Lady Gaga's Monster Ball Tour Hits America

The pop superstar paused between songs to deliver a pointed message to her adoring fans: breathing heavily into her mike like a sexed-up Darth Vader, she intoned, "Remember: no other pop singer will ever love you as much as I love you."

Lady Gaga's sold-out show at Monster Ball tour starting with her famous songs, the first of two gigs at Boston's TD Garden and the opener of the U.S. leg of her Monster Ball Tour, the pop superstar paused between songs to deliver a pointed message to her adoring fans: breathing heavily into her mike like a sexed-up Darth Vader, she intoned, "Remember: no other pop singer will ever love you as much as I love you." Bold words? Definitely. But the Gaga phenomenon wouldn't work without the two-way symbiosis that is her unique relationship with her "little monsters." Thursday night's show was a people-watching horn of plenty, as male and female attendees dressed to the nines in thrall to their diva master. High-heels ruled the night, as did outrageously skimpy attire and painted faces, both onstage and in the audience.

Lady Gaga "Bad Romance"

Gaga started the show off coyly: shadow-dancing to opener "Dance in the Dark" behind a massive gridded scrim, she slowly revealed herself in stages. A few songs later, in the midst of her electro-throb smash "Just Dance," she tossed her overstuffed blue leather sequined jacket and doffed the oversized sunglasses, and the jumbotrons got a look at her piercing eyes for the first time. The crowd exploded.

Lady Gaga "Poker Face"

"I am here to set you free!" Gaga screamed, arms outstretched, rapturously. The capacity audience took her at her word, convulsing in fits of apoplectic mania at her every gesture. No longer trotting onto a club stage with just a DJ and a dream, Gaga's stadium supersizing has beefed up her Eurodisco dance grooves with a full band and a posse of backup dancers. The human players know enough not to get in the way of the dance-floor whump of megahit like "Poker Face," but over-the-top guitar and organ flourishes made a normally plodding tune like "Brown Eyes" sound like the Spiders From Mars covering Mötley Crüe's "Home Sweet Home." A mid-set bevy of piano tunes found Gaga in a plaintive mood, even joining her band in a brief foray into a free jazz improv that belied their session dude origins. Although it was hard to imagine who was paying attention to the sidemen when a mustard-blonde superstar was center stage in a g-string pounding out notes with her high-heeled boots.

Lady Gaga  "Paparazzi"