Concert review: Mika in Stockholm

i-6f34da829e8cf6b7348d0b57c961b0f9-PIC_0012.jpg

Cosmopolitan popster Mika is a great showman and tours with a great band. The audience at his gig in Stockholm last night was thoroughly charmed by the friendliness and musical mastery on offer. Mika traces his musical ancestry back to acts like the Beatles, Queen, Elton John and George Michael, which would make for a good concert experience even if the front man didn't say a word. But he also entertained us with effortless improvised stage patter -- part of it in Swedish, even though he makes only a single stop here on his tour! Psychedelic animated backdrop projections and dancers in outlandish costumes reminded me of of Montreal's stage show. And Mika's studio-heavy pop translated beautifully to the live format.

The audience was unusually all-ages for a pop gig and there was a fine mix of hipsters and everyday Joes like myself. It may have been my imagination or my selective Darwin-determined gaze, but there seemed to be unusually many of the big girls whose beauty one of Mika's hits extols. Myself, I brought 11-y-o Junior and his buddy, and they loved it - which was great since neither of them had been to a pop concert since they learned to walk. Both study music, and it wouldn't surprise me if they ended up on stage at similar events in the 2020s. We're laying the groundwork now.

Mika has only two albums on his discography so far. But seeing him on stage last night I felt that this guy has it in him to be doing this for decades. A hard-working musician of great talent!

Up-and-coming Swedish pop act Ola Joyce opened together with his 6-piece band, and they did a fine job too. An album is in the works.

[More blog entries about , , , , ; , , , , , , .]

Tags

More like this

Monday night me and Moomin went to an of Montreal gig at Medborgarplatsen in Stockholm. Amazing stuff. Seven musicians on stage, everybody swapping instruments all the time, three mimes prancing around in weird masks, psychedelic animated films on the backdrop, and a solid 90 minutes of intricate…
Last night to Tantogården in Stockholm, an outdoor concert venue a stone's throw from the hospital where my son was born, to hear Pugh Rogefeldt. As the long-term Dear Reader may remember, Mr Rogefeldt released Ja dä ä dä, one of the first and still among the very best Swedish psychedelic rock…
I worry about of Montreal's musical motor, pop genius Kevin Barnes. He first got records out in 1997-98, when he was an elegantly naivistic singer of sad love songs. Then he shot like a lysergic rocket straight into Pepperland with four beatlesque albums in 1999-2004. On his 2005 album he suddenly…
Last night's Hayseed Dixie gig rocked. This is the bluegrass band playing metal songs that I blogged about recently. Me and Paddy K went there after checking out some stand-up comedy with the ladies. We had been given the wrong starting hour, so we arrived at the Debaser Slussen club in the middle…