The first concert of four, the last Poets of the Fall mini-tour for this year, started with quite a long trip (not that this is anything I’m not used to by now). Flew in from Germany in the morning, met my friend G. at the airport, hopped on the bus to Tikkurila and got on a train to Mikkeli. Everything went smoothly and we arrived around 5:00 p.m. in the darkness. The walk to the hotel was a short one and as we were just checking in we met Ollie and Marko who were on their way to the soundcheck.

Got our room, had a bite to eat and met Marko in the lobby again, this time taking the chance to give him our birthday presents. There was still a lot of time before the gig, some of which we spent at the bar connected to the nightclub. Just before the doors opened we met M. from the forum and spent some time chatting. When we finally got in and saw the stage we felt that someone might be pulling a joke on us. Now I have seen many strange stages so far, but never one where the railing in front was so high I could hardly look over the top of it. G. and I got some laughs out of putting our noses and hands on top of the railing trying to look like Kilroy. The top of the railing was wood, while the rest of it was iron wrought. It would have been possible to look and even take pictures through there, but that would have meant spending all night with my back bent, so I decided not to.

The ticket said showtime would be at 11:00p.m. but it took until 12:30 a.m. before the show started. By that time the club was filled with people, many of them already rather drunk. Still, the atmosphere was charged with happiness, everyone was in a good mood and eagerly awaiting the concert.

When it finally started it made the waiting worthwhile. The club was packed, the audience was a good one and the guys instantly reacted to that. Especially Ollie and Jani were on fire that night. Everyone else was really into it too and the smiles on their faces showed how much they enjoyed being there.

They started with the faster songs, ‘Dreaming wide awake’, ‘The ultimate Fing’ and ‘Can you hear me’, then slowed down with ‘No end, no beginning’, ‘Stay’ and ‘Sleep’. The stage did not leave much room to move so it did not take long for Marko to climb up on the wooden railing. The ceiling was too low for him to stand there, but that did not keep him from sitting on the railing right in front of us or lying down there during ‘Sleep’.

‘War’ was special for me that night and ‘Roses’ as well as ‘Given and denied’ were beautiful. At one point a drunk guy tried stacking a few glasses on stage. He needed quite a few tries to actually manage the task, while Jani was watching him, highly amused. ‘Diamonds for Tears’ and ‘Illusion & Dream’ were the last two songs of the main set.

Encores were ‘Late Goodbye’, ‘Carnival of Rust’ and ‘Lift’. Three or four women in the audience had spent most of the night, repeatedly touching or stroking Marko’s legs. I’m not entirely sure if he was more amused or annoyed by that, but the only reaction he showed was when one of the women grabbed a hold of his feather boa. He pulled it out of her hands with a look that said “Oh no you don’t!” Funny. Even funnier was when during the encores the women seemed to decide that touching Marko was not enough and did it to Jani and Ollie as well. Their reactions were just priceless. Jani stepped back about 1 meter so they could not reach him any more and Ollie just gave them a really confused “Wtf?” – look. This made me laugh more than anything else that night.

All in all a fun concert with a fun audience and pretty good sound too. I really loved it and it looked as if the guys did too.

Afterwards, G., M. and I sat in the hotel lobby chatting for a while. Ollie dropped by, beer in hand, asking us how we liked the concert. Jani, Jari and Marko also walked by and Ollie called them back so we got to chat with all of them for a bit, before we all went our separate ways, tired, but happy.

Setlist

Dreaming wide awake
The ultimate Fling
Can you hear me
No End, no Beginning
Stay
Sleep
Locking up the Sun
Diamonds for Tears
Roses
Given and Denied
War
Illusion & Dream

Encore:
Late goodbye
Carnival of Rust
Lift