Hi all! This is Jenniferb's hubby, Garth. I'm here to post all the pics we took of the SL show, with experiences, opinions, etc., which aren't necessarily the opinions of Jen, so take them with a grain of salt! It's also very long, about 2000 words, so hopefully it will feed your hunger for info!
I'm also a big fan of Mika, as are my kids, ages 4, 6, and 9. I call my wife a “groupie” in jest, but yesterday I realized that I'm a groupie groupie, since I just puppy-dog my groupie wife around with a camera and carry any extra stuff she happens to pick up along the way. But to be totally honest with you, I had just as much fun as she did.
We've been looking forward to this day for a long time, and did a bit of preparation to make it as memorable for the children and us as possible. We knew we couldn't take the kids to the concert itself, so I airbrushed Mika shirts for them to wear all day. We took them out of school that day, and stayed at a hotel the night before, which the kids always love. We then tried all day to get a Mika sighting, just for a photo op.
We've never been to In The Venue (ITV) before, and when we drove up to see how the line outside was progressing, we drove past the homeless shelter, and many shady places to get there. The building itself, from the outside, is a hole, and that's being overly complimentary. The neighborhood and the building were completely the opposite of what I thought decent enough to house a Mika concert.
While Jen waited in line outside she handed out a bunch of MFC hearts that she painstakingly cut out beforehand. I sat with the children in the van to keep them warm. From that vantage point I could see what was going on behind the scenes from the back door. I talked to some of the stage crew to find out where Mika was, and how the set up was going. Bad news all around. The band were all there, somewhere, but the equipment was in Wyoming. Because of the recent snow storms, I-80 was closed, and they were stuck. The opening band was even further behind! So their options were to either postpone the show, push it back until they could find equipment to rent, or do an acoustic show and give everyone a partial refund because they couldn't do the show they usually do. Luckily for us, they chose the latter. I saw a Modern Display truck pull up full of stage props, and a catering truck, then finally the Suburban carrying Mika and his mom, sister, and other folk. This was around 5:00 pm, and the line was getting long. I can't imagine the incredible pressure the whole crew was under, trying to get any kind of show on, and knowing that people were waiting anxiously outside in the cold.
We were fortunate enough to get inside ITV for a pre-show meet-n-greet with 20 or so radio contest winners. Now, as I said that the outside of ITV was a hole, unbelievably the inside was worse! What a dump! I don't know how they keep this place open. Filthy, cold, warehousish, with the charm of a soggy crumpled paper bag found at the bottom of a waste barrel. I mean, honestly, when I took my son to the restroom, I wouldn't let him wash his hands for fear of catching something unthinkable. But the restrooms were sparkling compared to how they were by the END of the show. Jen said there was raw sewage on the floor in the women's restroom. The place ought to be shut down!
We were seated on some hard floor-risers to wait for Mika. We sat watching curiously at the stage crew in an amazing fashion decorate and set up the stage. Simply amazing for the time they had and the challenges they had to overcome! The stage was very small, only enough room to sit the band members down to play, and nothing else. Despite the stress that I'm sure he was feeling, John, the show producer was extremely gracious and kind to us. My wife's a real charmer, so she got him to smile, and I got it on film (see below).
Mika finally came out and greeted us all. He was eating from a disposable bowl, and someone asked if he was eating ice cream, and he replied, “No, just some soup” which looked like some type of bow-tie noodle soup. I'm sure he was just trying to cram everything he had to do in the short time he had, including dinner.
Mika noticed my son's shirt and kindly pointed at him with a smile. When it was apparent that he wouldn't be able to migrate from the beginning of the seated group to our seat, I took the kids and walked up to him. My 4 year old girl had a sterling silver heart with the initials “B.F.F.” engraved on it that she wanted to give to him. So I picked her up, tapped Mika on his shoulder and told him that my daughter wanted to give him something. She handed the heart to him, and he graciously took the time to look at it, and in his British accent said, with a nice pause between each word as if he were trying to figure it out, “Best... friends... forever”, and he smiled and thanked her, to which she smiled shyly. He then allowed me to take a picture of them together, with Mika holding my daughter. Such a cute photo that will bring back many wonderful memories. We were all given a free CD of his album and we got him to sign it, as well as get a nice family photo. He talked a little more with the group, and then said that he'd better go get ready.
We took some more pictures of the stage being prepared, and of the kids and Jen, and then I had to run the children home (Sandy City, about 12 miles south of Salt Lake, thank goodness for freeways) before the concert started. Jen stayed there and was fortunate to watch Mika come out and do some sound checks on stage.
I returned with my sister-in-law to see the show (which was her very first concert at the age of 29, what a way to break her in!). On the way there we could see how long the line was... HOLY COW! It wrapped around to the next block, and was 3 people wide! I really wondered how all these fans would fit in the building. We got back in time to be 2 or 3 people from the front.We waited from around 7:30 till 9:15 when the show finally started. The crowd was extremely pushy, with a gaggle of dressed-up Mika uber-fans thinking they were the privileged ones trying to push their way to the front. They met resistance up to the point of being right behind me, and our group of MFC'ers stopped them dead in their tracks, and there they stayed annoying all who could feel their rambunctiousness and hear their screeches.
Being taller than most around me, I could see the crowd from above, and it looked as if everyone was floating in water, with waves of movement. We were so cram packed, that the flowing movement was quite involuntary. If a push started from the back, you could see the effects all the way to the front, where Char and her surrounding lucky ones were undoubtedly smashed against the unmoving steel barriers. You simply can't fall down, but you're gasping for air, and praising the Lord for every cold draft that wafts over the crowd from some invisible savior opening a back door. I'm thankful it wasn't hot outside too!
I looked up and saw that the balcony was filling up quickly, and my only thought was how old and decrepit the building was, and I imagined the beams holding up that floor crumbling. Morbid, I know, but I quickly looked for the closest exit just in case.
At one point, Andy, Mika's tour photographer, was shooting a camera in our direction and everyone waved their arms and screamed. The unfortunate thing is that afterwards I couldn't get my arms down because the crowd was so tight.
Another unfortunate thing was that most of us needed some gum... *whew*... inescapable bad breath abounds!
When Mika finally came out, the sea of people turned to a tsunami of screams that made Mika hold his hands over his ears, which he had to do several times during the show. He mentioned later how loud the crowd was, which only made them louder. I was sure my recordings would be all static-sounding because the decibel storm. I had soft foam earplugs in through the whole show, and it drowned the crowd out enough to hear Mika quite clearly, and I highly recommend them if you ever find your ears ringing after a concert. You won't miss a peep from the stage, and you'll enjoy the show so much better!
I now understand why so many Mika concert videos that people post on YouTube are so shaky. “Learn to hold that camera still, for crying out loud!” Remember that sea of people? Yeah, you have no control. When a beat picks up, so does the people storm. You're doing all you can to not get shaking camera syndrome.
Mika is an amazing performer. He has unbelievable stage presence for a young 24 year old, and his charm just takes over. And his band is just as charismatic. The stage was so small, it could barely hold all of them, and there was a lack of any accessories like the Lollipop Girls, and the Big Girls. There simply wasn't any room. Everyone stayed put through the whole show, with the exception of Mika. He got up and interacted with the crowd when he could, but he had to step over some of the equipment to do so. There was only one Mika jump through the show. I was disappointed that more hearts weren't held up during Love Today, which was the whole point, but now a thousand more people know about the fan club, so good publicity instead.
to be continued...
Nat, I thought you would LOVE it! Glad for you! The clothes were different for sound check, yes.