Love Last Night

Try as it might, the new wave of horrendous weather yesterday couldn't prevent from having a great time last night at thr House of Blues where I saw Mika in concert. I had bought tickets for myself and a friend for Christmas and had planned to make a whole night of it. Thanks to the weather, we just did the show and called it a night, but the concert itself was fabulous. I was a little cranky beforehand, dealing with the freezing rain while driving home after work and then trying to race down there. I don't know why it had to be so early, but I made it to the hotel about 6:15 and met my friend and walked across the street to get in line. Now, I don't know if the TSA or Homeland Security are the owners of HOB, but trying to get in is even worse than trying to get through O'Hare. Back in college I almost missed an entire concert standing in line waiting to get in. They have one entryway for approximately 3000 people and this was a sold out show. It took about 10 minutes from getting in line to get to the door where they checked our tickets and gave us our wristbands (although I don't know why they bother with that, the bartenders inside still want to see I'D, it's an extraneous step that just slows everything down). Then, as we were herded inside, they were wanding everyone and for some reason had two lines for women but only one line for men. They really didn't know their target audience at all. It was like being on the Kennedy during rush hour, the other two lanes kept moving, but the one I was in was at a standstill. Finally, after about another 10 minutes, as we were getting toward the front, they changed one of the women's lines to men and it moved. My friend got into that one and I stayed in the one we were in and figred out why we were going so slowly. The guy doing his line got about three people through for every one that my guy got through, he was SLOW and kind of rude. So, my friend got through before me, and then when I finished I stepped around the corner to where the staircase is to go up to the actual concert hall. I didn't see him and was looking around and the one woman taking tickets (again, 3000 people and they have 1 ticket taker) was really rude. She tried to take my ticket and I said I was looking for someone and she's like "you can't wait in this area, you have to go upstairs." So, I rolled my eyes and gave her my ticket and started walking up the stairs and heard her yelling at a bunch of other people who were standing waiting. Seriously, this isn't O'Hare, if we need to wait for someone because their staff can't move the line along at a reasonable rate, there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to. Fortunately, my friend was at the top of the stairs, so while it ws kind of a crappy start to the night (seriously, do they not want people to enjoy the evening?), we went and got a drink and were over it. It was already filling up, but a helpful staff directed us to two empty stools at a table. There were two other people sitting there, a young straight couple, and I was so worried that they were going to be annoying, but Chris and Stephanie actually ended up being so cool. It was a very fun evening. The opening act sucked, they were kind of like Maroon 5 meets Dave Matthews meets Jack Johnson, very boring. I used the time to get food from the bar, and that really picked me up. Mika came on around 8 and gave us an almost 90 minute high-energy, hughly entertaining show. He opened with Relax and followed it up with a rocking Big Girls, You Are Beautiful, complete with blow up dolls and strobe lights. I have to say, I thought he looked kind of weird in the album photos, but in person he's gorgeous (as were a lot of the guys there, it was better than a Saturday night at Roscoe's). He went through a lot of the album tracks, a couple new tracks (one good, one just ok), and then did a rocking version of the Eurythmics' Missionary Man as a duet with his backup singer, appropriately drag-named Sarah Naid. He then wrapped up most of the rest of the album tracks, all high energy (even the ballads) with lots of running around the stage, and then launched into Love Today, driving the audience nuts. He ended by ripping off his shirt and banging away on a trashcan drum set, and then capped it all off with Grace Kelly. He thanked everyone and walked off, but was back a few minutes later to perform Lollipop as his encore, and he outdid the gayness of Cher's performance of Believe as her encore number on her last 2 tours. It was THE gayest thing I have ever seen, it was so awesome. It really ended the night on just the right note and I was so glad I had dealt with the rudeness and pain-in-the-ass-ness of getting into the place. I can't wait to see him again, it was such a terrific show, it's being able to do stuff like that that keeps me in Chicago Chris and Steph had driven up from Purdue and it was obvious they were ready to move here as soon as they graduate for the same reason. It definitely was one of the most theatrical things I've ever seen and it was nice to see it in a smaller, more intimate venue and not from the third balcony of the United Center. Of course I blasted the CD all day at work today. It'll be in heavy rotation, at least until we go to Les Miz at the Marriott and the London recording will end up back in my CD player.