Palais des Congres in Tours, France 27/1/2020
The gig at Palais des Congres in Tours was in many ways different than other European gigs lately have been. I loved the venue – for once we had a proper concert hall instead of arenas – and had high expectations for the night. The beginning of the show was a bit weird though. First of all, Mika was so chatty that we heard him talking as much as singing and I wondered if I’ve ever heard him talking that much during the first few songs (usually I can’t get enough of his chatting and I assume the French audience felt exactly that way, it was just me who couldn’t understand the language).
Secondly, in the beginning of the gig I couldn’t properly hear his voice, the band was covering it too much. He was talking French as much as singing and when he was singing I couldn’t hear him and the audience hadn’t joined the energy yet and it was all a bit weird. I wouldn’t say I was disappointed but it wasn’t what I had expected from the night either.
Then suddenly it all changed and he got the mood exactly correct. During Tiny Love the band went to the background and it was possible to totally focus on the singing and we heard a beautiful, beautiful version of the song. It would have been worth traveling to France purely for that Tiny Love and that was just a beginning. Underwater was amazing. AMAZING. I got tears in my eyes and during Paloma I probably cried, it was absolutely beautiful. Then he did No Place In Heaven just like that, without a warning. And he just kept going. Tomorrow was so lovely that I had to sit down and I only hoped people in front of me would have sat as well so I could have seen better.
Then he did Happy Ending and honestly I can’t remember when was the last time I enjoyed Happy Ending that much. Max sounded beautiful on the background and when it was time for the a cappella ending the whole crowd went totally silent even without asking. No one was disturbing, at least not around me, and the singing was beautiful and when it was over I wanted to jump up and shout how wonderful he is but somehow managed to control myself. Then the audience joined the energy and the high energy songs after Happy Ending went also well and in the end we got some more Tiny Love (the Reprise) and the final Stay High and the atmosphere went from lovely and happy to quite ecstatic.
The biggest surprise was saved in the very end. After saying thank you to the audience everyone else than Mika and Max left the stage and I realized he would do Over My Shoulder and could hardly handle my excitement. It’s been so long since I heard OMS this way, it was a stunning performance, breathtaking really. The audience was still standing after Stay High and I had to lean on the seats in front of me to be able to do that – I was in a dreamlike condition – but even standing the audience behaved nicely and let him sing and was beautifully quiet compared to so many other audiences I’ve seen. Obviously the venue was seated which gives people a direction what to do but we have to give some credit to the Tours audience as well, just for adjusting their behavior to different songs so well.
I enjoy the big Revelation stage, I really do, and I love the elements like the pink piano and watching how it goes high and seeing the light show, but still. It was pure bliss to see a concert like this between the arena ones. People were speechless after the show. Not sure if Mika even realised how much we enjoyed it.