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The band is a part of Lady Gaga's Haus of Gaga. During the early promotion of The Fame, Gaga used a DJ in 2008 to 2009 until a series of summer festivals where she had a band. Since then, Gaga mostly uses a live band for her various performances.

Band lineups

The Fame era

On the very first performances for that era, DJ VH1 was the DJ on select dates in 2007-2008. He was replaced by Space Cowboy on March 11 for the Just Dance Promo Tour and the New Kids on the Block: Live in 2008, then the Doll Domination Tour which was followed by The Fame Ball Tour until his last show on April 23, 2009. Nico Constantine replaced Space Cowboy as the DJ on May 1 through June 19, 2009 for The Fame Ball Tour.

005Tonight Show

On The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

On January 8, 2009, Gaga performed with a 6-person band and three background vocalists (including Monet Monico and Zsatwa) for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: drummer Joey Bumpus, keyboard players Nelson Jackson III and Pete Kuzma, guitarist Matt "Haze" Roberts and bass keyboardist Jae Deal. The performance was described on her official website as her "first performance with a full band ensemble for television".

Walter Millsap initially signed on to produce the appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno:

After that, it got bizarre. We got American Idol and Dancing with the Stars, and then we headed overseas, where she was doing massive shows. I was mixing, putting music together, playing. She had the idea of bringing in her friends to play in the band, because she wanted to pump up the image thing a little bit, so I helped put that together. I fly in every now and then to make sure everything is together with the band, and with the sound. [...] For Lady Gaga, I get it all together on the musical side, especially for television shows. Sometimes I'll MD [Musical Director], but I won't play--I'll be mixing in the broadcast room. It's the whole works. When it comes to the serious stuff, I'm there.

—Walter Millsap III to Yamaha All Access Issue 19 (Winter 2010)

On April 1, 2009, Daniel Bernard Roumain played violin for the American Idol performance of "Poker Face".

On May 12, 2009, Jae Deal played keyboard, Joey Bumpus the drums, who had already played with Gaga before, and Nico Constantine and Tommy Kafafian on guitar on Dancing with the Stars.

7-8-09 After the Press Conference 001

The Kids and Gaga

For the festival dates of The Fame Ball from June 26 to August 23, 2009 and on September 28-29, Gaga recruted her "old friends from NYC" to form a band she nicknamed "The Kids" : Nicolas Constantine on guitar, Tom Kafafian on bass, Andreas Brobjer on drums and Brian London on a KORG keyboard. Tom Kafafian met Gaga when working on songs with Rob Fusari in 2006-2007, Nico Constante met Gaga through his band Program the Dead that Tom is also a member of, Andreas due to his work with DJ and producer Paul Oakenfold.

Two weeks before Glastonbury, the band rehearsed the arrangements for the songs in Los Angeles. They played to Gaga over the phone as she was in Asia at the time. Andreas met Lady Gaga for the first time a day before their first gig - at Glastonbury.

The Fame Monster era

Monster Ball: Theater (1.0)

LGG 19

Due to the stage design, the band were hidden behind the two side of the stage.

Jeff Bhasker was the musical director for this version of the tour. He was supposed to be the musical director of The Fame Kills Starring Kanye West and Lady Gaga as he is a frequent collaborator of Kanye West. It was reported at some point during the tour (around the Boston concerts) that Jeff Bhasker was fired. The original three-member band of Charles, Adam, and Pete were rehired, and Mitch was added as the fourth band member.

The rehearsal for the tour began in November at Sony soundstages in Culver City.

  • Guitar – Adam Smirnoff
  • V-Drums®, TD-20X Drums – Charles Haynes
  • Fantom-G7, Fantom-G8, V-Synth Keyboards – Pete Kuzma
  • AX-Synths Keytar – Lady Gaga ("Just Dance")
  • RG-7 Digital Piano – Lady Gaga ("Speechless", "Poker Face" - on 11/27/09 only)
  • Keyboards/Bass – Mitch Cohn (after the concert in Boston in December, 2009)

The band last performance was at the 52nd Grammy Award Ceremony on January 31, 2010.

The Monster Ball band's original bass player would have been Sylvia Gordon. Sylvia had the website Say Sylvia set up to report from her tour diary. However, she only wrote one entry: "Just landed in L.A., and already I feel like I am in another world. Bombarded with new people and oppurtunities, my head is swimming... I still need to learn all these songs!". On her blog Eat a Blog Dog, Sylvia wrote on November 9 that she would be playing bass on the Monster Ball, but ten days later she wrote that she would not be playing after all. She mentions that the band is hardly visible behind the video screens and that her bass parts would be mainly to boost the synth sound, although she would have loved to do the tour.

Monster Ball: Arena (2.0)

0-0-10 Terry Richardson 029

The band with Posh!.

For this new version, Joe "Flip" Wilson became the musical director. The auditions for the band were held on January 18-19, 2010 in New York. On January 20, Gaga auditioned the final selections.

Born This Way era

Born This Way Promo tour

The Born This Way Ball Tour (2012-2013)

For the tour, Tim Stewart replaced Kareem on guitar. Joe "Flip" Wilson returned as musical director. Karl Martin was the audio programmer.

ARTPOP era

For the artRAVE: The ARTPOP Ball, the full band returned but with a new musical director, Michael Bearden along with two background vocalists, Sophie Hiller and Elsie.

Cheek to Cheek era

  • Drums – Paul Francis
Tony Bennett Quartet
  • Piano – Mike Renzi
  • Drums – Harold Jones
  • Guitar – Gray Sargent
  • Bass – Marshall Wood
Brian Newman Quartet
  • Trumpet – Brian Newman
  • Piano – Alex Smith
  • Bass – Scott Ritchie
  • Saxophone – Steve Kortyka

For the PBS special, Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga: Cheek to Cheek Live!, they were also joined on stage by The After Midnight Band and a 39-piece orchestra led by conductor Jorge Calandrelli.

Joanne era

Dive Bar Tour & Super Bowl

Two members of the band since 2010, drummer George "Spanky" and Lanar "Kern" were replaced in 2016. However, drummer George "Spanky" played one last show on October 5, 2016 for the Dive Bar Tour. Lanar "Kern" was replaced by bassist Jonny Good and George "Spanky" by Aaron Spears for two shows and by Chris Johnson since the Super Bowl. For the first time since 2010, Brockett was replaced for the 3 dates in 2016 but he returned in 2017. For the Super Bowl, Michael Bearden was the musical director.

Joanne World Tour & Enigma

For the Joanne World Tour and the residency concert Enigma, Michael Bearden returned as musical director and André "Dré" Bowman as the digital audio programmer/playback engineer.

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