Poets of the Fall – F1 Water & Rock Festival, Lahti; June 13th 2009
After spending two wonderful weeks in Finland and Sweden with friends and concerts, I arrived in Lahti on June 12th. One day until the first Poets gig of the year, tow days until I had to go home. I had time for some sightseeing and enjoyed a quiet day.
The morning of the festival was grey, the skies promised rain at first, but during my morning walk, the sun came out. Back at my hotel I realized that the skies had cleared the same moment the Poets tweeted they were on their way. It seemed as if they had called the sun to their concert.
I was surprised how few people waited outside the festival gates when they opened and how easy it was to get to front row. Once again I realized how much more relaxed than in Germany people in Finland are. A few of my friends arrived and I found out that the Poets were supposed to play first – I hadn’t expected that. Still there was enough time to put up my Prowlers banner and chat for a bit, before the show started.
At 6:00 p.m. it started: The guys came, saw and rocked! It was still warm out and all except for Ollie wore stylish sunglasses. They started with ‘Diamonds for Tears’ and I lost myself in the music from the first note. I realized how much I had missed them, had missed their concerts. The poets seemed to feel the same way, enjoying their first chance to play after a 7 months break.
One of my personal highlights was the fact that they remembered me. Marko walked out on stage, took one look at me and started grinning, even walked over to Ollie, telling him something. I like to imagine that he said something along the lines of “Look, the crazy German is back”, but he might have just as well been talking about the weather. Fact is that Ollie looked my way too after that. 😀
The guys sounded amazing and played so many great songs. I cannot recall the order they were played in, but we heard ‘Sorry go round’, ‘The ultimate Fling’, ‘Carnival of Rust’, ‘Locking up the sun’, ‘Clevermind’, ‘Stay’, ‘Lift’, ‘Illusion & Dream’ and ‘Late Goodbye’. They were full of energy, smiled all the time, moved around. Captain was taking pictures of us and filming with his mobile phone, Ollie and Jaska duelled with their guitars. Watching them was so enjoyable that I wanted them to start over as soon as the last song had rung out.
After the gig I had the chance to chat briefly with Marko and much longer with Ollie. I had my picture taken with both of them too. They were really patient with everyone who wanted autographs, pictures and a few words with them. 🙂
Hung out with my friends for a while, didn’t bother with the other bands and finally returned to my hotel. At about the same time the Poets must have arrived home, it started raining. Seems liked they had taken the sun with them.