Lady Gaga kicked off 24 hours in the spotlight at South By Southwest in a typically memorable fashion.
The pop provocateur began her appearance at Stubb's BBQ on Thursday night during the annual music festival and conference by roasting herself on a spit like a gutted pig as her dancers basted her with barbecue brushes - and then things got really weird.
The show sponsored by Doritos to benefit her Born This Way Foundation included moments meant to provoke and others meant to inspire
Gaga began the evening by taping a Jimmy Kimmel Live segment, in which she wore a puffy white dress complete with a huge hat that mostly obscured her face. By the time she hit Stubb's a little after 10pm, she had stripped down to a black bikini on an unusually chilly night at the outdoor venue and had long blonde dreadlock extensions.
Gaga's set included a scene of an attractive woman eating barbecued sausages in a provocative manner, and "vomit painter" Millie Brown throwing up on the singer as she played drums.
There was also a scene of Gaga straddling Brown atop a mechanical pig and playing the keyboard. Brown also painted Gaga with a black liquid that stained the singer's skin throughout the performance.
The entire show wasn't meant to titillate, however. There were moments that were meant to inspire the crowd.
"I love my fans because they always let me be myself and they don't care what anybody says," Gaga told the crowd.
A little while later she set up her sombre song Dope with a self-reflective moment.
"It's so much easier to be yourself than it is to be somebody else," she told the crowd as she played melancholy notes on the piano. "Because then you have to pretend to be someone else and like things that you don't like and do stuff that you don't want to do."
Gaga is set to wrap up her time at SXSW by giving the conference's keynote speech on Friday morning.
