Poets of the Fall – Finlandia Klubi, Lahti; April 5th, 2019

Lahti is a city that has been on my concert map since 2009 and all but one of the now seven Poets of the Fall concerts I have seen there happened at Finlandia Klubi. It is a venue I really like and the guys always play good shows there. This particular one was a lot of fun and at times even made me giggle. It also made me sing along, jump and sway with the music – what more could I ask for?

It was a relaxed travel day with me arriving in Helsinki in the afternoon, realizing the train I had planned to take was fully booked and waiting around for the next one. Got to Lahti at 6 pm, checked in and fully expected to be standing in the back, because there have been concerts in Lahti where people lined up hours before the doors opened. Imagine my surprise when I walked in at 18:30 and there were only two people in line. Yay! It stayed like that for almost an hour, while the place was buzzing with people who had come for the concert taking place in the main hall. Eventually T. and S. arrive, greeting me with a loud “Yo!” We hugged and chatted until they disappeared inside. S. and K. arrived, we said hello, talked and watched the line grow slowly. As we walked in Ollie was there and greeted me with a hug. <3 Front row it was and only very few people behind us. Until I turned not long before show start and realized the place was packed. 😀

Time went by quickly and soon the intro started. Since people didn’t start screaming instantly, I finally heard that it ends on “scream, scream, scream!” – funny how that had always gotten lost in the noise until now (assuming they did not just add it 😉 ). People did make noise as the band walked out, but compared to other recent gigs the reaction felt a bit slow. Funnily enough I noticed how I adapted to whatever everyone else did. Anyway, I was watching out for the drummer, because I knew Jari was touring with Ben Granfelt Band at the moment. He was hidden in bright lights first, but then I saw it was Tuomas Rauhala and he did a great job too! 🙂

That night I wanted to see everything live and not through the lens of my camera, but most of all I wanted to feel, experience the rush I get from great live music in general and especially from seeing one of my favorite bands perform. Paris had left me high on emotion and I wanted to repeat that experience. This is never what happens though. 😉 Instead, I found myself having a hard time getting into it. On the first song the sound was pretty bad. It was fixed almost immediately and they sounded great from then on, but still I wasn’t fully there and I had no idea why. I watched, I sang along, I smiled and eventually I stopped thinking. Only then, when I allowed myself to be in the moment something clicked and I went from just liking the concert to enjoying it. 🙂

The first few songs went by so quickly, I cannot remember any details other than admiring S. next to me for knowing all of the lyrics. By now I do OK with the Ultraviolet songs, but don’t know every word yet. There was a teenage girl at the center and the look on her face when Marko sang to her was priceless. I loved ‘Rogue’ – it is always great watching the guys do their thing and I looked out for how they point at each other to show appreciation. They all played wonderfully too

As Marko walked back out for ‘Standstill’ there were no chairs set up yet and while the stage tech got them, he sat down at the front on the big speaker, claiming this was a good place. As the others took their seats, he turned around and commented on Jaska’s guitar being beautiful, asking what its name was. Jaska, perplexed by the question answered “Marko”. 😀 Since they were speaking Finnish that was pretty much the only thing I understood all night. While they were playing and I was lost in music for most if the song, I noticed Captain standing side stage and watching them. S. and T. saw him too and he waved when he noticed.

The sea of lights for ‘The sweet Escape’ was beautiful, even if the arm waving didn’t go quite in one direction. 😉 For a moment there I had a flashbackb to the previous weekend. Except for T. there was only one photographer and he did a great job in being unobtrusive, even though he was between the stage and the barrier most of the time. From time to time the guys were posing for him and Marko even made some faces in his direction. He did a lot of that, at one time making a sad face while touching a woman’s cast on her arm.

‘My Dark Disquiet’ and ‘The Game’ had me moving and some others did too, but there was no wild dancing going on as far as I could see. People were enjoying the show more quietly. During ‘Choice Millionaire’ I didn’t even really dare to jump, even though the band certainly did, but clapping along worked. When ‘Luft’ came along there was nothing holding me back though and I was jumping as usual. I had the feeling Jaska and Ollie noticed. I just cannot not jump when that song is playing.

The band looked like they were having a good time throughout the show and they were up to their usual shenanigans. Ollie and Captain catching notes from each other or whatever is is they do behind the keyboards, Jani standing between the drum and keyboard raiser with one foot on each of them or sitting down on the bis speaker to the left, Jaska being totally caught up in his playing and each of them smiling a lot. Soon the were back for ‘Sleep’ and for the first time in a long time I heard Marko mess up lyrics. He actually sang ” let your rods come flushing in” and I had the feeling he realized he was wrong and decided to roll with it, but that might have been my imagination. Either way, it made me giggle and I wondered if anyone else even noticed.

They rocked some more and some of us turned back time along with ‘Locking up the Sun’. This is the song where Glen usually drums with Jari, but he wasn’t there that night so it didn’t happen. I took a deep breath when ‘ Carnival of Rust’ started. I love that song, always. S., T. And their friend next to me were doing hand movements along with the music and eventually I figured out they were playing invisible rhythm egg egg shakers. : D The show ended on a high note and Poets fid some crazy poses for the picture with us. Before they left, they bowed and Ollie even shook some hands. It was nicely coming around to the beginning, as he was the first to greet me too. This was good, see you tomorrow!

Setlist

Dreaming Wide Awake
Dancing on Broken Glass
False Kings
Temple of Thought
Rogue
Standstill
The Sweet Escape
My Dark Disquiet
The Game
Cradled in Love
War
Choice Millionaire
Lift

Encore:

Sleep
Daze
Locking Up the Sun
Carnival of Rust

Ultraviolet Tour 2019: 6 gigs down, 7 to go. Next stop: Kotka