MIKA @ Le Poisson Rouge, NY - June 23 2009 - reports, photos and videos

Gig report...umm...what Mana said.

It's been said many times but I cannot stress how intimate this gig was. I too wondered if Mika didn't bolt from the celeste because two drunk girls were virtually climbing into his lap. I am not exaggerating when I say I was sitting on the stage at one point with my back against the celeste and the girls were on the other side no more than 6" away from the stool. It was NUTS!

During My Interpretation I used one of the balloons like an exercise ball to make a little lounge for myself on the stage right in front of the piano. As close as I'll ever come to actually draping myself across the lid of the piano, although I can't say the thought didn't cross my mind.

We had fun during Rain because he was counting on diehards to sing for him since his voice was flagging at that point and not everyone in the audience knows the words like they do Love Today or Grace Kelly. I think we'll sound especially horrendous in Sara's videos because he wanted us to sing loud.

The stage invasion was a bit of a non-event for me. I could see clearly that Mika was signalling for Mana repeatedly but I couldn't quite process it. The stage was so small and I knew once people started going up there would be no stopping them yet really nowhere for everyone to go and dance. As Sara said she finally decided to go for it and up we all went because what else could we do once it started?

I had left my bag against the celeste so I needed to grab it so my cell phone wouldn't be trampled and I stepped back so people could get up. I knocked some equipment near Alexander and by this time I can imagine all the musicians were getting a bit freaked out so I just apologized and stayed where I was because it was so crowded. Next thing I knew Mika squeezed his way off stage and security booted us off.

This show was extra special for me because Mika was really relaxed and seemed so happy. He was very tense for the first few songs in LA and because the set was so short felt as if the gig was almost over before he began to loosen up. London was wonderful but again he seemed a bit nervous and formal.

When Mika came on stage last night he was smiling within the first 5 seconds and I knew it was going to be a fantastic night. All the ingredients were there. The super intimate venue, happy relaxed Mika, a full set, a great ensemble, wonderful acoustic arrangements and an audience that was up for it from the words "Do I attract you?". It was a fan's dream come true.

thanks for the report christine. wow, that stage must have been really small

I've been wanting to post again all day about yesterday's "Mikasperience" but my husband and two teenagers have been around rolling their eyes at me for just wanting to do so! They think it's terribly immature!!!

In the meantime, there have been many fantastic descriptions of the show, so there's not much left for me to say except to repeat that it was GREAT. It was fantastic to see so many MFCers that I recognized from earlier shows, including DC Deb, Titty, lovelovemika, JackViolet, Holly. It was great being right behind Vero and Dani on the line, sticking with them through the melee of entering the venue's main space! It was fun to meet people I've only seen "on line" too -- Suzy (thanks for keeping the list), Sivan, Sariflor, Kath, Christine, Mana, foalbaby, and thank you musicfreak for helping me with my charm bracelet! Standardtoaster deserves a lot of appreciation for his "crowd control" efforts.

I was standing front and center just behind Jack and -- unless I'm totally oblivious -- the other audience members nearby seemed pretty well-behaved. Well, there was a little touching of Mika's hair to the right of us...

Unlike at Terminal 5 (where I thought it was terrifying), the stage invasion was fun because the stage was so low and there were no barriers. Even a short, middle-aged woman like me could get up there without difficulty and I was shocked to find myself literally right behind Mika, at times having to grab his waist for support! That was the moment when I felt awful about the age restriction for the show because I wish I could have shared it with my 16-year-old daughter who turned me on to Mika in the first place.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the next NYC show!

It was so nice meeting you and thanks for your useful information about the area! We would've been lost! I'm glad you got on stage, I think it was the highlight of the evening:naughty: for me anyway.

I got a video of the Stage Invasion...it's a little bouncy so if you have motion sickness (this is not zoomed in btw)

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/video/video.php?v=1021203188535&ref=nf

I'll try to get it on youtube tomro

My Lady Jane video.

My Lady Jane video.

 

I've been waiting for this video! I looove the harmonizing in this song....Thank you!

Haha I just realized i'm right behind you...when you turn around

I haven't had time to edit the photos yet, so I'll give you three unedited ones as preview!

 

http://i684.photobucket.com/albums/vv201/JackViolet/Mika%20NY%202009/DSCN2964.jpg

 

http://i684.photobucket.com/albums/vv201/JackViolet/Mika%20NY%202009/DSCN2958.jpg

 

http://i684.photobucket.com/albums/vv201/JackViolet/Mika%20NY%202009/DSCN2974.jpg

 

--Jack

wonderful pics, Jack! thanks a lot!

I've been waiting for this video! I looove the harmonizing in this song....Thank you!

Haha I just realized i'm right behind you...when you turn around

Heya! The harmonies are wonderful, aren't they.

Oh, and I hope I didn't stomp on your toes (or cheeseygoodness' toes!) during the gig. I was trying to stay low enough so that you gals could see - and to do my fangurling in a way that didn't involve your toes getting smooshed.

Thanks for the hug advice (and all the welcomes!). If/WHEN I go to another show of his (I'm hoping he'll be back in NYC when the CD comes out?), I may have to ask for a hug. He just makes me so utterly happy - his music, his art, his personality.

 

In a desire to get something up, period, I posted my uncut photos on Facebook. It's in a public album, so check it out!

 

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2306969&id=11802773&l=de452e0d27

 

I have 9 videos too, that hopefully will get posted by the weekend.

 

I have to say that I love the carefree moment in this shot.

thank you very much! nice pics!

My Lady Jane video.

 

Mana! this video is.....is....amazing!!!! thank you very much for posting it!

Part 5 – The finer details

Okay, now that I’ve gushed about the gig itself – time to start from the beginning. I got to the venue around 9am with Suzy, Closetmikafan (Ryan), Christine, Sariflor (Sara) and StandardToaster (Andrew). Sivan was already there, along with HollyD and Lucy – you girls are freakin’ mental! You’re both super sweet and super fun…but queuing since midnight? That’s not a necessary sacrifice, girls, that’s self-torture. To everyone else – these two are nutters. Don’t think that for future gigs, you have to turn up by 3am to get a good spot.

By around 10:30, there were about twenty people in the queue already. Someone had tweeted at Mika about HollyD and Lucy having been there since the wee hours, and as everyone knows, Mika tweeted asking for a pic. Christine, Sara, Andrew and I were just finishing breakfast so we chugged our tea/lattes and went back to the venue, where Ryan took a nice pic and had Andrew upload it using his handy Macbook that he just happened to have with him. Mika replied with “Wicked! Gonna send you a surprise! X” He’s so sweet. I could just imagine him sitting there on a tarmac in Montreal, checking Twitter on his iPhone, seeing twenty diehards – many familiar faces – waiting for him in New York City.

And you know, that’s part of this whole crazy Mika world. A big part. I mean, I spent 4,000 words in parts 1-4 gushing about how fan-freakin’-tabulous Mika is. But the thing is, for me and I think for a lot of us, it’s not even just about him any longer. His music is a sort of filter and only a very small portion of his overall fanbase end up at this level – where we follow every minor development with his career, jump on trains and planes to see him where possible, and spend hours on end yammering on MFC. But for those of us who find ourselves in that position, I’m really seeing what a great common bond this all is. We can be from totally different walks of life, live in totally different corners of the globe, speak different first languages, be any age from about 12 to over 60 – and yet the fact that we “get it” somehow lays the groundwork for some really great friendships. And that’s one of the really great, magical things about this whole Mika world. That’s why I’m so invested in MFC. That’s why, at the end of a long MFC day dealing with broken porn servers and trolls, it’s all so worth it.

My advice for anyone going to a future gig, especially these GA gigs – feel free to ask the people in the queue around you if they’re MFC, and if so, what their usernames are. We spend so much time on here behind usernames that often in real life, there’s some shyness that comes up when you realize that you may have spent the better part of a year talking online to the person next to you…but in real life, you have no clue who they are. So, by all means, ask! Sure it’s sappy, but just as we’re lucky to have Mika, we’re lucky to have each other.

Anyhow, back to gig day. The venue had put up barricades to ensure our queue didn’t prevent passersby from being able to use the sidewalk, so we moved our little campsite back toward the wall. It was a really great day for queuing, being overcast but not cold, with a slight breeze. As much as I like the fact that reserved seating is stress-free, I do enjoy getting to know MFCers better in these queues which have become almost legendary in their own right. JackViolet decided my outfit wasn’t complete without a necklace, so borrowing silver and red glitter pens, she drew one on me! So cool. Things like that just don’t happen, unfortunately, at reserved gigs.

And then, at 4pm on the dot, Mika’s ice cream truck arrived.

Andrew and I arranged with the ice cream truck staff that they would check everyone’s hand for a queue number, in order to separate Mika fans from random passerby on the street, giving Mika fans free ice cream and obviously charging random people who just happened to fancy an ice cream - another upside to the numbering system. Fortuné and Zuleika came out, and Fortuné spoke to Andrew and I, concerned about how we were separating Mika fans from everyone else, and we explained the whole “Mika fans have numbers denoting queue placement” thing. Relieved, Fortuné then asked, “okay, but then for us…can you give us numbers, so that we can get some ice cream?” I had to choke back a giggle. I mean, this guy has an all-levels, all-venues access pass, and yet he’s totally deferring to us for this ice cream situation, asking for a sharpie number on his hand. I love that about Mika’s family. I’ve never gotten an entitled, “don’t you KNOW who I AM?” vibe from any of them. Andrew then worked out an arrangement with the ice cream vendors that in addition to queue numbers, those with all-access passes would also get free ice cream.

I still can’t believe that Mika does things like this for his fans. His level of empathy is just astounding. We get him – but he “gets” us, too. At some point it must have crossed his mind just how heartwarming it would be to be a fan outside a venue, and have the artist you’re waiting for send you a little something to make the wait more bearable. I love that. And, this wasn’t cheap, crappy ice cream – this stuff was amazing. It was organic, made with real ingredients – eggs, milk, cream, natural flavours. No “mechanically separated, modified milk ingredients” for us! The sign on the truck indicated that a single cone was something like $7 each, so that right there gives you a sense that Mika hooked us up with the good stuff. It’s not even about the cost, though, because I wouldn’t be surprised if Mika spends more on giant silver balloons in one evening than to get his fans ice cream. It’s the empathy, the understanding, the fact that he took time out of his life to, even for a moment, put himself in our shoes and understand what would mean a lot to us. He has such a huge heart.

Toward the end of the queuing adventure, Fortuné came out again, this time with Alexander in tow, to work their way up the entire queue making sure everyone who wanted ice cream had gotten some. Mika’s mum even came out at one point, telling us we were welcome to have seconds, if we’d like. So sweet. It’s stuff like this that really pickles our brains. I mean, we’ve got Mika arranging for us to have ice cream, his immediate family coming out to make sure that we’ve been taken care of in that regard. How can anyone not feel utterly warm and cared for in such a sweet, benign little corner of the Mika world? I love it.

As for the venue, the security were very good, once they realized that the system we had in place was reasonable, fair, and would in fact make less work for them in the long run. The head security guard worked with Andrew quite a lot, explaining what would be needed in terms of timing and such, and working to ensure the queue didn’t block the doors of the neighbouring CVS drug store. The only flaw was this: the venue decided that around 8pm, about an hour before the doors to the Mika gig, they would move the first 150 people in the queue down into the bar, a separate enclosed room with a set of doors leading to the actual venue space. When they told Andrew and I this, I envisioned rope stanchions directing people into a single file line beginning at the actual venue door. Unfortunately it didn’t go like that. They simply led our orderly queue into the venue where any hope of a single file line went to hell when it became clear there wasn’t even half the space necessary to keep the line single file. Everyone herded up toward the door, and Sara, Andrew and I did what we could to ensure people with numbers in the 60+ range weren’t among the people milling around the door. To security’s credit, they tried to honour what we’d arranged, but there was no point in them barking at people to form a single file line when there wasn’t the physical space to actually create such a line. Admittedly, we should have just kept the queue outside until they were actually ready to have us enter the venue space. Another lesson learned. They did, however, check numbers as people were going in – that looked like it worked for at least the first 30-40 people; hopefully, beyond that as well.

I’m personally in wub with this next little anecdote, so pay close attention, y’all. Hehe.

While we were in the bar waiting to be let in, Andrew noticed an elderly lady near the venue doors, looking somewhat lost. Feeling a bit sorry for her in the chaos of the bar, Andrew went up to her and asked her if she’d like him to get her some water or anything. She said she was fine, but that she couldn’t find the person she was looking for who was supposed to get her a seated place inside. After getting her to describe the person she was looking for, Andrew goes “wait… you mean, Fortuné?”

And the elderly lady goes “Yes! He’s my grandson.”

The elderly lady who Andrew went to help turned out to be none other than Mika’s maternal grandmother! Obviously upon hearing that, Andrew got in contact with the head of security and made sure she found Fortuné and was escorted to the VIP seating area. *melts* Never fear when the MFC mod/admin team is on the case!

Then – the gig. And, well, you all know how that went.

After Mika left, we all milled around for a while. That happens a lot. In the absence of a last train to catch or a ride waiting, people often mill about even after Mika has left because it’s just hard to walk away after such a high. Mommylovesmika gave us some restaurant recommendations (thank you!), so we went off in search of a 24 hour Chinese place called “Wo Hop.” It was about a twenty minute walk from the venue, at 1:30 or 2am, in the rain, through the streets of Manhattan – but, we found it, and 9 of us went to eat. It was nice to spend a little more time with my lovely MFCers, re-hashing the gig and enjoying each other’s company. By the time we left it was something like 3am. Oh – and walking back, I saw a rat! See, rats are banned in Alberta, where I live – the province eradicates them with SWAT Team-like force whenever they’re discovered. So, I was quite excited to see one in the “wild”, having never seen one before. Heh. I wasn’t so excited, however, about the massive cockroach that would have nearly been large enough to sit across the mouth of an average-sized shot glass. Don’t have those in Alberta, either. Thankfully. Part of the NYC experience, I suppose!

Saying goodbye is always tough. To everyone I met (or met again!) in New York – thank you. JackViolet, Christine, Sariflor, Sivan, Casiopée (who now has her username fixed!), Sunshine931, foalbaby, musicfreak, cheesygoodness, thatpinksock, HollyD, Lucy, Candboys, and anyone else I’ve forgotten – thank you. This whole thing really would not be the same without fellow MFCers, people of the same mindset, to share it with.

I think i will write a report since I'm waiting for my videos to load on YT.

Here is the link, you can keep checking back, i have several vids.

http://www.youtube.com/user/JemappelleCynthjoyce

The videos are uploading slowly but they are uploading. I've been working it at off and on all day its rather new to me so hopefully there are a few when i post this.

Picture uploaded on page 10

ps. forgive the singing... I had a vodka and red bull thanks to Standardtoasters suggestions and i drunk sang my way through the concert. I didn't even feel the bruises i had acquired until this morning.

I'm really rusty at this, i haven't written a report since '07.

So..I convinced my friend Esther to come with me to the concert the day before hoping to convert her to into a fan. Sadly, i couldn't convince her to get up early to queue for the show. We had a plan to join Lucy and Holly at 12am or maybe 3-ish but it fell through due to lack of sleep over the weekend.

Anyways, we got there at 11 or 10:45am,( I'm not sure, i think the latter) and were surprised to see that there were so few people in the queue. We were only number 25 and 26 in the queue, which made us feel a lot better about sleeping in. Still, Lucy And HollyD you are amazing! (Do decadent titles get placed for earliest in the queue? Just checking )

We waited in line for about an hour and a half and just chatted with fans passing by, Natalie and Lilly (which was pure fun! You girls are sweet) and people asking about every 10-15 mins "who we were waiting for?" followed by "who's is Mika?" It's surprising all the various ways you can answer that question.

After about another half hour of chatting, Lily and I lost Esther and Natalie to Kenny's Castaways, a bar across the street from the venue. After another hour of having very enjoyable conversation with Lily( you were great) i joined them to kill some time. i have to say, there should always be bars across the street from venues. This was a first for me and made the time pass very quickly. There was even enough time to get back in line and sober up.

I was still really surprised at how short the queue was even after 3pm. I guess i just imagined that New York fans would have turned out sooner. Then i equated it to the age limit. Otherwise, I'm almost sure we might have been at the back of the line by the time we arrived. I'm referencing this from my Good Morning America experience though, so...who knows.

Anyways, after two more hours of interchanging drinks and good laughs with Esther and Natalie the ice cream van pulled up and we thought that it might be important to sober up a bit before pigging out on ice cream. Ok....this is boring blah blah blah... fast forward to letting us in the venue.

Oh, just wanted to say that it was very nice to have Fortune and Mama Penniman come around to make sure everyone got ice cream in the queue. I don't know what the situation was but i was sufficiently stuffed. We recently had pizza, long with the ice cream about an hour before. I dont usually overdose on ice cream unless i'm depressed. Haha. The ice cream was topnotch though, wasn't it?! Gourmet. Artisan. I was impressed. Good Choice Mika! Thank you! That was very sweet of you! Much appreciated.

To continue, they let us in the venue using the number system which i have to say, worked impressively. What i wasn't impressed with was, we were told they would provide some h'orderves for the first 100, actually 140 people in line (or was that the ice cream),which never made an appearance. Maybe I'm just a little food focused but the ice cream and pizza had sufficiently digested so i was hungry again. Anyway, this is probably just me.

The merchandise looked great. I didn't buy anything. i was more focused on getting a chance to sit on anything other than concrete, tables, chair, railings, anything would suffice. Did anyone notice the tables were made of Styrofoam? Yeah! Simple pleasures. They made for great seats as the benches got full.

People started pushing up toward the front with numbers of 100 and beyond. It was a little disturbing since there wasn't any food around. I get that they were buying merchandise but they made it a point to stay around the doors which really started making the atmosphere a bit more intense. I just wanted to relax and not hold my place in line but i kept having to get up and move around to find out what was going on. In the end the number system won and I'm really glad that the security guards honored it. Yay number system! So basically the mfc can have pretty much whatever they want, as long as we stay orderly etc as i was telling Esther. She was throughly impressed btw.

Despite the brief shouting for everyone to get in line based on their number and the lack of cooperation by the majority, from what i could see, mostly non fanclub members, we still managed to get let in order. Somehow without even trying i manage to be in the front row. At first i was behind what i thought was a new age version of a Celeste, but it was later revealed as the piano for the opening act. I was overjoyed to find out that they were going to move it afterwards meaning, i would have a place to put my purse and sit for a bit before the real show started.

Sorry, to jump around again but i have to thank StandardToaster because it seems that under any and every circumstance, you always manage to be cordial and welcoming and i really appreciate that. Thank you! I didn't want you to think that it would go by unmentioned or unnoticed. Very cool. And thank you for keeping everything organized and to anyone else involved. Thank you Dcdeb, i did see you there helping out as well. It's really this experience that brought be back to the forum and mainly due to StandToasters actions. I really appreciate that.

Ok, so the show started and with the orchestra/string ensemble finding their places on stage followed by Martin, Dan and Cherisse. Its always nice to get a head nod and friendly smile from familiar faces.

I was still wondering how the heck i got to be front and center. Admittedly, i was/am still, completely chuffed about it. I was standing right next to 24 and 26, it was great. You can't image how amazed i was when i realized it and completely pumped.

So When Mika came on, its was all too much to take in. I think this always happens whenever he first comes on stage. It last like 3 secs but it mosly consist of me asking myself "when the last time i saw him was?" and recognizing that I feel like its been so long/realizing how good it feels to see him again. Mika is/will always be good stuff.

So he started with Grace Kelly and of course so did the crowd. My friend, Esther being the only one who didn't know the words but still, she did a really great job at fudging her way through it. She was telling me mid verse how much Mika reminded her of a young Beethoven. I was thinking Mozart but Beethoven worked to.

I don't remember the songs in order i just remember having a feeling of a sing-a-long gathering. It did seem slightly more intimate being so close but a lot closer to my experience to a full show, with getting bruised up and worked out etc, it was great though. Every song took me to new heights and it seemed that Mika was getting more and more energized at every turn. I swear i thought i dropped a few 100 calories from all the jumping i was doing. I was completely drenched in sweat but happy as a kid on Christmas morning.

It was very awkward to have Mika shaking his pelvic/ass in my face but i can't complain. I'm sure it was awkward having me practically singing in his eardrum but i was having a blast so no can't complaints. I could hear my voice over the crowd which is a first and i did sufficiently mess up several of my videos with my non-stop singing even when i thought i was being quieter during songs like Lady Jane and Lonely Alcoholic. I was actually more concerned with being on key since i was singing a lot of harmonies. In my head, i was thinking well this might be the closest opportunity i get to singing back-up with Mika, so might as well make it good. It wasn't good. I doubt that i could have been as drunk as i was. Still fun though...

I felt so bad about cheering for him to come back after he mentioned his voice was shot. I'm just glad he mentioned that it was worth loosing his voice for us. That was rock star!

Four encore performances...i think. Anyways, really amazing and sadly i only remember half of it. I'm glad i have video to document some of it.

Entirely, the whole show was ****ing amazing. It never ceases to amazing be how brilliantly and fluently Mika recreates his look and performance for each tour even one as small as this. I really will miss the smaller venues but since we all now Mika is going to be legendary and we never know what to expect as he's always out doing himself, i'm totally looking forward to the future.

The End

ps. If i remember more i will write more later. its hard to remember song for song experiences but I'm pretty sure all the reports will manage to cover all the juice details. Thank you for reading.

pss. If someone has the full version of Blue Eyes or Love Today please let me know.

Thx

Oh my goodness! I just need to say it was lovely seeing everyone again, honestly, it always is. I didn't get to talk to everyone but for most of the people that queued early, that i got a chance to meet/chat with, it was lovely. Thank you all for being so lovable, not that you even try. Really good experience inside and out.

A little name checking, if i can remember all of you:

Lucy

HollyD

JackViolet

Cheeseygoodness

musicfreak

Sariflor

Suzy & Husband

Lollipopmonkey

Standardtoaster

Dcdeb

Sivan

Canboys

Mommylovesmika

Lily

Natalie

Foalbaby

Thx

It bothers me that Mika doesn't sing the recorded lyrics for "Lonely Alcoholic". Instead he sings the version that's written in the EP book

Catching up on the thread whilst I sit on a bus home from Heathrow. Loving everyone's reports! Mana, I've said it a million times, you just always manage to say the stuff that I'd like to say,but in a far nicer way than I will ever manage. Thanks for the wonderful reporting. Are you sure that you can't knock up a bit more? Hahaha.

Guys, I miss you all so much already. Some of us have spent so much time together, and shared such intense moments, that it will be very hard to go back to normality now. I wish we could be professional Mika fans and tour with him for a living,haha!

Btw, can't wait to see people's footage from the night. I watched my vids on the plane and noticed that on a few of them you can see us as a reflection on Mika's piano,as it was acting as a mirror. It's hilarious, because we can be seen very clearly, and I nearly choked with laughter when I watched Christine, Mana and me doing our silly arm choreography to Blue Eyes. It's crystal clear, and too funny.

Now, you may be wondering how I can have a video and my arms free to move? Filming gigs is such second nature to me now that I've developed this "technique" so that the filming doesn't interfere with my enjoyment of the night, and I just leave the cam running and hold it with one hand around my chest so that it takes my view in without bothering anyone and without me having to check if i'm filming the right thing all the time.

Anyway, this normally leaves me with one free hand for "decadence" (lol) but at these acoustic gigs I realised that i was so on top of the stages at the venues, that i could use things to hold the cam for me.

Last night, my camera "tripod" was the celesta, haha! For a few songs where Mika was at the piano, i just perched the cam on the celesta and therefore hat both arms free for silliness. Hence the 2 arm dancey thing to Blue Eyes.

Oh, but last night, the celesta was moving due to people pushing it, so some of the vids are a bit shaky, and at one point the cam actually fell on the stage! Haha!

And now i shall stop boring you with my camera stories,rofl.

Aww, Sara: the MFC's Andy

We would all be f*cked without your videos, so thanks a million for always filming everything. It makes it nice for those couldn't attend, and for those who want to recall what happened.

Catching up on the thread whilst I sit on a bus home from Heathrow. Loving everyone's reports! Mana, I've said it a million times, you just always manage to say the stuff that I'd like to say,but in a far nicer way than I will ever manage. Thanks for the wonderful reporting. Are you sure that you can't knock up a bit more? Hahaha.

Guys, I miss you all so much already. Some of us have spent so much time together, and shared such intense moments, that it will be very hard to go back to normality now. I wish we could be professional Mika fans and tour with him for a living,haha!

Btw, can't wait to see people's footage from the night. I watched my vids on the plane and noticed that on a few of them you can see us as a reflection on Mika's piano,as it was acting as a mirror. It's hilarious, because we can be seen very clearly, and I nearly choked with laughter when I watched Christine, Mana and me doing our silly arm choreography to Blue Eyes. It's crystal clear, and too funny.

Now, you may be wondering how I can have a video and my arms free to move? Filming gigs is such second nature to me now that I've developed this "technique" so that the filming doesn't interfere with my enjoyment of the night, and I just leave the cam running and hold it with one hand around my chest so that it takes my view in without bothering anyone and without me having to check if i'm filming the right thing all the time.

Anyway, this normally leaves me with one free hand for "decadence" (lol) but at these acoustic gigs I realised that i was so on top of the stages at the venues, that i could use things to hold the cam for me.

Last night, my camera "tripod" was the celesta, haha! For a few songs where Mika was at the piano, i just perched the cam on the celesta and therefore hat both arms free for silliness. Hence the 2 arm dancey thing to Blue Eyes.

Oh, but last night, the celesta was moving due to people pushing it, so some of the vids are a bit shaky, and at one point the cam actually fell on the stage! Haha!

And now i shall stop boring you with my camera stories,rofl.

No, its interesting. I am very new to this. How do you manage not to sing while filming or does your voice just blend in?

Aww, Sara: the MFC's Andy

We would all be f*cked without your videos, so thanks a million for always filming everything. It makes it nice for those couldn't attend, and for those who want to recall what happened.

Very true

Guys, I miss you all so much already. Some of us have spent so much time together, and shared such intense moments, that it will be very hard to go back to normality now. I wish we could be professional Mika fans and tour with him for a living,haha!

I miss you too!

Seriously, we should at least be able to keep doing this until, oh, December, then take a real-life break while it's cold out, then resume in the spring.

hat both arms free for silliness. Hence the 2 arm dancey thing to Blue Eyes.

Oh, but last night, the celesta was moving due to people pushing it, so some of the vids are a bit shaky, and at one point the cam actually fell on the stage! Haha! And now i shall stop boring you with my camera stories,rofl.

Are you working from home today? Does that mean you're going to hurry up and upload your videos?

Mana - thank you SO MUCH for such a beautiful report of the gig!!

Aaaww, thanks Nono. But this time Andy wasn't even there, so he wasn't taking footage at all so it was all down to the fan efforts,lol.

And @ Cynthia, I can't believe that you're asking this. Haven't you heard my horrific singing in my vids? I try not to be too loud,but I often fail miserably, and I can hear myself too much. Mind you, at least it wasn't as bad as that terrible one SCREAMING along to Relax. You'll know what I mean when I post the vid, cause she totally managed to ruin that one.

We kept asking her to tone it down but she carried on, and you can't even hear Mika on that song. One of his most beautiful songs, performed to a lucky few, with no idea of when he'll do this acoustic version again, and she spoiled it for anyone within 10 metres from her. I was front row, she was like 3 rows behind me, and still i couldn't hear Mika over her shrieking!! So annoying. And impolite.

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I miss you too!

 

Seriously, we should at least be able to keep doing this until, oh, December, then take a real-life break while it's cold out, then resume in the spring.

 

 

 

Are you working from home today? Does that mean you're going to hurry up and upload your videos?

Was meant to wfh, but feel so crappy and run down (Mika wasn't the only sick one,lol) that I have decided to take it off, so will get a bit of sleep and the vids up asap.

Aaaww, thanks Nono. But this time Andy wasn't even there, so he wasn't taking footage at all so it was all down to the fan efforts,lol.

And @ Cynthia, I can't believe that you're asking this. Haven't you heard my horrific singing in my vids? I try not to be too loud,but I often fail miserably, and I can hear myself too much. Mind you, at least it wasn't as bad as that terrible one SCREAMING along to Relax. You'll know what I mean when I post the vid, cause she totally managed to ruin that one.

We kept asking her to tone it down but she carried on, and you can't even hear Mika on that song. One of his most beautiful songs, performed to a lucky few, with no idea of when he'll do this acoustic version again, and she spoiled it for anyone within 10 metres from her. I was front row, she was like 3 rows behind me, and still i couldn't hear Mika over her shrieking!! So annoying. And impolite.

 

He did a REAL acoustic version of Relax in NY?

Sara, thanks for the technical details as well....

Now it really feels as if we were there, too...

Those nutty ones, I am afraid, cannot be avoided... There was one screaming girl almost falling off the balcony at Sadlers Wells, too... (but still better than the drunken thug in the third row at Brixton ..)

Oh and thankyou Sara (plus sunshine and cass) - and everyone else - for your reports!!