The Belly Up Tavern was a tiny venue - max capacity 600 but the show wasn’t sold out - but the audience was surprisingly wild. It could have been a disaster but was absolutely a success. People were loud but they could sing and also understood to be quiet when needed and some of them knew lyrics even for rare songs like Only Lonely Man and China Boy. Mika seemed to love the crowd and was smiling, laughing and chatting through the show. He showed his “USA” shoes and made jokes about people shouting “USA, USA” and the atmosphere was hilarious.

The performance showed Mika at his best, his voice and singing were absolutely brilliant. He did Happy Ending partly without a microphone and it was one of my best Mika moments ever. I could hardly breathe. I mentioned cherubs in my San Francisco review to describe some very special and beautiful moments and in Solana Beach there were so many cherubs they almost couldn’t fit in the venue. Max and Curtis were wonderful and the concept of Mika playing piano and Max and Curtis using different instruments added extra value to every song, old and new. Both Lowell and I agreed that especially drumming gives the show a lot of energy and power. 

Hia Leah is really beautiful and quickly became one of my favourites just after two listens. Century Man is classic, catchy and full of energy. Only Lonely Man is perfect for live shows and the audience loves it. Made me happy to see the response coming from loyal local fans and generally  the North America tour going so well. This gig was easily one of my top ever gigs for many reasons.