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2015 - Lokerse Feesten in Belgium: 31 July REPORTS/VIDEOS/PICS


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Belgium here we go again!!   :belgium:

Tell us everything about the show !

 

lokeren_13.jpg?w=1200&h=&crop=1

taken by Nina tiibet

http://mikagigs.com/2015/08/01/photo-galleries-mika-lokerse-feesten-in-belgium-72015/

 

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REPORTS

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Setlist  #8  SjoerdvWijk

 

  1. Grace Kelly
  2. Talk About You
  3. Popular
  4. Big Girl
  5. Billy Brown
  6. Staring At The Sun
  7. Origin Of Love
  8. Relax
  9. Underwater
  10. Rain
  11. Elle Me Dit
  12. Happy Ending
  13. We Are Golden
  14. Last Party
  15. Love Today

 

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PICS

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#10 IngievV

 

#21  #22  #23 #24 LENA MACHU

 

#25 Sweetieval

 

#30  Statue_of_Liberty Photobucket http://s745.photobucket.com/user/Statue_of_Liberty/library/Mika%20at%20Lokerse%20Feesten%2031s%20July%202015

 

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VIDEOS

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Underwater by Froy #9

 

Big Girl / Staring at the Sun / Rain by vanessa-love-mika   #17 

 

Talk About You / Last Party / Rain / END of Elle Mit Dit "DANCE" / END of Love Today + Coffettis Sweetieval  #25

 

Grace Kelly / Talk About You / Big Girl / Popular song / Rain / Staring at the Sun / Underwater K'mille AC #41

 

Happy Ending camille* #47

 

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MEDIA

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shots by professional
Wannabes.be
 
July 31, 2015
MainStage
Lokerse Feesten 2015
 
Article

At the start of 2011, Mika packed his bags to travel to Montreal to make his third record. It was a DIY organizational approach. He used some frequent flyer miles and imagination. There was no schedule this time. In episodes one and two of Mika-world he had locked down a clear and transparent template of his universe. Its certainty was never in doubt, here was a microcosmic world of balloons and fairy-lights, of animated (in both cartoon and excitable senses) characters defined by their child-like naivety. The music that he had pulsed around the globe as an artist had been fuelled by ringtone appropriate hooks, streaming out of his musical mind like twisted nursery rhymes. In Montreal, that was all about to change.

The sounds made by Nick Littlemore, the Australian electronic pioneer behind Pnau and Empire of the Sun, had caught his imagination and Mika went in search of this potential new collaborator. 'Before meeting Nick, I was my own taskmaster," he says now, "I didn't know how else to work. I was a 22 year old making up sounds in the corner.' It was just Mika, his piano and his imagination. In the intervening five years since Grace Kelly went astronomical around the world and span off two multi-million selling albums and five global tours in its wake, a personal shift had occurred. As a songwriter and human being, Mika had grown up.

For album number 3, a sensational collection of nimble, multi-faceted and spruce electronic noise has been fashioned. As a counterweight, Mika found himself enthralled by the Laurel Canyon sound of the 70s, the airily utopian noise of pastoral idylls in a new bohemia. These two strands have fused to form a sweet, harmonious new soundbed for Mika's songwriting. A certain lightness of touch has been found, though always adhering to Mika's clever signature rule for the record: "A lightness of touch does not have to mean a lightness of substance" The poperatics have taken a discernible swerve away. The emotional truisms are laid out in simple, eloquent, prosaic couplets. Alice has stepped out from behind the looking glass.

Within all this something intentionally intimate has emerged. Mika has matured into an artist that no longer needs to hide behind costume and artifice. In fashioning this acoustic/electronic sound-clash with Nick in Montreal he has ironically made his most human album. On The Origin of Love, his imagination has been fuelled by reality, not fantasy.

"In a strange kind of way it makes sense. It was about expanding my musical horizons. Nick allowed me to go somewhere I hadn't been before. There's more humanity in taking a sound you have made and manipulating it electronically or digitally than there is calling up a session player and asking them to play bass guitar for twenty minutes and taking what you want from that and putting it on a record. I loved the atmosphere Nick curated in the studio. We danced. You don't dance when you are alone. It made me feel endless. It was a great starting point to be in a studio set-up where everything felt possible and there were no rules." Their first collaboration and touchstone for a new record springing alchemically to life is the multi-layered opus title track, The Origin of Love. The final version is taken mostly from the original demo, in keeping with a rawer spirit underpinning the record. You might like to think of it as a George Benson's The Greatest Love of All pummelled through a time machine, beaten up in the disco and bolted headfirst into the limitless world of 21st century, digital possibility. Without loving yourself, loving others is impossible; a timeless motif made timely once more. In 2012 this was a statement Mika felt ready to put out into the world.

A brace of songs emerged in Montreal, fluctuating on the subject of love, tolerance and joy. First single Celebrate could not be more joyous in its evocation of the transformative powers of love, a call to arms in a cynical world. Direct disclosure under the disco lights. If Celebrate is The Origin of Love at its most straight-up dance-pop, Lola is the acoustic-driven Fleetwood Mac-inspired flipside given free reign. On the oldest profession in the world he is a tender and empathetic. The driving, strummed rhythm has been recently complemented by a Youtube clip fashioned with the burlesque artist, Dita Von Teese. He found inspiration from unusual triggers. The rasping build of Heroes was summoned from reading an A E Housman poem on returning war veterans. The hypnotic swell of Underwater was inspired by a 90s Michel Gondry denim ad, a seemingly slight but beautifully realised 90 second polemic on the idea that when you are in love it consumes you so much you can breathe below sea level."That is exactly how it feels," he points out. "That undercurrent of ecstasy will see you through anything. I had removed myself from the isolation of being alone in front of a piano." "I am a difficult artist," he says, "I know that. I make artist-driven, alternative pop music. I do this sincerely, in a time when so many album statements are incomplete and insincere. I am not from the Brill Building school of pop. These are my own statements." Inspired by the incredible human emotions conjured in electronic experimentation by Laurie Anderson and Steve Reich, Mika set about harnessing the work these iconoclastic future-heads had fashioned to his own unique pop sensibility. "Something was really happening for me in the studio. I could feel it." He wrote his most open-handed and clear love song yet, Make You Happy, opening with a robot voice repeating the line "All I want to do is make you happy." It was released virally as a taster for what was to come. "This was about people being able to approach my music clean. The first bit of new music that anybody heard around the world was sang by a robot. That was cleansing. It is quite fundamental to the philosophy of this record. My campaigns are slow, sometimes quite hard. I make alternative pop music that's not easy to promote. But if it weren't hard then I wouldn't be doing it. It's every single fibre of my being. There is nothing else." The new clarity in Mika's work has been facilitated by two life-changing events undergone between albums two and three. In late 2010 Mika's sister and close artistic collaborator Paloma had fallen from a 50ft window and was left critical in hospital. "I couldn't work knowing what was going on with her. It was only after she had made the most miraculous recovery, one that the doctors said defied science, that I could let myself go to Montreal to start again." And then love. '" am in a very happy relationship," he says, knowing that the nature of his high-octane performance valve brings with it its own set of questions. "I am a naturally private person. But at this time of my life I felt it was the perfect time to write about love. Obviously there's always been this "what is he?" thing with me and my refusal to answer that was simply down to the fact that it's all in my music. You can't push people to say things to fit an agenda. I hadn't bloomed." The Origin of Love is obviously a deeply important record in the career trajectory and personal journey of Mika. "What we have done here is joy catching. Every moment on the record reflects how joyously I feel about my life and what I do. I desperately want people to hear it." Clearly, there are some nerves around a record so intimate. "I don't know how people will take it," he says, "I make awkward records that have hearts. Sometimes they are great. But I haven't felt like I've had a song that is as much of a tablet, a benchmark to hold up as The Origin of Love since Grace Kelly."

 

 

 

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Setlist:

 

Grace Kelly

Talk About You

Popular

Billy Brown

Staring At The Sun

Origin Of Love

Relax

Underwater

Rain

Elle Me Dit

Happy Ending

We Are Golden

Last Party

Love Today

 

I think you forgot about Big Girl  :wink2:

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I think you forgot about Big Girl  :wink2:

 

He did Big Girl indeed  :naughty: Quite expected set list for a festival and not many new songs. No Promiseland. An average show meaning not impressive like Ostrava even the set list was similar style. The audience wasn't nearly as enthusiastic and not even as enthusiastic as usually in Belgium. The line up was so weird! The rap performance in the beginning didn't convince any of us, the singers kept throwing bottles to the audience (seriously, they are allowed to do that??). The next act was not pure punk but still a bit harder style and the singer was really friendly and they had a good spirit, liked them a lot! Then Milow and even I like some of his songs and looked forward to seeing him live this time his style didn't fit with the occasion, was hard to stay a wake. Then Mika :wub:  I wasn't as impressed as I've been a couple of time this summer but I still had a lot of fun and I enjoyed the songs a lot, maybe even more than usually. Really needed just enjoying music and dancing and having fun  :wub: His performance got much better towards the end and I so hoped he could have continued, the set was too short! Loved the confetti rain in the end! The security let me keep my camera and it made me so happy, lol! They were quite strict and told people not to film but when I took my camera out of my bag and took some pics they were directly in front of me their face looking "oh can't bother saying anything"  :naughty: Of course my memory card was full after three songs (it's huge and usually never full  :doh: ) but I didn't actually mind because this way I had a chance to take a few photos and then just enjoy the songs. Will check my pics later to see if there's anything interesting. 

Edited by tiibet
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I think you forgot about Big Girl :wink2:

Oops

 

Setlist:

 

Grace Kelly

Talk About You

Popular

Big Girl

Billy Brown

Staring At The Sun

Origin Of Love

Relax

Underwater

Rain

Elle Me Dit

Happy Ending

We Are Golden

Last Party

Love Today

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The audience wasn't indeed as enthusiastic as they were at most Mika gigs, but I guess that's due the fact there were many people who were there just 'cause of the fact it was Lokerse Feesten without knowing really any music of the bands who played. The weird line-up of different styles and the fact that they served drank in between the audience didn't really help to get into the concertbubble 'cause people were constantly walking in between, even in the front rows (at the side). 

 

Still it was a great gig, he convinced some of my friends and they really enjoyed his show. Loved the giggle of Mika when the audience was singing "Happy Ending", he didn't expect that. I loved what he was wearing! Finally he has put his Valentino-suit aside and choose something that let him jump and dance around. It did make me think of what he was wearing in in the TBWKTM-period. 

 

I'm even more looking forward to September now! Really loved the gig!

 

I wrote a (Dutch) blog about with some pictures: https://froy.wordpress.com/2015/08/01/lokerse-feesten-milow-mika/
My video of "Underwater": 

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I'm not too much into festivals in general because they can always be a bit tricky. But I felt I should go to Lokerse Feesten since it seems to be the closest gig to my place these days. And I could host MFC-friends which I was looking forward to since my last homegig in Berlin in 2010. Since I have left Berlin and Mika doesn't come to Germany anymore Belgium was the closest it could be, I guess :naughty: So apart from hosting friends and having a nice roadtrip I'm a bit disappointed with the festival and Mika. 

The strange line-up has been mentioned before. I actually got really mad about that rap band since I never asked for a shower or bottle falling on my shoulder. Bands should know how to behave. Then the audience will be nice as well, I'll always try to give any act a chance but they were bad. I liked the punk rock band, though. It's not my kind of music (obviusly :naughty: ), but they were really friendly!

 

Anyway, Mika. His performance was average compared to other shows I have seen. He didn't *get* the audience which I really don't blame on him. There were little fails like him messing up some lyrics or some misunderstandings. I never mind noticing that, I actually like to see him reacting spontaneously and he usually does that with a lot of charisma. But I guess he doesn't like it which I can understand and which obviously doesn't improve his mood. His setlist wasn't very special either, it felt like I had heard it twenty times before. As most of us here, I like his songs and performances and love to witness it, but I had the same feeling as in Ostrava: Do something new, surprise me! That's moaning on a high level, I know that. Only people who can go to many gigs would think that way. And of course since it was a festival it's not the right place to try many new songs like it was in Cattolica. And I did hear Staring at the Sun live for the first time and liked it. I loved his outfit btw! I didn't get any eye contact while people around me did get it. Again, that was the same in Ostrava.

 

After the gig we went to the backstage exit and security didn't try to tell us he had been gone already which I found really nice. It was quite late and we waited for a long time. Between 3 and 3:30 security tried to convince us that Mika left some minutes ago. But we were there all the time. We couldn't believe he would just leave without even a wave when seeing us waiting for him in the middle of a cold night. But he obviously did that. He could have found a way to let us know he wouldn't see us. Or wave. Well, when we left we weren't happy and our mood didn't improve when we saw his tweet about a newspaper article. 

 

For me the contact with him and the band is part of the fun.  I didn't get that twice in a row. I'm fine with not getting the complete 'package' of contact during the gig, a great crowd, a flawless Mika in a good mood and perfect m&g afterwards. But not getting any of this doesn't feel good.

 

It's completely up to him how he treats his fans of course. I'm not demanding anything. I just love the goodies he's been giving us all along the way and they're part of the fun for me. But I have the feeling that Mika is changing the way he's going and I'm not sure if I want to go that way with him. There's no point for me in travelling to see the same show again and again and again. I've had that with another band and liked it for a couple of times a year. But I wouldn't want to travel for that. If he decides to go a way where he focuses on new (and very young) fans and isn't into that kind of contact he used to have with his long-time-fans that's fine. But he might eventually lose some of them. And I could be one of them. That I realized yesterday. I'm still hoping for the upcoming tour to convince me otherwise. I have experienced two big tours so far and both happened to intensify my fangurling over Mika. So there is hope!  :teehee:

 

Having said all of that, at first glance it looked like I took some good pictures. I'll share them today or tomorrow.  :)

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i'm not going to write a proper report, cause i'm not that great a writer lol

 

 

like i've seen here before, i'm obviously not the  only one who didn't like the first band (and not liking them is a huge understatement!!)

i really liked Janes Detd (the punk rock band) of course i knew them from a few songs.

Milow was great as well, it was the first time i saw him live and he didn't disappoint me.

 

and for me  Mika was great, maybe he wasn't as great as on other gigs this year....

but i can't know that, cause it's been almost 2 years since i last saw him perform, so i was just very happy to see him live again! 

i hoped he might sing "no place in heaven" (my favorite song from the new album,... maybe next time? )

 

i also had hoped to see him after the gig, but didn't really count on it,... seems i'm a bit cursed or something when it comes to trying to meet him after a gig....

so sorry guys, maybe it was my bad karma or something lol

 

well that's about it, looking forward to seeing Mika again in Lille and Brussels :)

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too tired to write a report, you'll get one from me when i've had some sleep. maybe tomorrow. just that much, the trip wasn't worth it for me. tho i'm already in a much better mood now than i was this morning. which is maybe also due to the fact that i can hope to actually GET money out of it all, since my flight back home was delayed by nearly 4 hours and i read you get a 250€ compensation from the airline for such a big delay. which would be more than the trip incl. gig ticket cost me. i'll believe it when it's on my account, but at least i'll try! :naughty:

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like i've seen here before, i'm obviously not the  only one who didn't like the first band (and not liking them is a huge understatement!!)

i really liked Janes Detd (the punk rock band) of course i knew them from a few songs.

Milow was great as well, it was the first time i saw him live and he didn't disappoint me.

 

It was great to meet you again, Ilse! I agree with you especially about the first and second performances. The rap band/performance was incredibly arrogant. They were funny for a while but after that just ridiculous. On the other hand, I'm definitely not they target group, lol! However, the contrast with the punk band was huge! Their music was not my style either but the singer was really nice and friendly and took a lot of contact with the audience and look so genuinely grateful and touched by reactions! Really liked them too and their musician were quite entertaining as well. Milow make me wish I was comfortably at home with a glass of wine, I could hardly stay awake  :naughty:

 

@ Saskia and Karin: I'm so sorry you girls couldn't enjoy the show as usual  :huglove:   And I feel almost guilty saying I did enjoy it, maybe even more than I expected. There was nothing wrong with his performance, imo. It was a basic festival performance. The audience was just difficult and he wasn't on a great, chatty mood like in Ostrava or Cattolica. I bet he can't wait for holidays, it will do him good. This wasn't a suitable time or place for many new songs, I was quite pleased we SATS and LP (and TAY of course). About seeing him after the show, I guess he doesn't often feel like meeting fans anymore :dunno: The tweet about reading articles in the middle of the night felt a bit sharp indeed. Oh well. 

 

Edit: I must give a little special mention to Max. He is just adorable!! He was doing his own special funny dancing like his own little party, lol! Too funny, loved watching it  :naughty: Also really love the drumming part and how the band is playing there as well. 

Edited by tiibet
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I enjoyed the show even if I would have liked if he played more new songs. But I was happy to hear Staring At The Sun live :)

 

Here are the videos I took :

 

Big Girl : 

 

Staring At The Sun : 

 

Rain : 

 

My mother also filmed Staring At The Sun + Underwater, I'll post it on youtube tomorrow :)

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It was great to meet you again, Ilse! I agree with you especially about the first and second performances. The rap band/performance was incredibly arrogant. They were funny for a while but after that just ridiculous. On the other hand, I'm definitely not they target group, lol! However, the contrast with the punk band was huge! Their music was not my style either but the singer was really nice and friendly and took a lot of contact with the audience and look so genuinely grateful and touched by reactions! Really liked them too and their musician were quite entertaining as well. Milow make me wish I was comfortably at home with a glass of wine, I could hardly stay awake  :naughty:

 

well the second band had stopped  about 5 years or so ago, and earlier this year a huge fan of them, got them to give one final concert, cause she couldn't be there on their final concert back then, and they gave a gig in Ghent. and because they liked it so much and the Lokerse feesten were their favorite festival to perform and gave so much to them in the past, they agreed to play there this year. And you could tell indeed, that they were very happy to be there

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Thanks for the reports, videos and pics everybody !

 

I don't have any good pictures as my camera is very old, I have a few videos but quality is ugly as well  :naughty: I would not have dared bringing my reflex.

 

For once, I did just looked and listened to Mika and enjoyed the gig.

 

​I agree with Tiibet and Statue of Liberty, the first band was an absolute disaster, I felt like they were just young men wanted to shout on a microphone and not all able to sing properly  :fisch: , I could have done better I thought to myself  :naughty: 

​The best one was the black one with swimming short, the most ridiculous the one with huge black glasses and I thought there were 2 funny ones : one came with a bottle of water, he looked good but he had a cigarette in the other hand  :teehee:  and another black one came with a glass of whisky, I was  :doh: 

 

Concerning the second band Janez Dedts, I enjoyed them a lot and recognized exactly the style of Blink 182 and Sum41.

The singer was really kind, he also made me a sign when leaving the festival.

 

Milow was an absolute lovely surprise to me, he is good looking,  nice smile and clean  :thumb_yello:​  He presented his -very good- musicians and singer Nina, they were all really fine to me  :thumb_yello: (Mika does not present the band any more, that is a pity  :sneaky2: )

 

Then came MIKA and I got an a cloud :wub:  but I had not seen him for 2 years and a half, I needed some Mikaïne so much :mika2: 

I first thought he had a really nice jacket, I love the color of it and I thought he was smarter with his white shirt than in Paris Fnac gig.

I took off my ear plugs to listen to his acute voice, especially on Happy Ending which is ma favourite's song ever on all gigs  :wub: 

 

Well, I was so happy he sang Staring at the Sun which I love a lot on the new album.

And, Last Party of course. This is an emotional song  :fangurl: 

It was a pleasure to listen to The Origin of Love again, that is such a nice song I think and I did like the new arrangements for Popular and Elle me Dit which had become unstandable for me, there it is more like ragga or reggae style, that is fine  :pbjt: 

And he sang The Origin of Love, I was so happy to ear it again, I realized how good this song was...

 

Once, he came on our side (on the right of the stage) and smiled to our banner and flowers, we felt happy with Lena Machu and Macboll  :thumb_yello: 

 

Concerning the NO meet and greet and the long waiting in the cold after the gig, I have nothing particular to say.

This is the first time I don't feel like going and talk to people, the french group knows each other a lot and I did not want to bother them.

I understand people from Europe don't really feel like coming and talk to such a tight-knit group.

I am not shy, not at all :naughty:  but I did not feel comfortable this time  :dunno:  maybe was I tired.

​The reason is also that, when we arrived, some MFCers came to us and let us know some people -non MFCers apparently- were arguing about the number lining system.

Well, I was in a good mood and it suddenly bothered me  :loco: 

Since the Compiegne show and the disaster of the queuing system, I am really sceptic with this too.

 

I just went to see some people I've been knowing a bit since 2010 tour , some french and belgian fans and others famous MFCers like Tiibet or Mellody . Sorry for the other ones I did not talked to.

 

 

While we were waiting near the exit, I am quite sure I have seen Mika leaving the festival. The only strange thing was the belgian registration of the car but, still, there was one tall man alone in a black Mercedes van with same shape hair and he turned his head towards us  :wink2: 

​Maybe he felt sorry not to be able to stop but that is just my personal feeling  :) 

 

 

​Anyway, that was good to see him again and I wish I can see him again and again and again for many years, whatever in a festival or a gig.

That man rocks  :clap: 

 

 

Some pictures with Macboll (middle), Lena Machu (hat) and me in blue :

 

 

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Some poor quality videos :

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Sweetieval
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