a Nine Inch Nails descendant. It was thrilling and unexpected — perhaps, one could surmise, the whole performance was a celebration of the death of the Mistress of Mayhem (her “Mayhem Ball” alter ego) and the calm that settles in after the chaos. It could have simply been a eulogy for something, possibly the tour that had reached its inevitable conclusion.

…The whole evening was a testament to the creative power of Gaga. For her, it starts but doesn’t always end with the music, which is where she thrives as a showwoman. But “Mayhem Requiem” brings the lofty ambitions back to the creative nucleus and centers the focus on the malleability of her songwriting. For Gaga, that sort of approach is par for the course, but it once again reinforced how gratifying it can be when you’re along for the ride.

[From Variety]

It really is true that Gaga spends a good deal of Mayhem Requiem with her back to the audience, but it works! I found the whole performance so enjoyable for several reasons. One, paring back for Gaga does not mean a reduction in theatricality in any way, shape, or form. With the cloak-like garment she starts the show in, plus her face shrouded in a fishnet veil, plus her donning a hat with Maleficent-ish horns, the requiem angle of it all really comes through. The whole opening felt like a live-action Fantasia but directed by Tim Burton. (Complimentary!) But aside from asthetics, it’s so much fun to hear the songs reimagined. With “Disease,” it almost felt like she was singing around the notes of the original melody, and yet it was still recognizable. Another standout was my favorite song on the album, “Vanish Into You.” In performing this song live, Gaga really got to convey the desperation of “do you see me, do you see me now?” in a way I found gutting. Then the finale of “Die With a Smile” was rousing and haunting in equal measure.

An intriguing surprise from La Gaga! And we still might get a Mayhem Ball concert film, as she filmed performances of that show in February, after Requiem was in the can. Mother giveth!!

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