Thanks to issues surrounding her current Monster Ball tour, which stopped in Orlando on Jan. 3, Lady Gaga has created a “Bad Romance” with many of her new-found fans.
Less than two weeks before her sold-out performance at Hard Rock Live, it was announced the concert would be relocated to the New Arena at the University of Central Florida. Hard Rock marketing manger Jeff Jones said the last-minute change was made because the production’s set was too large for the Hard Rock stage, adding that similar staging issues forced the tour to relocate three shows in Chicago and two shows in Detroit this month. Still, many fans speculated the swaps were done to sell more tickets, considering Lady Gaga had described the tour’s set several months ago.
In an October interview with Rolling Stone, the performer called the Monster Ball stage “a frame with forced perspective…it’s this giant box that fits into every show. So no matter where I go, my fans get the same experience.”
For some, that experience was a bad one, particularly with their tickets. Fans who had seats for the original venue were notified by email that they would have only a few days—during a busy holiday week—to return their tickets with an option to participate in a second pre-sale for the new location.
“It took me two days and about four hours of phone time to finally get Ticketmaster to allow me to purchase tickets for the rescheduled show,” said James Jackson. “Every time I talked to someone I got a different reason why they couldn’t sell me tickets.”
With the relocation some concert-goers, like Rick Merrifield, found themselves in less-than-desirable seats.
“Because her stage was boxed in, seats on the side of the stage—like ours—had a limited view,” said Merrifield, who initially had “great seats in the balcony” at Hard Rock. “We had to watch more than a third of the concert on the screens. Every time she stepped back, we couldn’t see her.”
Merrifield said many people in his section filled the aisles in hopes of getting a better view and that UCF staff attempted to clear the potential safety hazard only once.
Merrifield was among many concert-goers who also expressed frustration at obtaining adult beverages at the show. With only four liquor bars and two draft beer stations, waits to obtain alcohol often ran past 30 minutes. One fan in line wondered why UCF, with twice the capacity of Hard Rock, would have only half as many bars available.
This is not the first time issues have surrounded a Lady Gaga tour. A 34-date co-headlining trek with Kanye West was cancelled in early October only two weeks after it had been announced. Rapper 50 Cent called the proposed “Fame Kills” tour “the gay tour.” Lady Gaga responded, saying, “I think it’s sad—and I think that nobody in any genre of music should accommodate homophobia.”
A spokesperson for Lady Gaga did not respond to e-mails seeking comment.
