Poets of the Fall – Glav Club, St. Petersburg; March 23rd, 2012

Pre gig excitement didn’t catch up with me until CD release day. Of course I had the album already in digital format, but I still could not wait to hold it in my hands and was hoping I would get it on time. No such luck, but the buzz the album created everywhere just made me smile. I think ‘Temple of Though’ is their best work to date and I loved reading all the positive comments. All of a sudden I realized that in only two days I would attend the first gig of the tour and I felt a surge of happiness running through me – finally. That was a long time coming.

Could not sleep much due to all the excitement I felt and was off to St. Petersburg early in the morning of March 22nd. It was a long trip and when I finally was settled in my hotel room in St. Petersburg at 8 p.m. local time, all I wanted to do was sleep and did so soon.

The next morning was spent relaxing until it was time to meet my friend N. at the Moscow train station. We had lunch, then went to the Finlandia train station to meet with more friends and wait for the Poets to arrive. This has become a tradition and there are more and more people every year. This time there were around 3o.
As always, I was a bit nervous about meeting the guys again and stayed in the back because I did not want to be too much of a bother. They stepped out of the train and Jani, Captain and Jari were immediately ushered to a waiting car by some security guy. I barely had a chance to say hello. Ollie, Marko and Jaska were surrounded by fans. I waited, hoping for a chance to at least exchange smiles with them. Ollie saw me and hugged me. We even chatted a little until we were interrupted by other fans. Marko hugged me too. We didn’t have time for many words, but that really wasn’t necessary. 🙂 I thanked both of them for the album and the chance to review it.

Back to the Moscow train station and on to the club from there. It was cold in St. Petersburg and we were in for a long wait. They didn’t open the doors on time and it got really crowded before they let us in. Admittance as a whole was terrible this year and only two of us made it to the front row, even though we had been among the first ten people there. Oh well, I ended up in row 3 behind N. and A. and decided not to let that spoil the night for me.

Waiting and wondering what the night might bring. Since the album is so emotional for me, I was a little bit afraid of hearing these songs live. I just had no idea what that would do to me. Not matter what, I would have to live through it now.

Finally the stage was set up, the lights down, photographer’s in place and the music started. New tour, new intro, I didn’t recognized the song right away, watched in awe as they walked on stage, screamed and clapped like everyone else, smiled when I saw that Marko still had the top hat and feather boa outfit from the past fall.

Before doing anything else he asked us to scream for him and everyone responded. When he started singing I finally recognized the song: ‘Kamikaze Love’. I had expected ‘Running out of Time’ as the starting point, but I hardly ever guess correctly when it comes to these guys. They are just full of surprises.

The song worked quite well live and the audience went nuts. A promising start. ‘Diamonds for Tears’ was next and sent the crowd into a new frenzy. Still it took me some time to get into he right mood and feel the usual thrill of the gig. Meanwhile I was watching the Poets, the people around me and the photographers walking back and forth in front of the stage trying to keep up with Marko or get a good shot of the others. I had a great view of Captain and Ollie from where I stood and I enjoyed watching them.

The first chills came with ‘Temple of Thought’. It is such an amazing song and came across beautifully. The Russian fans had prepared white, glow in the dark gloves with morphos on them and we all put them on, waving. I wondered what that might look like from stage to see all these hands up in the air. Marko reached out to shake hands with people, but it was difficult to bridge the distance between front row and the stage.

‘Roses’ staying in the setlist from the previous tour really made me happy. I love this song  and it was beautiful hearing it again. I had fun watching Captain who first kept throwing his towel in the air and catching it once again and then wandered off across stage, having to hurry back to the keyboards when it was time for him to play. He looked like he enjoyed being back on stage.

Ollie sat down for ‘Cradled in Love’, making the beautiful melody come alive. It was such a joy watching him play, so concentrated and lost in the music. Marko asked us to hold up lighters or cellphones with lights. Lots of hands went up and even the singing along sounded pretty good. The atmosphere was beautiful, especially when people started blowing soap bubbles. That added a nice touch.

“Are you ready to rock?” Marko screamed and with the first riffs of  ‘Locking up the sun’ we screamed back. It was time to sing along at the top of my lungs and jump about in tune with the music. Jani had put on the top hat and came over to our side of the stage to play right in front of us. Just great. Ollie was working his guitar like crazy and making faces while doing it. Watching them work was so much fun! Marko received a flower that he stuck behind his ear. 🙂 More great guitar work from Ollie during ‘War’. He was on fire. Jaska sounded great too, but I could not see much of him all night. Same with Jari.

‘The Lie eternal’ was just as great live as I had hoped for it to be. The entire song is so charged with unfulfilled desire it’s almost painful to listen to. Marko brought this across quite well, his singing and performance underlining the mood. It all worked nicely until he decided to stick his hand down the front of his pants and I just cracked up laughing. Really, I don’t find that sexy, to me it’s just silly. Made me want to ask if he had lost something down there.

Back to calmer songs with ‘Stay’ and another great sing-along for the audience. Before the next song, Marko stripped off his vest and the necklace he was wearing. Hat and feather boa had gone long since. From time to time he was blowing some feathers into the audience, always to great cheers. As usual ‘Illusion and Dream’ was a highlight for me. I never get tired of hearing it, of singing “dishonesty” or of everyone raising their glasses or bottles and toasting to us. I love Jari’s drumming on this one and this time, Captain was air drumming along with him. Watching him I realized how little of him I generally see during a gig.

‘Gravity’ had everyone rocking again. I had not heard that one in quite some time and was happy to see it back on the setlist. Just amazing! “Time flies when you’re having fun!” Marko claimed and I could not believe when they started ‘Late Goodbye’. What? Almost over already? It felt as if they had just started. Marko sat down on one of the monitors for a while and caught soap bubbles that people were blowing. It was amazing to watch Ollie make his guitar sing  during the solo, but it made me feel a little sad to watch the guys walk off stage. This had felt so short.

They came back and played ‘Sorry go round’ in the bossa nova version. 😀 Captain was standing side stage, taking pictures and Marko tried his Shakira movements again. 😉 He then instructed us to clap first with one finger, then two, three and four and finally with the whole hand. It worked well. Of course “the candyman can!” While Ollie was playing a solo, Marko hopped off stage to shake hands with people. Nice.

‘Dreaming wide awake’ was just great, with everyone singing and screaming again, then a deep breath for ‘Carnival of Rust’ that started with the ‘The one I love’ intro. Wonderful. The top hat had been passed on from Jani to Ollie. The song rang out beautifully and went straight into ‘Lift’ for a last chance to jump and go crazy. The hat moved on to Captain and then to Jaska. Everyone was obviously having fun. 🙂

The last notes rang out and it was over. Too quickly. People screamed so much that for a moment I thought they might come back out, but they did not. It was amazing, but felt like all of 5 minutes. Strange. I had been hoping for more songs off the new album, but still loved everything they played.

One more memorable moment was Marko singing part of ‘The Happy Song’ and everyone singing along with him, but after a few lines he just stopped, grinned and said “That was fun!” I would have loved to hear all of it. 🙂

It did not take long for them to come out for autographs and it was crazier than in previous years. So much screaming. I didn’t really get a chance to talk to any of them, just watched the show. Marko stayed on stage for a while, but finally decided to come down. Ollie, Jani and Jaska came out too and they all stayed for a long time. Before Marko left he took a calculated look at the already screaming girls in front of the stage and then lifted his shirt. The reaction was just as expected – more screams. Funny.

It was time for us to leave, get some food and water, chat and wait for our train. It left well after midnight and surprisingly the guys were on the same one. Before we boarded, I finally had a chance to talk to Captain and thank him. He totally surprised me by giving me a hug. That was really sweet. 🙂 We chatted with him and Ollie for a while before we all got on the train and retreated to our respective compartments. N. and I chatted until we felt too tired to stay awake any longer.

One concert down, many to go. Next stop: Moscow

Setlist

Kamikaze Love
Diamonds for Tears
Temple of Thought
Roses
Cradled in Love
Locking up the Sun
War
The Lie Eternal
Stay
Illusion & Dream
Gravity
Late Goodbye

Encore:
Sorry Go Round (Bossa Nova)
Dreaming wide awake
Carnival of Rust
Lift