Life In Concert Motion: Mika at the Electric Factory January 31 2008

I saw Mika in Montreal last year at the very small Club Soda, he rocked then and was even better in Philadelphia. He has added new elements to the show, gigantic puppets, blow up character dolls from his cartoon album artwork and big girls that come out dancing. I'm surprised he was able to do all this at Phillly's Electric Factory. It's not much bigger then the Club Soda. He just played the Bell Center in Montreal, I would have loved to have seen that show which has a full proper stage.

Mika went on at 9:35. His voice was bang on and he didn't stop through a set of 14 songs. His energy is electric. His show is a must see. I just watched his DVD "Live In Carton Motion" and it just doesn't capture the excitement and energy of being there live. This was his first ever USA concert and he mentions how he and his band were a bit nervous. Mika tells the story of how a big record exec said that his song "Billy Brown" would never get released in the US. The song tells the tale about a friend who was married and then falls in love with another man. He's told the story in Toronto and other cities but you could tell by his tone that it meant so much more telling it to the American crowd.

You wouldn't know that he's never had a hit in the US from the girls with Mika t-shirts waiting in line to everybody singing the words to all his songs. With the exception of the Canadian bonus track "Erase" he did the entire album, and premiered two new songs "Holly Johnny", and "How Much Do You Love Me?" A big fan of Annie Lennox and Eurythmics, he covered "Missionary Man", I don't think most of the audience knew the song. Funny before the show started "Sweet Dream (Are Made Of This)" was playing and everybody sang along, he also sings the song on his DVD.

The highlights: the crowd went wild for "Big Girls (You Are Beautiful)" the gorgeous ballad "Happy Ending" and "Love Today" is always spectacular in Concert. The ending was a kaleidoscope of colour and fun. Mika and his band come out in full animal outfits and perform a skit (I can't describe it you have to see it too funny). Then they blast into the song "Lollipop" with tons of streamers, balloons, and balls of all colors floating in the air filling up the venue. At 11:00 is was all over.

Setlist...I tried my best but the order might not be exact.

"Relax, Take It Easy"
"Big Girls (You Are Beautiful)"
"My Interpretation"
"Billy Brown"
"Any Other World"
"Stuck In The Middle"
"Holy Johnny"
"Ring Ring"
"Missionay Man"
"Happy Ending"
"How Much Do You Love Me?"
"Love Today"
"Grace Kelly"
"Lollipop"

Mika Live In Montreal At The Club Soda

I got tickets for Mika's Club Soda performance last night and what a fluke. I called around noon but was told there would probably be none available. I tried the internet around 1:30 and was shocked when it worked I was able to get 2 tickets. When I went to pick them up I found out that the guy working the booth made a mistake. He was supposed to give the left over tickets back to the promoter but accidentally put them back in the system. If I hadn't logged on at that specific time I would have never gotten them I thanked the guy very much, I hope he didn't get into much trouble. For once a fan got tickets and not friends of the promoters which is the usual case.

My Review

Many years from now I'm going to be able to say that I saw Mika on his first concert tour in a small venue. What an amazing concert. He blasted on stage with his dance hit "Relax (Take It Easy)", I don't think he ever relaxed till the end of the show. The crowd was going crazy you would have thought that he was doing his greatest hits and not just his first album. He does some of the show singing and dancing around the stage like Mick Jagger with songs like "Big Girls (You Are Beautiful)", on others he is playing the piano for "My Interpretation" and "Stuck in the Middle" but he is just as energetic. Classically trained Mika is the real deal. The crowd went wild when he did "Love Today", it's supposed to be his next single but you would have though that it was already his biggest hit. There was only 2 songs the crowd didn't seem to know, he did the hidden track on his album (which isn't my favourite) and a song I didn't know. I wish he would have done "Happy Endings" or the amazing track "Any Other World" instead. The only complaint was that it was too short he played about an hour coming on at 9:30 and finishing at 10:30. He did eleven songs the encore was "Lollipop", they threw big balloons in the audience and of course lollipops, it looked like New Years Eve. I don't think he expected this tour to be so big he probably just wanted to do a small promotion tour for the album.

During the show he mentioned that he arrived in Montreal on Saturday and enjoyed the St-Patrick's Day parade on Sunday. He told the story of his trip to the HMV record store. He went up to the cash to buy his album and the clerk said $12.99 thank you, NEXT! (meaning no one recognised him) He then said that they needed to do some more work here. LOL


Setlist

1. Relax (Take It Easy)
2. Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)
3. My Interpretation
4. Billy Brown
5. Over My Shoulder (hidden track on CD)
6. Unknown song (not on album)
7 Stuck In The Middle
8. Ring Ring
9. Love Today
10. Grace Kelly
11. Lollipop