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mouselle

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  1. The concert was excellent!!!! My fourth time over too many years, and each one is a favourite, but hecwas on fire tonight ! Same set list as Rennes. He wanted to dance and he wanted to move! Other shows there has been obe glorious episode of Mika dance, but tonight tbere were quite a few full-on dance events. He is so vobrant and energetic he just pulls us all in with him into clapping and bouncing along. I took a few pictures, but they are bouncily blurred. Oh well. His voice was strong and very tuneful, but regukarly cracked into Falsetto iin unusual places. While still keeping perfect tune. Now that's a skill! I remain as impressed with his live shows as ever, and I am so thankful I could get to this show in France. A fabulous concert, and a rivering performance. I looked at the merch stand. Tshirts, key rings, mugs, stickers, cds for the warm up band, but I didn't see any Mika cds. Lots of tshirts. Scalpers outside aelling 'signed' tour posters. They were doing such a good trade that I wonder why the merch stNd didn't have them.
  2. OK Paris... you know what to do! =========== REPORTS =========== mouselle ========== PICS ========== ========== VIDEOS ========== tiibet Promiseland @ Zenith, Paris Happy Ending @Zenith, Paris
  3. I'm hanging out for the first news! I'm going to the Paris cobcert tomorrow and can't wait to get a hint of whats in store for the show!
  4. So, I'm a long time fan, travelling the world and I am ecstatic that the dates meshed and my week in Paris co-incided with this concert! I have best general admision tickets for myself and my husband. I will ve waiting outside around an hour vefore and hope to meet some MFCers there. This will be my fourth Mika concert. Two in Australia, one in colmar a few years ago and this obe which I am looking foward to, so much! Hope to se you there!
  5. I can't find the interview either, but the biography article is very, very nice! Well written and interesting!
  6. I'm glad I came back to read everyone else's reports. I love how we all had such different views, and made different things important. So reading the reports I get a whole other perspective. Thanks to RosinaKiwi, Oakie Doke and Chickadee - really loved your reports. Rosina, I've found that when John wears his bodyguard hat he's a tough fellow to interact with. He's very Mika focussed. I hope you can be satisfied that you did get to hand over the things you needed to, and that I also believe absolutely that Mika got them, and will have gloated over his new treasures the first chance he got! Got any more? I haven't had enough yet - but I'm saving the amazing videos until last tonight so they are the last thing I see!
  7. You have a very interesting name for a person with only one post in two days!! I thought people might have started discussing Mika's interpretation of the song as being about a lady who mutilates herself to gain/keep the attention of her lover. It was shocking to me that the song we had been interpreting so graciously and psychologically is so graphic in his mind!
  8. I'm reading and loving it! I'm not quite sure how to put it non-lewdly, but I'll take the one night stand! Not a suck in sight! I've had two now, so I went back for more, after all!
  9. Umm... yes...? I was originally inspired by your words to write what I did, even if it ended up being unrelated....
  10. Part 7 Mika Somebody asked Mika’s mother if he really still enjoyed receiving all those gifts. Surely by now he must be overwhelmed with the amount, and there was bound to be repetition that would have grown old by now. She said “No. He really does enjoy receiving them, and looks at them all and appreciates every single one.” Mika came into the room, and there was a general division into those who hung back and those who pushed forward. I had an insane notion that if I stayed back, he would find me, because he had to. I gave David the inset from a DVD, and he moved forward and got it signed. I had my precious moment of watching from a distance as my two tall slender favorite fellows were side by side. I have wanted to do a height and build comparison for a long time. I was sure that at the time of the Forum, when I stood next to Mika, that he was the same height as my son. Unfortunately ( ), David has kept growing, and is now several inches taller! LOL! And I don’t even know how tall David is. We haven’t measured him for a year or so! Probably well over 6’4. I saw Nico_Collard get her moment, and Happikali gave her necklace, and Chickadee pointed him in my direction. I don’t know why she gave up her moment to do that, and I can’t thank her enough while at the same time being so bewildered and overwhelmed. Chickadee I have a pm written to send to you as soon as you clear some room! Mika came towards me and smiled, and I showed him the picture I wanted him to sign. He was writing a message, and it seemed the moment went on forever. He was pushed close to me, and I was holding the picture steady so he could write on it. He kept writing, each word was so slow and careful, and I kept glancing at his face, and then down at his hand, and he had only written one word in all the time of my glance. As moments go, it went on forever, and I had time to really appreciate being so close, and the effort he was making. I was so worried, he was having to concentrate so hard to write each word, and I can’t imagine how he could be so tired and still be there for us. He finished, and said “I have to leave now”. I felt like I had taken far too much of his time and energy, and backed off so quickly I only then realized that I still had a gift to give him. I got John’s attention and handed it over, and then watched Mika make his slow way to the door, signing all the way. Annie was near me, and while she still had a journal in her hand for him to sign, she was not going to ask, and did not want him to exert himself anymore but he took it and signed it on automatic pilot. She said he was so tired the pen nearly fell out of his hand as he wrote. It seems I can’t write my emotions down. My feelings are very complex, between the caring love, and the admiration for all the aspects of him that I can glimpse. There’s awe and wonder and amazement, and none of that is new. How can a moment mean so much, a few words on a page, be so precious, and it’s not even that they are, it’s the memory they represent, and I don’t even need the tangible to keep or maintain the memory. Ok, think logically. The fact that I had a picture for him to sign gave me an excuse to be close and for him to spend time with me. He’s used to that, as witness Annie and the automatic pilot in him that grabs the thing to be signed and does the job. He was a little distressed at the Forum that the only things I had to get signed were for others, until I finally hunted up something that he could sign for me. So he thinks it’s important that we get the mementoes that we want. Whether we are trophy hunters or seeking a deeper connection, the time he spends with us gives us what we want/need. So the trophy hunters treasure the tangible, and the connectors treasure the time spent. Whether that’s enough is a decision for each individual, but I believe that it is more than enough, and the effort he makes is above and beyond any conceivable call of duty. The M&G is only a part of the whole experience for me but because I was physically close to Mika, and because he was focusing on writing a message for me, it overwhelms me more than most of the rest. But then I consider each part again, and I am not sure if even that is true. I spent the whole few days feeling more and more accepted by and connected to the people around Mika, more than to Mika himself. Yet I translate it into a Mika experience because that’s what makes it important to me. Yup, fangurl. The only thing that makes that in any way acceptable to me as appropriate behaviour is that everyone I interacted with so obviously had Mika as their own top priority and interest – professionally at least, that I did not feel rude. Also, I might have been feeling Mika obsessed, and my reason for speaking to them was because I am Mika obsessed, but usually other things were discussed first or solely. Hopefully that’s enough. It’s all I can do. Ok, I’m done. I’ve written forever, and my husband is starting to get restive. Perhaps I need to act like I’m home again!!!
  11. I have the same feelings about professional concert videos. The do all their fancy camera tricks to keep it 'interesting'. Don't they realise that as full screen picture of Mika as he moves and sings is all we really need!
  12. Egypt Man! I'm so slow, I've been appreciating your pictures and stuff and I've only just connected that you are the Matthew I chatted to for ages! And if you reveresed that sentence it would be just as true! I like both of your alter-egos! The two are one! Just like magic, the pictures side by side slide toegther to make the one person! Wow, and hi again!
  13. I just have to say, I really love your avatar! I've appreciated it for years now, so I'm finally letting you know!
  14. Thanks for your comment, I appreciate it. I'm still sitting here, not writing the important stuff. Owain's not Welsh? I really need to go and read that other thread so I don't get him wrong again, but I need to do this first... Soon...
  15. Thank you, Sariflor. I can't stop so I'm glad someone is reading. I can't cope with the next bit yet, so I'm delaying. Your feed back is helping me. My husband, before I left, said that he couldn't really understand the attraction of following a celebrity to this extent. Going to concerts and enjoying the music is fine, but why would you want to speak to them? They are just ordinary people. The point of music is that it's your interpretation that affects you, and the need to approach a celebrity just to say that you love their music and it changed your life, just seems strange when that's what everyone says, and it's not news to them! I know we are all seeking a connection to Mika, but if the end result is that we are all trophy hunters wanting his scalp in the form of an autograph, picture, or hug, then I agree with my husband. Leave the man in peace. I met some trophy hunters at Idol. They realised that I had beeen waiting there for hours, and eagerly damended to know who I had spotted, and how many autographs I had. When I showed them my Songs for Sorrow book with Mika's name on the front, they were shocked by my wierdness at not wanting any other autographs, and my supreme disinterest in Guy Sebastian, Michael Buble and the Idol contestants, most of whom I had seen. When Mika was about to enter the M&G and we were told not to take pictures, some MFCers behind me were very indignant at having their fun totally spoiled. I was a little abrupt with them and said they just needed to accept that it was so. I thought later how Mika had not managed to see everyone when there were no pictures to be taken. If there had been extra delays while he posed and cameras were checked, and pictures re-taken, only a very few would have got any contact in the time he was able to give us.
  16. Part 6 the Meet and Greet. John had said earlier in the day that the M&G would be held next to the bar at the front of the venue due to lack of room anywhere else. There were 15 competition winners who would also be there. Given that there were 42 of us, there was a very large crowd hoping to meet Mika, but they were mostly us! There were other people in the bar wearing after show tags, but they were sitting casually in nooks at tables and benches. I was puzzled at their unconcern until Annie pointed out that they were family and friends of the band. I spoke to Imma and congratulated her on an awesome performance. She was kind enough to say she had seen me in the audience, so I am very thankful I put in the (limited) effort in to watch her and show my appreciation! I spoke to Jimmy who said he recognized me from Sunrise, and he said they had really enjoyed doing the show. I spoke to John earlier in the day about my appreciation for him, and that I felt that at the Forum and this time he had been so kind to me, and I wanted to make him a gift, but I wanted to know what he would like. I said that if he took 3 years to come back I’d have a very long time to make it! He said he thought they would be back sooner than that! He said he needed to think about it. I asked his favorite colour, and he said he liked reddish things. If anyone else wants to make stuff for John, that’s your clue as to what he likes. I think he deserves a few more presents. I approached him again at the M&G and he said that if I really wanted to make him something, he knew what he wanted, and he told me. However, since I have a year or so to wait, and I don’t want to be the tenth person to give him such a thing, I’m not going to post it here! I will hunt up a John thread later and post there so when people look they can find the clue. Mika’s mother. Yes, I know her name is Joanie, but that seems too familiar and scary to say. Nor does Mrs Penniman feel right, as she is just too friendly for the formality. I have trouble with names. My usual compromise is to pay close attention to the person I speak to, and avoid using names! It’s a rude habit, but unavoidable for me, that also comes in handy when I do know the name, but am too awed to use it! She was talking to a group of people and I moved to be nearby. I caught the tail end of a sentence where she said “- but big girls are beautiful…” She said it perfectly simply and matter-of-factly and looked at me and opened her arms in a kind of embrace to the world, and glowed, and I thought she was so beautiful at that moment. In an earlier conversation, she said that her goal was to have an exhibition of art from Mika’s fans that travelled with them, so that everywhere there was a concert, there would also be an exhibition. I looked at her in amazement and asked if she knew how much effort and co-ordination that would take! She smiled at me, and said “I’ll make it happen!” It’s mind-boggling. The hassles of moving an exhibition from town to town, getting it suitably displayed for a usual travelling exhibition (of quilts, which is all I know about) which usually last a week or two, then packing it all up to arrive at the next place is nightmare of logistics and care for the people who have to co-ordinate it. To think of doing that for potential one night only displays is unbelievable. I can’t even think how it could be managed. By my calculation two or three could possibly leap-frog, giving each a day to be set up, a day to be seen and a day to be taken down and travel. Maybe she’s thinking smaller scale, and just planning on displaying a few things at the concert venue, but it really didn’t sound like that! However, I can’t think anything is impossible for this family! I’m up to Mika. But I can’t write it yet, so I digress. When I was in the concert venue, safely in the front row for the first time ever, I looked at Annie, and asked “How did I get here?” The whole experience has been just a build. Being in the front row of a Mika concert was more than I had hoped for. Last time I started in the second row and was pushed back to fourth row by the time he came on. So first row meant my whole trip had been worthwhile. My first approach to John was because I was desperate for some contact with Mika. So John recognized me the next time. There were few people there at Sunrise, so he appreciated the effort. So he chose me to speak to at the concert queue. I got to be hot chocolate girl. That alone would have been enough for me to say I had a fantastic concert experience. Separately, there was a first approach to Owain – made by Annie, because he was there, and she is friendly. This led to more conversations, which lead to the possibility of painting spheres with the family. Even the possibility, knowing that it had been real enough that he actually went and asked and came back with an answer-that would have been enough, if that was all. And it just went on, and on. I didn’t want pinching. I never want to be pinched again. Waking up can wait! This can’t have been real, because real is never this surreal! Movies are more real than this!
  17. Our dorm room was a happy place to be! Little groups formed of awake people who were too up to sleep, and we talked (especially me, I know) for far too many hours when sleeping would have been a more sensible option. It was just that there were so many of us, and so much to say! After the Forum last time, I was so overwhelmed with emotion that I could not post on MFC for about a week. This time I can feel the overwhelm just sitting there, waiting to happen, but I am postponing it until these reports are over, and I can go into shellshock wothout depriving MFC of my reports. I know they are far too long to be sensible, and I think the No pride, No Shame effect is still in operation for a little longer. I have read so many MFC concert reports over the years, and lived through them. Now it's my turn to write! On stage, his energy level, excitement and bounce just rivets me. In person, I get a huge sense of fragility. A lot of it is height and slenderness, but I can understand why so many people, and so many of his family have diverted their lives to support him. He has enormous talent and ability and is highly intelligent and capable, and all that - but... The expectations and demands on him are literally more than mortal man should bear, and anyone who loves him would be desperate to do whatever they could to make his path slightly easier. I don't know why I think he has it harder than other new stars. Actually, I do. Your average new pop star is a singer. They are being managed and directed to the nth degree by their professional handlers, but all (!!!) they have to do is cope with that. Their life is managed, but they never really have to think or organise. They suffer from lack of being control (being puppetted), but usually don't care as long as they can sing. A large number of them seem to be party people who like the glitz and the getting laid. I know they work hard, but they party hard too. Mika and his family are trying to do so much more, with this creation of the Mika world space and many other aims which are totally foreign to (and additional to, not replacing) normal media and popworld traditions. So he's got the extra battles to fight for every contrary thing he wants to do, as well all the things he can't resist being involved in, from stage setup, to theatre as part of the show, to costumes and fan art exhibitions, as well as his need not only for "me time" but artistic time. Every artistic friend I have starts going slightly insane as soon as they are deprived of time to be artistic. Yes, he's fulfilling the performance side of him when on tour, but there also needs to be time for journalling and doodling, and being. Maybe they have the expectation that as Mika becomes more well known and builds a big enough fan base they can start limiting the media commitments, because an album and tour will be promotion enough. I hope that day comes quickly! 13 hour non-stop days are not good!
  18. ok, I'm not done, but I am all done in. Sorry for those who have to wait, but I am swaying in my seat, and that's kind of a warning sign! Night!
  19. Part 5 The rest of the concert and after-thoughts Love Today. I don’t know what it is about this song. If I consider the words alone, I can never understand why I love this song so much. I say it’s because he varies it so much, putting in tricky intros, and inserting drum solos, but that’s only a reason because I need one. I just love it. I’ve heard /watched Mika perform this song countless times. Recently, he sometimes changes ‘Love Love Me’ to ‘Love Love You’ in an attempt to express his appreciation for his fans and audience. Once again I have not watched the most recent videos to know if he has increased how often he does it, but the times that I have heard him do it, he will sing ‘Love Love You’ a few times in the song, randomly changing where he inserts it. The full line is ‘Love love me, love love me, love love.’ We got a ‘Love Love You’ as part of the line every single time he did the chorus, and he sang the song for a good long time, enjoying himself thoroughly. Wow! We Are Golden – featuring the surprise tactics of our most rehearsed MFCers, which worked beautifully to bring a grin to his face. This was a song where he wanted us louder for the WAG line, and got it plentifully. My memory is failing me frustratingly. Somewhere before now he got us to crouch and jump, and we had a jumpy song. Which song? Can’t remember, but once he taught us how to jump we kept it as a feature. As an older person I was struggling with my inability to jump next to the railing without painfully banging my elbows, and I felt that if I moved back to avoid that, I would inconvenience the people behind me by losing balance and bumping them. So I compromised by bending my knees and fake bouncing. Annie (as a non-bouncer) said she got a free bouncy ride from all the activity and enjoyed it immensely! At various times I realized what a fantastic performance Imma was producing and tried to give her 30 seconds of my attention to show she was appreciated, before the Mika magnet sucked me in again. Imma said to Annie later that Mika was making unpredictable changes in most songs, and as the back-up singer she had to match him in activity level, but not out-do him, and match his vocal gymnastics with split-second timing. Part of that is working out which key he is in, and matching him. – Obviously a difficult task when he changes it for the fun of it through-out a song! She said he must have been on an all-time high, because she was really finding it challenging tonight to match him, he was doing and changing so much. She really is a great match for him, and is truly awesome! A couple of songs had complex clapping. Annie did it easily, but I get so lost I don’t even start. Blame It On The Girls is one, but there was also another where Mika and the band had a complex clap. I was just awed when part-way through a song, Mika did the complex clap against his microphone with his free hand, while never losing faltering vocally, nor bumping the mic enough to change his vocal sound. Maybe it was easy for him, but then lots of things are, that I’m just in awe of. Back to One Foot Boy – I adore the album version, with the complex layering of Mika’s voice. I have not seen a video of a live performance that I like. It’s so hard for that song to work, live. I thought he needed a choir to make it work, but the performance for us was all I could have asked for. I had read a report of a very recent concert where he got rave review for it, so I am hopeful he’s worked out the prefect arrangement, and I will get lots more concerts and videos that I can fully love for a favorite song. Encore – the band said goodnight, they all left, the room went dark, and we stayed wild. There was no wilder to go! They came back quite soon, with Toy Boy. We sang. Wow. Love that song. Yet another song with everyone singing all the words. Grace Kelly - It wasn’t possible but we sang more loudly, and bounced more, and went wilder. Maybe there were a few people I the crowd still to join in who only knew this song. Another glance back, at the total room full of people on their feet and waving their arms. He was enjoying himself hugely! He certainly looked as though he didn’t want to leave! Lollipop – they had 3 garbage bin drums and a band drum session. Mind-blowingly good. Big Balloons. They’d done confetti during Rain, so the stage had been a mess for a while… It was so hard to get the balloons back to the back of the crowd. Everyone seems to believe the band wants them back. Roadies and band were fully engrossed in getting the blasted things out of their faces! Mika picked up a balloon and deliberately targeted someone with a huge grin, so I hope they enjoyed that. I got the feeling they didn’t want the show to end. Mika said a little earlier that they had done one show and then f***d off for three and half years and it was amazing to get this reception on their return. Best gig of my life – I don’t need him to try to top it – it’s not possible. I only wish we had been able to video it all in HQ so I could watch it in years to come. I suppose we all wish that when we get a special one. This is the first time I have seen/heard a concert from an unscripted Mika. I could have done with even more speaking, but we were probably too noisy to make it easy. I did really appreciate the absence of the scripts I am used to. What we did get seemed spontaneous and natural. He is growing so much as a performer it’s amazing to watch. I mentally compare this concert to the days when he sang to Martin and ignored the audience, when ‘whore’ was a sly, shy moment, rather than a joyous confident claim. I am so pleased, and so proud of Mika. Wow. I’m losing coherency, and I’m not sure I’m adding value at the moment, so I’m going to get some sleep, and post about the M&G tomorrow, which was the icing on my cake – a cake already 3 stories high!
  20. Part 4 The concert. (What was sung and said and done) Relax – the spaceman arrived with a blaze of energy that inspired us for the rest of the night. I have no doubt that there were people who had never seen Mika perform live before who were taken to a different world at that moment of that first dash and arrival at the front of the stage. Suddenly he was there. Blazing is the word that seems right. He owned the stage from that moment and never let us go. Big Girl – it surprised me being so soon. Our girls (which includes all of them now!) did a fantastic job. I was so thrilled that our two newest ones got the chance and grabbed it. They sashayed beautifully, and it was so special watching big girls I knew and had queued with! Stuck in the Middle – One of my favorite songs ever. I love the song, I love how Mika plays with it and changes it and he varied it again slightly for us, making it very special for me. Dr John – Mika wore the orange feathered hat put it on and off, and at one point (not sure if it was this song or later) I was wondering if he was being tempted to throw it into the crowd, and had an idle thought wondering how hard he would find it to replace it! He was swinging it back and forth with a considering look on his face. .. Touches you – a new favorite of mine. I haven’t been watching the US concert videos, so I am not sure if it was new, but he made a gesture I had not read of in the reports. When he sang the chorus line of ‘Touching me, touching you,’ he touched his forehead, lips and heart, each time. Pick up off the floor – his first piano song of the day. With the piano right in front of me, I had the best imaginable view. The piano was turned enough so that he was almost facing me, and I could see a three-quarter face, and all of his body, just not all of his hands. He was so animated in the song, his face was making so many exaggerated movements as he was singing, so there are pictures of mouth wide open, others of tongue poking out, and he was still managing to sing every word. He seemed to me to be so fired up he could not contain himself to behave coherently. It was well beyond the usual level of ‘animated at the piano so the audience stays interested and involved’. One foot boy – The one foot boy sign was passed to Mika, and he passed it through his legs, slightly suggestively, with a wicked grin, from behind to the front, and then passed it back a little later. It was more suggestive than lewd in my opinion. He was making a gesture during the song that disturbed me, with a two finger gun to his temple, made with his hand flat against his cheek to not be very obvious about it. It was during the lines ‘Gonna shoot somebody Help me drive this craziness away’, which fits the lyric perfectly. Ok, I’m over being disturbed. It fit the lyric and I still love the song. Blame it on the Girls. – With great delight Mika divided us into two groups for a competitive sing-off. I thought he was looking forward to it, as we had already been amply proving our willingness to sing all night. No encouragement required! We did it twice, and it was clear that a little bit more warning or build up from Mika would be nice, as each time the team assigned to sing the first line was caught off guard, and floundered a little, letting the opposing team triumphantly sing much louder on the second line. Luckily the chorus repeats, and the first team could make a recover on the second pass. I was so pleased my team was voted winner twice, as we were definitely the side of the audience which was least inclined to jump and lean yearningly towards Mika with our arms outstretched. I felt the loudness of our singing satisfactorily redeemed our honor and asserted our commitment in a fully adult way (giggle). Happy ending – I was thrilled he included this song in our show as we had wanted it last visit, but been denied due to his lack of a backing singer. Imma was fantastic, the song was fantastic, wow. Billy Brown – it’s possible he was going to say something about the song before he started, as he often does, but he seemed to pause, and consider the volume of the audience noise, and just started playing the piano. From the first note, he had quiet, and then we sang. It was awesome. At the end, he did a finishing line about ‘Billy Brown broke his heart’, and I did a “huh, what? Now that’s a new twist on the story!” But he immediately went into the next song, and distracted me instantly. I See You – It really is the classic, perfect song for fans, who adore from afar, and are barely and rarely known. It doesn’t matter to me what his reasons were for writing it. At the time he sang it to me, it was my feelings he was expressing. Hard to keep still, impossible not to be totally engrossed in listening. Luckily the rest of the audience sang nicely and covered my silence. At the end of I See You, he moved to the piano for his next song, and said he had a confession to make. His band was going to laugh at him forever more, because he had made a gesture he had always mocked in others. He had thumped his fist on his heart twice then opened his arms to the audience. What was worse, he had done it twice! He then did it again at the piano to demonstrate what he meant. The band members were falling over themselves laughing at him. He looked up at us, and said “Way to spoil the mood!” Then he did the heart thump gesture as a parody of himself one last time. The band was still laughing. He glared at them, and looked at the keyboard, moved his hands a little, then looked up and said, “What’s worse is, I’ve forgotten what f***g key the next song is in!” He glared at his still laughing band, and said something about,”And they’re not helping me yet!” Martin was still laughing and moved fairly slowly and casually to his song list on the floor and glanced at it before telling Mika, “A flat” (Martin got it right – I may have got it wrong). Rain –It’s never been a song I like hugely, but it so works as a live song. Fabulous. Somewhere before now he introduced his band. He left Cherise until last, and then said “I’d like to introduce my drummer, Bang Bang!” Cherise threatened him with her drumsticks, so he relented quickly, and said her full name properly. This is all incredibly long, so I’ll post this far and carry on in yet another part. Thanks for your encouragement, because I feel like I’m writing far too much, but I can’t stop! I need to remember it all!
  21. Thanks Suzy. He's new to me, so I'll enjoy checking out his thread as soon as I finish my report marathon!
  22. Hi Annie - I'm so glad you posted! I'm just trying to gather my thoughts for what Mika said when, and all that, so when I get it wrong. please post again and fix me up!
  23. Part 3 The concert. (Overview) probably to be skipped unless you reallly do like detail! I thought today about how I had been speaking with everyone before the concert and I had total confidence as I assured them that this concert would be one of the very best of their life. Oh wow, was that ever true!!!!! The couch arrived on stage, and I enjoyed listening to the speculation about how Mika must be curled up in it ready to spring out at any moment. But he didn’t spring! There were mutters about how long it was taking him to leap out – but he didn’t. .. Soon the band gathered, and I enjoyed the interplay on the couch. The people behind me were so puzzled – they had no clue what it was all about. They were not MFCers, and it was fun listening to them being so confused. Then the spaceman arrived, and wearily took off his suit. He plodded offstage (from my POV) – the raised platform at the back extended off the side of the stage. Then he exploded onto the stage and dashed to the front and just went for it! The audience went wild, and it never stopped after that! Overview – Every now and then Mika kind of turned and looked and listened and blazed with joy as he took a moment to realize how much the audience was involved in the music. I also took a moment around then (but not at that precise time, so as not to miss his reactions) to turn and see the audience and see what he was seeing. It was incredible. (IMO, Aussie audiences generally make tough crowds. The front few rows get involved, but as you move back, even in the standing zone, the cool folk and non-dancers are just standing there and absorbing. And in the balconies, in the seated areas, there is no hope of much audience interaction. People in seats feel really constrained to sit still and behave themselves. An artist who can get any of the seated folk moving for longer than a few bars is extremely rare. Sometimes they manage a whole hit single of activity, but then the seats attract, and the folks sit down. ) At first, it was the standard result, but as the evening progressed, it very quickly became clear how contagious Mika is, and for the last few songs and the end it seemed ot me that the whole crowd was ecstatically on its feet and waving arms. And singing. I’ve never heard anything like it. From the beginning, every song, every word was being sung by enough of the audience to make it very clear to Mika and the band how well the entire crowd knew it all. I think it was Dr John that clinched it for me. It’s not being touted as a single, but it was the first song he played from the new album, and there was no lessening in the crowd volume at all!!! Same for Pick Up Off The Floor. If any two were going to be unknowns, I would have picked them. But everyone obviously loves them all. So we had the songs, where Mika and the band were louder than the audience singing, but if you really wanted to concentrate fully and totally on hearing Mika, a little bit of effort was required. (That includes the effort to escape the draw of the voices and the need to join in again and be involved in the joy.) And then he would finish a song and the applause would start, and it did not stop until he started speaking or the first bars of the next song began, and we waited for the right moment to begin the singing. And it was singing, except for where Mika deliberately raised our volume, and we had to be louder. He was using us as a strong backing voice for his harmonies and we did it! That seems rare to me, and it usually seems that when he starts to try the harmony, the audience tries to go with him, rather than supporting him. But we did it! He was braver with that more towards the end, as you would understand, but wow! And it’s not that the speaker volume was low. I was singing and screaming, and could only hear myself as a thin thread of sound. It was just the number of us involved that made us so loud. Have I said wow enough times yet? I usually spend the entirety of a concert being a silent, listening, engrossed person. I stand further back and listen. I don’t sing as my voice is appalling, and the more effort I put into singing, the less I seem to be able to pay real attention to the singer. This time, I lost all that. I just had this massive compulsion to show Mika every time he glanced my way that I knew every word, and was having the best time of my life. I screamed so much I have a sore throat and husky voice. And I still feel as though I lived every song with him and paid full attention to every word. The only song I managed to be mostly still for was I See You, and that was hard to do, but I needed to be able to remember that I had appreciated the song as much as I possibly could. I’m feeling overwhelmed at the memory again, and I’m not sure where to begin next, so I’ll post this and think some more.
  24. Ellenify, that is so amazing. I'm impressed with your being able to think coherently and make the most of your 2 minutes so unexpectedly. Well done for thinking! Blue Sky, I'm sorry. Real life got in the way. I've barely started writing the concert part, so it might take me another half an hour or so. I'm going to start straight away, so hang around if you can! And - I missed you. i was so hoping you would be able to make it to the concert... Going now...
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