Hi everyone! PMD is finally setting in after an absolutely surreal two days. Here's a proper report for Monday ...
I got up and arrive at the venue around 8:30. No one in sight! Set up all my books and prepared to study for midterms (who was I kidding...) MFC crew showed up soon after and queueing began. It was pretty uneventful for the most part. We waved at Mama P and Yasmine who helped unload the choir outfits - I got to hold the door for them! Thomas came out to meet Mika around 4. He came down the sidewalk and asked how we were on his way into the venue.. It started raining in the evening (we wrote a song ) and around 6 they moved everyone into the bar area of Webster Hall to get us out of the rain. It was a clusterf___ for pretty much every reason but luckily MFC befriended the bouncer lady who made sure the order was preserved. Presale tickets were not a problem and soon we were inside the venue!
The stage was ridiculously close. I was on the left side in front of the four microphones set up (for the polka dot choir!). The photographers were chatty and told us they were annoyed about how small their pit area was! Ha! I wasn't complaining. (By the way, definitely check out the pictures on the NBC website - our friend did an amazing job!!).
Opening act was fun, one DJ and a very talented violinist. Both girls were energetic and the music was easy to dance to. At this point you could tell how excited the crowd was - even before they started playing people were screaming and cheering! The buzz was great. Also, really fun when they threw toy instruments into the crowd. Thanks for the kazoo! During the act, we could see the dressing room which was above the stage on the right side. Mika and someone else kept peeking out until they realized the audience could all see. We were all getting excited ....
Right after the band started playing Relax, Mika jumped on stage!!!!
He's HERE!!!
Ok here's where the report kind of devolves into me just barfing out what I remember....
The crowd was going CRAZY, Mika was FULL of energy - tons of eye contact, so much energy... KILLING IT! Relax was first, then Blue Eyes and Billy Brown. The shattered piano was right in front of us, and it was honestly used more as a prop than anything else. He played it during Blue Eyes and BB, but spent a lot more time dancing on top of it.
Curtis did piano, sax, clarinet and guitar... the band was really fun. Mika's still killing the band during Love Today, but Max's bit was really fun. At one point someone threw a bedazzled bowler hat on stage and Mika really lit up. He was also very chatty - talking about the new tour, how he was slutting it up doing promo in Europe, how much he loves the venue...
THE POLKA DOT CHOIR was fantastic! We had chatted with a few of the singers as they walked in earlier - but there they were, in those hideous polka dot robes! Mika really played with them, they all danced around during Celebrate (which was amazing) and sat on the stage for GK. They were all really energetic and added a lot. If anyone gets the chance, try and check out some of their tweets because it's obvious what a great time they had. Great idea team Mika!
For the encore it was Lollipop and WAG which is quickly becoming a classic of the show. Someone said that, the crowd just went bezerk when he played WAG. I LOVE IT.
Fantastic amazing perfect show. We hung around the merch stand (didn't get a picture but I can take a picture of my shirt ) and then hung around in the drizzle outside. The security people were shuffling us around on the sidewalk but finally Mika strolled out and greeted us. He was in a hurry (CNN in the morning!) but stopped and signed for a bit. My copy of Origin of Love is graced with a scribble.
Our friend had him sign a copy of something by Aristotle. He was laughing, and wrote "by Aristotle... and me!" then signed. Love it!
Night one was amazing. I took one pic from tonight ...
Thank you Mika!