🔥 Lady Gaga’s Explosive “MAYHEM Ball” Tour Hits LA: Kia Forum Show Recap (July 29, 2025)

💥 29 songs. 4 acts. 17,000 Little Monsters. A pop spectacle like no other.

Lady Gaga’s second night at the Kia Forum in Inglewood lit up Los Angeles with a surreal, emotional, and dazzling performance that solidified The MAYHEM Ball as her most immersive and cinematic tour to date.

🎥 [EMBED FULL PERFORMANCE HERE]

🧠 Context: What Is The MAYHEM Ball?

Lady Gaga launched her MAYHEM Ball Tour in support of her 2025 album Mayhem, a theatrical, genre-bending journey through glam rock, synth-pop, and dramatic orchestration. Unlike previous tours, this one unfolds across four conceptual acts, each bringing its own sonic and visual narrative to life.

According to Wikipedia, the tour began in Las Vegas and travels through major U.S. cities, with four sold-out nights at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles: July 28, July 29, August 1, and August 2.

🎭 Act-by-Act Breakdown of July 29’s Performance

ACT I: Of Velvet and Vice

The show opened with a booming cinematic countdown and transitioned into Bloody Mary, with Gaga appearing on a rising stage in a velvet blood-red cape and metallic bodysuit. This act blended mysticism with menace, building into a Judas/Aura mashup that had the crowd roaring.

Highlights:

• 🔥 “Scheiße” featured pyrotechnics synced to marching stomp dancers.
• 💃 “Poker Face” was performed on a rotating chessboard stage.
• 🕯️ Set aesthetic: Gothic ballroom with LED arches and floating candles.

Sources:
👉 The Cosmic Circus |
👉 Setlist.FM

ACT II: Gothic Dream

In this act, Gaga embraced her inner alter-ego “Persephone.” Tracks like Paparazzi and Alejandro were stripped back to haunting orchestral versions before exploding into electro remixes.

Emotional standout:

💬 “Los Angeles… This is a dream I never stop dreaming.”

This section also included Perfect Celebrity and The Beast—two tracks from Mayhem that address fame’s toxicity.

Related reads:
👉 Las Vegas Weekly |
👉 Pitchfork: Takeaways from Mayhem

ACT III: Beautiful Nightmare

This segment turned the energy up to maximum. Featuring laser walls, death-drop choreography, and crowd interactions, songs like Just Dance, Killah, and Applause turned the Kia Forum into a rave cathedral.

🔥 Special shoutout to Zombieboy, which honored the late Rick Genest (Zombie Boy), with a digital projection tribute and high-fashion zombie dancers.

ACT IV: Chessboard Queens

For many fans, this was the emotional peak. Gaga sat at a pearlescent piano and delivered Born This Way, Shallow, and Million Reasons with raw vocal perfection. At one point, she paused, removed her in-ear, and said:

🎤 “I still hear you over everything. Thank you, monsters.”

📸 A surprise encore featured How Bad Do U Want Me and a rotating closer (Sexxx Dreams) not performed the night before.

Sources:
👉 Consequence Review |
👉 Globely News

📉 Gaga’s Onstage Fall: Iconic Recovery

One viral moment came during Vanish Into You, when a cameraman tripped and briefly knocked into Gaga, causing a minor fall. Within seconds, she was back on her feet, laughing it off, and waving the crowd into a chant.

💬 “I fall… but I rise. That’s what monsters do.”

This resilience went viral across social media:
👉 People Magazine Coverage

📀 Mayhem Album Connection

The Mayhem album serves as the soul of this tour. Tracks like Abracadabra and Disease represent Gaga’s musical rebellion. Critics described it as:

• “A dancefloor opera.” – Them.us
• “A surprise left turn that pays off emotionally.” – Business Insider

For fans of genre-fluid performance art, Mayhem bridges Gaga’s early Fame era with the emotional complexity of Joanne and the theatrical brilliance of Chromatica.

🌍 Gaga’s Global Impact & Comparisons

Lady Gaga’s MAYHEM Ball tour stands shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the biggest performances of 2025. From K-pop giants like BLACKPINK and hip-hop icons like Kendrick Lamar, Gaga’s theatrical vision brings a different kind of storytelling to the world stage.

Compare it to:

• BLACKPINK’s Goyang 2025 Performance Recap – high-octane visuals with choreographed precision
• Kendrick Lamar & SZA in Amsterdam – lyrical depth and raw emotional energy
• Lisa’s solo July 5 show – solo stardom under a global spotlight
• ATEEZ at Citi Field – stadium-sized spectacle

Gaga’s strength lies in combining pop spectacle with theatrical narrative, a style more aligned with Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour or Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, but filtered through Gaga’s unique lens of rebellion and reinvention.

🔄 Internal Highlights You Shouldn’t Miss

Fans of live performance breakdowns and full concert recaps should check out these UltimateRecaps exclusives for more behind-the-scenes access:

• Sabrina Carpenter – BST Hyde Park
• Stormzy – Roskilde Festival 2025
• Charli XCX – Roskilde 2025
• Imagine Dragons – Stade de France
• Love Supreme Festival Day 3

🌟 Gaga Among the Fireworks: A Performance on Par with Icons

While Gaga’s MAYHEM Ball raged in LA, she joins a legendary roster of performers who headlined massive national events like the 2025 Macy’s Fireworks show:

• Keke Palmer’s Macy’s Performance
• Trisha Yearwood Live
• Eric Church’s Country Brilliance
• Diana Ross & Norah Jones – North Sea Jazz
• Jonas Brothers at Macy’s

In this pantheon of 2025 greats, Gaga’s show at the Kia Forum is unquestionably one of the top-tier performances of the year.

📰 Press & Critical Reactions

Here’s what the media is saying:

🎙️ “She’s not just singing — she’s confronting the monster of fame on her own terms.” – The Daily Beast

💬 “It’s Broadway, it’s Berlin, it’s Black Mirror — Gaga has reinvented the concert tour again.” – SFGate

📰 “From political anthems to bedroom bangers, this show has it all.” – NME

📢 “Pelosi said it best: ‘It’s the most fun I’ve had in a long time.’” – SF Chronicle

🎤 Final Word: A Tour That Will Go Down in Pop History

Lady Gaga’s July 29 performance at the Kia Forum wasn’t just a concert — it was performance art. From near falls to piano ballads to industrial EDM breakdowns, this stop on The MAYHEM Ball Tour is the kind of moment fans will remember for decades.

For more iconic performance recaps, explore:

• Blackpink – DEADLINE World Tour JUMP 2025
• America’s Got Talent Viral Acts (e.g. Andrea, Gendai, Anna Saranina)
• Nas – Orchestral Performance in Atlanta
• Music: ENHYPEN Helium Vevo
• Dirtiest Songs of All Time – for comparison to Gaga’s lyrical fearlessness