Lady Gaga returns to the club where it all began

Lady Gaga clearly does not subscribe to the old maxim that you can't go home again.

On the eve of the release of her fifth solo album, Joanne, she took her dive bar tour back to New York's Bitter End, the club where she used to play in the days before she was signed to a record deal.

Only this time, there were Oscar winners in the audience waiting to see her. Mixed in with die-hard Little Monsters were Robert De Niro and Helen Mirren, along with Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson from Comedy Central's Broad City.

Clad in her now-familiar cutoff denim shorts and a fedora that looked like it was stolen off Walter White's head, she bounced back and forth between her piano (which she also used for some leg stretches) and guitar as she played tracks from the new album.

Backing her up were Joanne producer Mark Ronson and co-writer Hillary Lindsey, who's best known for her work with country artists.

The Bitter End was the second stop on her dive bar tour, coming two weeks after her visit to Nashville. Another performance is scheduled for Thursday. Any guesses where she'll pop up next?

We're still waiting for cellphone video to emerge from Thursday's show, but in the meantime, enjoy this throwback 2006 performance from the Bitter End.