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2022 - Centre Bell, Montreal - 25 April 2022 REPORTS/PICS/VIDS


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6 hours ago, cathouzouf said:

Can’t help with the keyboard player, was too far…

 

about the screens, he sais once that they were not working and later that he disn’t want them so it’s still unclear… nonethless, personally, I didn’t miss them, it made an arena show more intimate :)

 

Thanks! Well, from the video and his posts about the show I get the impression that he wasn't in top mood... not in a bad mood maybe, but if the screens weren't working, it's a possible explanation. Mika wouldn't be Mika if he didn't make the best out of it, like with the missing equipment at the Salt Lake City gig, and it can make a gig even better. As it seems that he kept talking about the screens, and first said they weren't working, I suppose that's the truth. Maybe we'll see at the other arena gigs, or maybe he decided he doesn't need them after all ... wouldn't it just take away attention from the beautiful light show? Those rainbow lights look stunning! :lustslow:

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Back to normal boring life today knowing it will be a few years until I see a Mika concert again. 😢Feeling some serious sadness mixed in with elation from being at such an incredible show. 
 

I think the best thing about this fan club community is finding people that understand. Other people in my life just don’t get it and think I’m a total weirdo. Ha ha. 
 

Sending the love to you all :group_hug:

Edited by NancylovesM
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7 hours ago, NancylovesM said:

Back to normal boring life today knowing it will be a few years until I see a Mika concert again. 😢Feeling some serious sadness mixed in with elation from being at such an incredible show. 
 

I think the best thing about this fan club community is finding people that understand. Other people in my life just don’t get it and think I’m a total weirdo. Ha ha. 
 

Sending the love to you all :group_hug:

 

We understand you perfectly. We all have those same feelings after a Mika concert. I think this is your thread right now:

 

 

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1 hour ago, mellody said:

Some videos on youtube, by user Sofiya Yuzeyeva:

 

Big Girl

 

Boum Boum Boum

 

Happy Ending off-mic

 

 

I did post one of Ice cream 2 days ago here (maybe it's on the first page)

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17 minutes ago, izabeil said:

 

I did post one of Ice cream 2 days ago here (maybe it's on the first page)

 

Yes, thanks, I saw them and reacted to your post. :thumb_yello: I just didn't have time yet to watch any full videos, neither yours nor the ones I've posted. Will try to catch up over the weekend.

 

About the screens, the way he said it in Big Girl (I saw a translation on Twitter) it sounded like he didn't mean a screen with his background animations like at Coachella, but screens that show him to the audience in the back. It's rare that he does these kind of screens, usually just at huge venues like Bercy, with 17,000 people. The arena in Montreal looked big, but not as big as Bercy.

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31 minutes ago, mellody said:

 

Yes, thanks, I saw them and reacted to your post. :thumb_yello: I just didn't have time yet to watch any full videos, neither yours nor the ones I've posted. Will try to catch up over the weekend.

 

About the screens, the way he said it in Big Girl (I saw a translation on Twitter) it sounded like he didn't mean a screen with his background animations like at Coachella, but screens that show him to the audience in the back. It's rare that he does these kind of screens, usually just at huge venues like Bercy, with 17,000 people. The arena in Montreal looked big, but not as big as Bercy.

Yes I agree, I’m not sure about the real reason for “no screen” 🤔

Bell Center, at full capacity, is very big (20 000) but for his show, Monday night, it was only half of it and not all the way up just the first section from the ground so I don’t know how many people we were 🤷🏻‍♀️Maybe something like 7 000 up to 10 000.

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6 hours ago, Mikasister said:

 

We understand you perfectly. We all have those same feelings after a Mika concert. I think this is your thread right now:

 

 

Thanks for this! You are right!!!! That is exactly what I’m feeling. PMD 💯 

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Thanks for everyone's helpful comments so far! I was a bit lost at the concert, being seated further back in the central section and not understanding everything he was saying in French. It didn't even occur to me to wonder about the screens, so large was his presence in the moment, but it did translate to me not having any good pictures or video of him on my phone.

 

I've written up something in English, but it's rather long, more like a philosophical article than a short gig report. I may try paring it down to submit for the 2022 yearbook next year. In the meantime, I will likely post it here once I've gotten it to satisfactory place. Words have always been my forte, not so much images. :dunno_grin:

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Okay, that didn't take too long! Here is my weird and wordy version of a report, for my first ever Mika concert. So much gratitude for being able to have this experience. :flowers2:

 

In order for the rite of Spring to be reborn, death also must be acknowledged. I was reminded of this truth when I first approached the Centre Bell in Montréal, a few hours before the show was set to begin. There were offerings of flowers heaped at the foot of a statue directly outside the building, and it took a moment before I realized who they were for: Guy Lafleur, beloved hockey icon, who had recently passed away. It was a hushed note to start on, for the otherwise celebratory occasion of the Rite of Spring, and the irony of his name (“The Flower”) was not lost on me, as I brought my own flowers indoors. 

 

I had put some thought into my outfit, after watching Mika’s parade of colorful clothing offset by white, and I definitely stood out in the crowd of concert-goers, topped by a glittering rainbow of flowers on my head that drew comments from a Québécoise behind me as we streamed into the venue. The two purple silk tulips I carried were an emblem not only of Spring but of generosity, as they had been delivered to me by a fellow fan several days ago, and were soon to be shared with another fan who had lost theirs earlier in the tour. As we stood together in the vast, misty blue bowl of the stadium, I was struck by how remarkable, yet how accessible, this whole situation was. Months prior, out of a haze of creative inspiration and curiosity about the singer who’d helped to inspire me, I’d bought surprisingly affordable tickets to what in my mind amounted to a once-in-a-lifetime, potentially spiritual experience, and I spent the following several weeks diving into the delightful community of fans and artists that he’s built up around him over the years.

 

A spiritual experience it did not quite turn out to be, despite the cathedral-like echoes and ethereal vocals of the impressive opening act, the Québec-born singer Klô Pelgag. She wore angel wings in feathered white, a sharp contrast to the black suit that Mika wore at the start of his show, peeled away one panel at a time to expose internal organs, muscle and bone. It was fitting, as my experience of Mika, underneath all the trappings of fame and glamour, was essentially a human one, and his music a celebration of all the emotional highs and lows of the human realm.

 

From “Lollipop” to “Origin of Love” to “Tomorrow” to “Relax,” I was enfolded in a warm cloak of the familiar adorned with flourishes of the unexpected. “It only took me fifteen years!” I found myself shouting to my partner at one point, referring to the first time I’d discovered Mika’s music, and the length of time it had taken me to catch on to the fact that he was a person, still living out loud, and not only a disembodied voice. It dawned on me that I wasn’t there just to receive, but to give, freely and joyously, of my own time, money, and energy, just as he gave of himself to his audience. It was a deliberate act of gratitude and of support for who he was and what he was trying to do, and yet… it felt charmingly simple. Not unlike his confession of locking the keys in the car the night “Grace Kelly” charted, weaving the sublime with the mundane. Missteps could be made, and it wasn’t the end of the world.

 

But magic began to creep in at the seams. I felt it when Mika expressed a desire to see us and to be seen, and before I knew it, he’d jumped off the stage partway through “Big Girl” and started frolicking through the aisles in his hot pink suit, illuminated by a spotlight that somehow managed to keep up with his brisk pace and bouncing steps. Standing where I was, right next to the aisle in the central section, he passed within a foot or two of me, and I was so tickled that I took off my mask for a brief instant so I could show him how broadly I was smiling. I don’t think he saw me, so focused was he on singing and staying on track, but I could see every detail, including the intensity of his eyes and the sweat-damp curls of hair that framed his face. Safely returned to the stage, he ended the song with a boyish upward swoop of his voice. Human, yet divine.

 

Collective magic came into being toward the end of “Underwater,” when he asked us to turn on our phone torches and light up the stadium as if we were stars numbering in the thousands, then to extinguish them at his bidding. Birth, and death. Building upon our synchronized movements, invoking us into planethood, he eventually brought us into a final, thunderous rendition of the chorus. My instinct was to harmonize, to not quite follow along with the crowd – a habitual quirk of mine – but it was beautiful to witness this thing that we’d created together, out of something as ordinary as our phones and our voices.

 

Other highlights came in short bursts. Mika shushing us as he went off-mike and sang the chorus of “Happy Ending” solo. Hearts formed out of hands silhouetted against the ever-changing colors of the stage backdrop. A moment when I could feel tears pricking my eyes and shivers rippling across my flesh in response to “Tiny Love,” and Joannie’s memory hovering over its reprise. Mika draping himself shirtless atop the piano, head lolling upside down to face the audience as he somehow kept dancing to the beat. A cascade of tulips, shaken over his body to the ground and tossed into the crowd, with one impishly thrown back into his face. (Three of them would eventually make their way into my hands, and into a vase at home, where they flourished in pale purple glory for several days). An improvised invitation to a singer-songwriter friend, Ariane Moffatt, to join him onstage for “Boum Boum Boum,” sung partly kneeling before her as if she were the only person in the world.

 

The end of the show snuck up on me, even though I’d gotten a sense of it after watching video clips from previous shows on the tour, posted by his most diligent fans. Donning his basket-woven crown and his cape of resistance, he came back to us for a couple of encores and ended on a golden note. “We are not what you think we are,” we chanted, and for another wistful moment, I could suspend my ordinary, everyday mind, and with the budding heart of Spring, simply believe in the magic.

Edited by Aki Celeste
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1 hour ago, Aki Celeste said:

“It only took me fifteen years!” I found myself shouting to my partner at one point, referring to the first time I’d discovered Mika’s music, and the length of time it had taken me to catch on to the fact that he was a person, still living out loud, and not only a disembodied voice.

Thank you Aki for your wonderful review. I read it with a smile on my face!

This what you wrote above really struck me, because to be fair I am not only fan of the voice; I am a fan of the person that he chooses us to see, and in a way, the part of him that he is. 
 

1 hour ago, Aki Celeste said:

he’d jumped off the stage partway through “Big Girl” and started frolicking through the aisles in his hot pink suit, illuminated by a spotlight that somehow managed to keep up with his brisk pace and bouncing steps.

You describe it so well. Because that is really exactly as it is!! 
 

1 hour ago, Aki Celeste said:

I could suspend my ordinary, everyday mind, and with the budding heart of Spring, simply believe in the magic.

So happy that this is your take home message! It’s true, simply believe in the magic ❤️

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1 hour ago, Aki Celeste said:

Okay, that didn't take too long! Here is my weird and wordy version of a report, for my first ever Mika concert. So much gratitude for being able to have this experience. :flowers2:

 

In order for the rite of Spring to be reborn, death also must be acknowledged. I was reminded of this truth when I first approached the Centre Bell in Montréal, a few hours before the show was set to begin. There were offerings of flowers heaped at the foot of a statue directly outside the building, and it took a moment before I realized who they were for: Guy Lafleur, beloved hockey icon, who had recently passed away. It was a hushed note to start on, for the otherwise celebratory occasion of the Rite of Spring, and the irony of his name (“The Flower”) was not lost on me, as I brought my own flowers indoors. 

 

I had put some thought into my outfit, after watching Mika’s parade of colorful clothing offset by white, and I definitely stood out in the crowd of concert-goers, topped by a glittering rainbow of flowers on my head that drew comments from a Québécoise behind me as we streamed into the venue. The two purple silk tulips I carried were an emblem not only of Spring but of generosity, as they had been delivered to me by a fellow fan several days ago, and were soon to be shared with another fan who had lost theirs earlier in the tour. As we stood together in the vast, misty blue bowl of the stadium, I was struck by how remarkable, yet how accessible, this whole situation was. Months prior, out of a haze of creative inspiration and curiosity about the singer who’d helped to inspire me, I’d bought surprisingly affordable tickets to what in my mind amounted to a once-in-a-lifetime, potentially spiritual experience, and I spent the following several weeks diving into the delightful community of fans and artists that he’s built up around him over the years.

 

A spiritual experience it did not quite turn out to be, despite the cathedral-like echoes and ethereal vocals of the impressive opening act, the Québec-born singer Klô Pelgag. She wore angel wings in feathered white, a sharp contrast to the black suit that Mika wore at the start of his show, peeled away one panel at a time to expose internal organs, muscle and bone. It was fitting, as my experience of Mika, underneath all the trappings of fame and glamour, was essentially a human one, and his music a celebration of all the emotional highs and lows of the human realm.

 

From “Lollipop” to “Origin of Love” to “Tomorrow” to “Relax,” I was enfolded in a warm cloak of the familiar adorned with flourishes of the unexpected. “It only took me fifteen years!” I found myself shouting to my partner at one point, referring to the first time I’d discovered Mika’s music, and the length of time it had taken me to catch on to the fact that he was a person, still living out loud, and not only a disembodied voice. It dawned on me that I wasn’t there just to receive, but to give, freely and joyously, of my own time, money, and energy, just as he gave of himself to his audience. It was a deliberate act of gratitude and of support for who he was and what he was trying to do, and yet… it felt charmingly simple. Not unlike his confession of locking the keys in the car the night “Grace Kelly” charted, weaving the sublime with the mundane. Missteps could be made, and it wasn’t the end of the world.

 

But magic began to creep in at the seams. I felt it when Mika expressed a desire to see us and to be seen, and before I knew it, he’d jumped off the stage partway through “Big Girl” and started frolicking through the aisles in his hot pink suit, illuminated by a spotlight that somehow managed to keep up with his brisk pace and bouncing steps. Standing where I was, right next to the aisle in the central section, he passed within a foot or two of me, and I was so tickled that I took off my mask for a brief instant so I could show him how broadly I was smiling. I don’t think he saw me, so focused was he on singing and staying on track, but I could see every detail, including the intensity of his eyes and the sweat-damp curls of hair that framed his face. Safely returned to the stage, he ended the song with a boyish upward swoop of his voice. Human, yet divine.

 

Collective magic came into being toward the end of “Underwater,” when he asked us to turn on our phone torches and light up the stadium as if we were stars numbering in the thousands, then to extinguish them at his bidding. Birth, and death. Building upon our synchronized movements, invoking us into planethood, he eventually brought us into a final, thunderous rendition of the chorus. My instinct was to harmonize, to not quite follow along with the crowd – a habitual quirk of mine – but it was beautiful to witness this thing that we’d created together, out of something as ordinary as our phones and our voices.

 

Other highlights came in short bursts. Mika shushing us as he went off-mike and sang the chorus of “Happy Ending” solo. Hearts formed out of hands silhouetted against the ever-changing colors of the stage backdrop. A moment when I could feel tears pricking my eyes and shivers rippling across my flesh in response to “Tiny Love,” and Joannie’s memory hovering over its reprise. Mika draping himself shirtless atop the piano, head lolling upside down to face the audience as he somehow kept dancing to the beat. A cascade of tulips, shaken over his body to the ground and tossed into the crowd, with one impishly thrown back into his face. (Three of them would eventually make their way into my hands, and into a vase at home, where they flourished in pale purple glory for several days). An improvised invitation to a singer-songwriter friend, Ariane Moffatt, to join him onstage for “Boum Boum Boum,” sung partly kneeling before her as if she were the only person in the world.

 

The end of the show snuck up on me, even though I’d gotten a sense of it after watching video clips from previous shows on the tour, posted by his most diligent fans. Donning his basket-woven crown and his cape of resistance, he came back to us for a couple of encores and ended on a golden note. “We are not who you think we are,” we chanted, and for another wistful moment, I could suspend my ordinary, everyday mind, and with the budding heart of Spring, simply believe in the magic.

Aki that is a beautiful review, and so evocative! It reads like a professional article. Thank you! 😍

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On 4/28/2022 at 10:17 AM, Aki Celeste said:

So much gratitude for being able to have this experience. :flowers2:

 

The gratitude keeps multiplying, as I catch up to the various recordings of this magical concert. Some of them were made by my partner, who has been ever so patient and supportive with my Mika obsession over the past year or so. There are others out there of better quality, but I think these are worth sharing just because they illustrate how versatile Mika can be, even in a huge echoey space like a hockey stadium. Especially when he went off-mike - it was amazing to me that we could still hear him from as far back as we were seated!

 

So here are a couple of the videos (again, please excuse the sub-par visual quality):

 

 

 

 

 

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So this is not going be nearly as eloquent and poetic as most of the other reports, but I thought I would share anyways!

The best way I can describe my first Mika concert experience is "deer in headlights", it was like my brain and my senses just could not process what was happening, and how I ended up at that concert in Montreal! The backstory is that my husband and I were supposed to see Mika in Toronto, but ended up with Covid that week, and could not go! I was absolutely devastated, in addition to being so rundown and having the most massive Covid brain fog. After the most miserable Easter weekend, we somehow decided to check for Montreal tickets, and managed to find the last 4 tickets together (because we do not have anyone to leave our 8 and almost 5 year old daughters with), and decided to make the road trip all 4 of us on the Monday of the concert and back on Tuesday! The whole experience was absolutely surreal and went by so fast, I wish there was some way I could go back and relive the night in slow-mo. At one point, my little one ended up falling asleep on me, the poor thing could not handle all the excitement either; earlier in the show, he had pointed at her as he looked in our direction during Underwater, exactly as he was singing "Now I know you're amazing"! Other than that, it was all one big blur, and before you know it, we were walking back to our hotel not knowing what just hit us :) I did not take any pictures or videos, I was just mesmerized by seeing him so close, though unfortunately our seats were to the very side of the stage, so I couldn't really see his face and his expressions full on. Waking up the next morning, all I could think was that I want to see him again! I know I am being greedy, and I am so beyond thankful that we somehow still managed to see him, but I want more :cloud: I keep checking for London (it's the only realistic one for me in terms of timing and everything), hoping some lone ticket will show up, but no luck so far... In the meantime, one can only dream, wait for the next time, and relive the night through the videos of thankfully less frazzled fans who had the sense to record it :blush::lol3: My only regret is not being able to meet any of the MFCers, which I think would have been easier in the smaller Toronto venue, but hopefully next time...

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Oh @Maha J, I loved reading your review just as much as I did the others. I'm glad you could make it to the Montreal show (the stars aligned with having 4 seats in a row!) and that you could take your children with you. 

I have to say, your children are awesome. I have little ones in the same age range and I am not sure if they would sit through an entire concert with me :aah: Not because they wouldn't be brave enough, but I'm "deer in headlights" too at a concert and I would definitely NOT be able to properly respond to the usual "I'm thirsty", "I'm hungry", "I have to go pee", "I'm bored" :lol3: so I would say hat off to yours :thumb_yello:

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11 minutes ago, holdingyourdrink said:

Oh @Maha J, I loved reading your review just as much as I did the others. I'm glad you could make it to the Montreal show (the stars aligned with having 4 seats in a row!) and that you could take your children with you. 

I have to say, your children are awesome. I have little ones in the same age range and I am not sure if they would sit through an entire concert with me :aah: Not because they wouldn't be brave enough, but I'm "deer in headlights" too at a concert and I would definitely NOT be able to properly respond to the usual "I'm thirsty", "I'm hungry", "I have to go pee", "I'm bored" :lol3: so I would say hat off to yours :thumb_yello:

Haha thank you so much :) I may have given them a little lecture on the way there about how this is import to Mom, so please no complaining during the concert :lol3: But the thing is they love Mika too, and my little one was the first one to stand up and start dancing when he got on stage (sadly though, I did not take a video of that either!), so they were just as excited as I was! My 8 year old kept saying: I can't believe I am only 8 and I get to go to a Mika concert! They did great on the 5 and a half hour drive to Montreal too, which we were absolutely shocked about (the drive back though was a different story :lol3:). Overall they really surprised us, and it was so nice to share that experience with them, but if I somehow manage to make it happen for another concert, next time will be just for me, no distractions! :yes:

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52 minutes ago, Maha J said:

They did great on the 5 and a half hour drive to Montreal too

Your kids truly are out of this world cool :lol3::thumb_yello:

And to enjoy a concert by yourself without distractions is also really very nice. Then you will also be able to meet and talk to other MFCers! When you are there with the family, it is a lovely experience, but a very different one. 

So what I'm trying to say is: come to London! :lol3: Closer to the date I am sure people will sell their leftover tickets, which doesn't help, because I know you need to plan now and book flights (and have that concert ticket in hand already!), but it's pretty much always the case that there are some sold here through the MFC.

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2 hours ago, Maha J said:

keep checking for London (it's the only realistic one for me in terms of timing and everything), hoping some lone ticket will show up, but no luck so far..

 There are level 2 standing tickets on the Roundhouse website that are still available!

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1 hour ago, holdingyourdrink said:

Your kids truly are out of this world cool :lol3::thumb_yello:

And to enjoy a concert by yourself without distractions is also really very nice. Then you will also be able to meet and talk to other MFCers! When you are there with the family, it is a lovely experience, but a very different one. 

So what I'm trying to say is: come to London! :lol3: Closer to the date I am sure people will sell their leftover tickets, which doesn't help, because I know you need to plan now and book flights (and have that concert ticket in hand already!), but it's pretty much always the case that there are some sold here through the MFC.

That's what I am hoping for in terms of tickets. And yes, you are absolutely right, it is definitely a different experience with the family, and I am very grateful that I was able to have it, but I would also love to have a solo experience and meet some of the other MFCers . I would for sure be able to also let go a little more when I don't have to have my mom hat on (and my husband telling me that I am like a "giddy 12-year old" :lol3:)
@TinyLove_CJ, I did see the Level 2 standing tickets, but I wasn't sure how far those would be, and how it would be for me to queue by myself... I am waiting in the hopes of maybe a good seated ticket (not sure how realistic that is), as it's going to be pretty expensive with flights and hotel and everything, and it would be disappointing if I ended up in the back with a blocked view (especially being a little vertically challenged :lol3:). There are a few resale seated ones on some site (viagogo?), but I am not sure how legit that is. We will see, if it's meant to be, it will happen, just like Montreal! 

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