I’ve already written some mini-reports on my recent experiences for MFC, so expect some repetition if you’re a member of that club, but I need a place to consolidate my thoughts, especially about the “Best Gig Ever”, and this blog is the lucky winner! ding ding ding!
I recently sojourned to the Eastern United States to kill 2 birds with 1 stone – catch Mika on two stops of his ‘Intimate Tour’ (or the Dirty Laundry Tour as he wanted to call it XD) and have some quality time with the spouse (whose birthday is next week). The Mika stuff would be done and out of the way after the first 3 days, anyways.
The first gig was at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC and the day was remarkably warm, given the previous temperature trends, which I took as a good omen. All the right elements were there – fun queuing with fun people, strangers constantly asking us who we were waiting in line for, then either looking puzzled at the name or exclaiming how lucky we were, a quick beer, some bathroom breaks, efficient venue crew and then shock and awe! It was the smallest stage I’ve EVER seen! Being in the front row we sat on the stage, since there was no barrier and it was all I could speak about for half an hour. I think the people around me got tired of me yapping on about it after a while…The gig itself felt like it was taking place right in my living room – he was that close – and I left feeling that given this venue, it probably doesn’t get much better than this.
Turns out I was oh so wrong.
We hopped on a train to DC, which left at 3am, and I was sure I’d sleep on the train. Instead, I spent the whole time on my phone, and when I finally started dozing off, our stop was called. This was going to be the day I knew what it was like to feel like the walking dead, I thought. We met our hostess (who was awesome and picked us up from the station) in Maryland, had showers, breakfast, I picked up a few things from the 7-11 and then it was back to the train station for the trip down to the venue. I walked with my pillow and an extra jacket for sleeping (hopefully) on any available space. The ride into DC was quick and painless, though I found their metro-cards to be quite flimsy XD The venue was the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue, which it turns out is so named because it’s on the corner of 600 (locally known as ‘sixth’) and I streets (yes they have streets named with single letters!) and not some Hebrew reference as I’d previously thought. I only had to ask for directions once, then found it quite easily. The Synagogue is on the edge of Chinatown and the walk to it was interesting – I’d never seen so many suited people in a Chinatown before! The weather was gorgeous and I already liked the vibe of Washington…
When I got to the venue a little after noon, 2 other girls were already there, one of them a friend I’ve known for a while and the other a new person. We quickly caught up and then I laid down on the ledge we were so conveniently queuing on, to try to sleep. Turned out I was quite tired but not sleepy, so I gave up that idea after a while and just enjoyed the view. More people came; we explored nearby restaurants (and their bathrooms XD), I had a huge meal of chicken carbonara, some of our fellow queue-rs took a bike trip around the city…XD. It was the most enjoyable and pleasant queuing experience I’ve ever had. The time raced by. Earlier on, the guys at the venue had asked us to place traffic cones on the street so that Mika’s tour bus would have enough space to park. Of course we took our jobs very seriously. The tour bus had all the equipment (but no Mika or musicians) then stayed there heating up the area we were sitting in. After a while they noticed and moved the bus further down.
By 3:30 pm we thought we had missed Mika getting into the venue, but he tweeted that he was running late. I replied that the line was getting to be quite long, and he re-tweeted this (you would only understand that this is a big deal if you’re a hard core fan XD) which was so exciting that I became instantly ‘untired’. The line would go on to stretch quite a ways around the block and it warmed my heart to see all the love Washington was showing.
They must’ve worked like crazy on sound check, because the door opened right around when it should’ve and for once I didn’t have to run. Instead we just casually sauntered up to the front, where single chairs had been placed in front of the first line of pews and plumped down. I could get up to go to the bathroom without losing my seat! Hallelujah! And that’s exactly what I did – and bought some wine (which they insisted in putting in an adult sized sippy cup, but I didn’t mind because it was branded with the venue’s name) to top it off. The wine wasn’t such a great idea because it started to make my eyelids droop, and I worried about falling asleep right in front of Mika XD. I needn’t worry however, since from the time he bounded onto the stage, sleep or anything similar became the furthest thing from my mind. My view of him at the piano wasn’t the best but when he came to the front of the stage it was perfect.
This one isn’t my picture – full credit to the photographer!
He started off with Grace Kelly, and initially everyone stayed obediently in their seats (which he remarked was only fair since he was also sitting at the piano), but by the time he got to Elle Me Dit, (which the crowd insisted he sing in French – weird I know!) everyone was on their feet and dancing. The rest of the gig we remained standing happily. The acoustics in that place was magnificent. He got to Lola and decided to take full advantage of it by ditching the mike. When the song was finished my jaw was left hanging open. All I could do was mutter ‘ wow’. The wonders of non-amplification was repeated again with Stardust, and it was at that point that I knew everyone in that audience had just been treated to a magical, religious experience. Why else would a crowd of almost 500 people have remained so uncharacteristically silent in all the right places?
Lola – many thanks to Deb for posting!
I have a confession at this point. I didn’t really know how much I would like an acoustic tour. I’ve always much preferred the ‘dance-y’ Mika songs, though I can definitely appreciate the slower ones, and his energy on stage during a typical concert is a huge part of the appeal. However, I didn’t even miss the up-tempo atmosphere during these gigs, and hearing him sing without a microphone reminded me of the main reason I love him: his voice. It’s easy to get caught up in all the other aspects of Mika, but ultimately it’s all about the voice… and the music… and that’s what this amazing night forcibly brought home. Opera and classical singers might do this sort of stuff all the time but when and how often do you find a ‘pop’ artiste doing something similar? The talent in this man is prodigious I tell you!
Stardust – huge thanks to Christina for sharing!
After the show ended (to thunderous applause of course), we were all in a daze. Even friends who normally start dissecting and analyzing were surprisingly silent. Awe and gratitude are the closest descriptive words. I took another bathroom break and we stood around outside waiting for him to come out. There was a huge crush of people just mingling around waiting for him as well and when this ‘disorderliness’ happens, he would usually just sign a few things from people at the front then leave. Some one from the venue did come out and say we should form a line, which was then created only in the loosest sense of the word and which we ended up on the very end of XD. I figured if he ever got to us I’d ask him to sign my ticket (though in retrospect I could’ve gotten a picture) but mostly I was just caught up in how to adequately thank him for this experience. We stood at the back astonished to see him actually meeting and chatting with everyone and as the crowd slowly dissipated I was in an almost panic since ‘thank you’ was just not going to cut it. Just before it was my turn, the word transcendent popped into my head, and that’s what I told him: ‘Thank you for a transcendent experience’. He squeezed my shoulder and said a reciprocal thank-you with conviction. *insert squees* XD He then finished up seeing everyone with so much grace and charm and our little crew walked away commenting what a wonderful person we had chosen to travel to see.
To date, I haven’t seen a single less-than-glowing report about any of these shows. This Intimate Tour was like the best little secret that people in North America missed out on, but someday I hope all fans get to experience a bit of the unexpected magic that was that night in a Synagogue in DC. Even a fraction of that would be enough to blow your minds.
Gratefully,
Nasx
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