Atelier in Luxembourg 16/11/2012
Den Atelier in Luxembourg was one of my favourite venues during the tour. It looks bigger in the pics, in reality it’s tiny. Very small and club style. I was surprised to see a lot children in the audience. The crowd wasn’t partying the same way as at the Munich gig but it was loud and the atmosphere was good and warm. The stage was so small the setting could hardly fit on it and the band was playing everyone next to each other and in the end the choir was on stage less than planned. There was simply not enough space. The setting was extra simple and Mika was wearing black trousers, white shirt and his green braces (striped socks belong to Curtis).
The original set list for Luxembourg:
- Relax (with a new beginning)
- Blue Eyes
- Lola
- Billy Brown
- Popular
- Rain
- Big Girl
- Stardust
- Underwater
- Karen
- Stuck In The Middle
- Love Today
- Drunk
- Elle Met Dit
- Origin
- Celebrate
- Grace Kelly
- Lollipop
- We Are Golden
Mika started with the same short opening he already used in Paris. It’s exciting and fits really well with Relax. Blue Eyes gives Tim a moment to be in a spot light, it’s an interesting and elegant song and warms the audience for Lola which is kind of the same style but even better. Billy Brown is familiar for every single person in the audience and even it’s almost too familiar it really must be there and it’s the moment for the whole crowd to start to dance and sing along. Popular is another interesting and entertaining new song (I personally like both Lola and the live version of Popular a lot) and makes people ready for two older high-energy songs Rain and Big Girl. I like the first part of the show, it’s nicely built as long as the first song is powerful enough and Relax naturally is.
The second part is slower and extremely beautiful. Stardust is pretty and even quite tender, I love it. After that Underwater in a very emotional and powerful way. Karen is always a treat – we can’t hear it often enough – and Stuck In The Middle in the end of the section is perfect. I must say I really, really like SITM the way it’s done, it’s entertaining and I love it how Mika often chats a bit before the song and how Curtis is playing in it. The underwater world for Underwater was prepared by German fans and finished by us all while waiting for the gig and it looked really funny and Mika looked amused and stopped his singing to laugh for a moment in the beginning of the song. Underwater is definitely not a funny song so the effect was even more hilarious and the waves looked great even it was just random blue fabric and paper. I just couldn’t stop laughing, it was funny indeed.
The third section is the best part of the show. This is the moment when the audience is totally awake. Love Today is better than ever, it’s probably my very favourite part of the new show. I love the atmosphere when the band starts to play around Mika, it’s really strong and the feeling goes well through the whole song and in the end Max is doing his victory dance on the piano and the audience starts to jump and it’s just awesome. I’m so excited about this song.
After that Mika starts Drunk and it’s one of those perfect moments to chat a bit and teach some cheerful choreographies to the audience and Drunk is really as good live as I thought in advance. After Drunk it’s time for Elle Me Dit and a serious party time and EMD is a success even when the crowd is not talking French. Origin is generally the best song on the new album and it’s the highlight of the whole show with some balloons and hearts and after that people start to calm down with Celebrate and Grace Kelly. In the end it’s time for the last two songs. In Luxembourg Mika skipped Lollipop but added Toy Boy with Max and I really enjoyed hearing Toy Boy. That’s it, I think. It was such a good, small gig. I’m so happy I was there.