Small World, Big City: Roseland Ballroom

Roseland Ballroom is a concert hall that has been operating in New York for about 95 years. Apparently it began in Philadelphia, but was moved to New York in order to escape restrictive state laws regulating sales on Sundays for religious purposes. The original ballroom was somewhere farther downtown, but in the 1950s they changed location. The current location, in midtown west, was converted from a skating rink into a ballroom, and has hosted many concerts since then. In April 2014 however, the Roseland Ballroom will close, after a series of seven performances by Lady Gaga.

I didn't have much interest in the Roseland Ballroom, rather, I really wanted to see Lady Gaga in New York. I saw her in Germany before, and thought she was a really good performer. Usually she plays at large stadiums, like Madison Square Garden, so I was surprised to see that she had seven shows scheduled for the smaller, Roseland Ballroom venue. Both times that I wanted to see Lady Gaga, I had difficulty (1) finding people to go with me, because the tickets are expensive, and (2) getting tickets because they are always sold out. As usual, the Roseland Ballroom tickets were completely sold out, and as usual, I asked all of my friends who I thought would like Lady Gaga, and they all said no. One in particular said no because he thought Roseland Ballroom was a terrible venue, and he figured her fans would probably be really obnoxious. In the end, I found three people to go with me. We all found tickets on stubhub. Originally we were going to dress up and wear something crazy, but since I had a long day at work I ended up going in my work clothes.

We had debated getting there early so we could try to get closer to the front, but due to our work schedules it was not possible. The concert started at 8:00, and we ended up arriving at 7:40. The line wrapped around the entire block and had to be divided into portions to allow street traffic. It moved quickly though, and once we got in we were handed with commemorative items for the closing of Roseland Ballroom.

I can understand why people might think it's a horrible venue. The line for the female bathroom was so long that I waited for about 20 minutes because there were only 5 or 6 stalls for a hall that probably fits about 1000 people (maybe there were other bathrooms elsewhere). Unlike most concert halls, the Roseland Ballroom is carpeted. I'm not sure how they properly clean it, given all of the substances that are spilled there. By the end of the night, my shoes felt wet and sticky as I walked out, and my neck hurt from craning up to try to see the stage. As a short person, general admission places tend to be tricky. It was very hard for me to see because there was already a lot of people packed in front of us when we arrived. Next time I go to these standing concerts I'm bringing a step stool. The couple next to me had an argument--the girl was shorter than me, but her boyfriend was over six feet tall. She wanted to move closer to the front because she didn't see, but he said that he felt bad blocking so many people. I guess that was considerate of him; I did sympathize with the girlfriend though. Another tall man in front of me with studded glasses and a partner with a blond wig--complete with a blond bow made out of hair--turned around and said, "I'm blocking you aren't I? I feel bad." We said we were okay since the angle to the stage wouldn't make much of a different if he were behind or in front of us, but he said, "well if I'm blocking you just charge in front of me, it's cool." So there were a lot of nice people there--although also a lot of drugs, from the smell in the concert hall, so maybe that's why people were so nice. At one point, Lady Gaga stopped singing and said, "Is that weed? That's definitely weed. Who has weed? Sorry guys, we have to start the song over, I got distracted by the drugs."

As expected, she gave a great performance. She seems to be one of the fewer pop stars that sing live throughout the whole show, and performed acoustic renditions of some of her popular dance songs. The stage was set up with paper roses, and on the right side was a replica of the front of the subway train, and neon lights from Lady Gaga's life in New York--apparently she lived at 176 Stanton, so one sign read that address. There was a ladder on the left side, and a balcony overhead. The performance was fairly short, and instead of an opening band she had an opening DJ that was not particularly impressive. A friend of mine who goes to school at Alvin Ailey saw her and her dancers rehearsing there, so I wonder if some of her dancers are from the Alvin Ailey company.

There were a lot of older people at the concert, and not as many interesting costumes as I had expected, but then again I walked in with the latecomers. Later towards the end of the night we saw some pretty interesting shoes and wigs. One of my friends said that the entire concert was like being in a gay club, which is probably the most concise description.