Poets of the Fall – MS Baltic Princess; Mai 3rd, 2012
This concert was not originally planned. I had rationalized that one more gig was not worth taking more vacation for, but somehow I booked the trip anyway, just in case and when they announced gigs in Tallinn and Riga, the “one more gig” argument didn’t count any more and I allowed myself to change plans. Who was I kidding? Would I really have let go the last gig of the spring tour?
So I found myself heading out on yet another booze cruise, even though I don’t drink much. Most of my friends had not planned attending this one, so I was wondering who the audience would be. Arriving at the terminal after an endless bus ride (it’s not far, but we were stuck at a traffic light for ages), I ran into S. right away and was so happy to see a familiar face. Last time I took this trip in 2010, my friend had ended up at the wrong harbor and almost missed the boat, so I was somewhat paranoid about the same thing happening to me. Now I knew all was well. 🙂 Hung out with S. and T. (who arrived shortly after) until it was time to board.
Once I was in my cabin I realized it must be directly above the club where the gig would be. I could hear the soundcheck very clearly and loved it. It was over before the boat even left the harbor. I was to meet my Russian friends at the club around 8:00 p.m. and passed the time walking around, catching some fresh air outside. Somehow, being on this ship again made me sad. I could vividly recall how I had felt the last time I was there and found myself caught in some bad memories of that time. None of those memories had anything to do with the concert though and they all left me once I had met my friends at the club.
It was a long but rather entertaining wait. The entire club was packed with ice hockey fans who waited for their local hockey team from Helsinki. I could not quite make out why the team was there, but apparently they received some awards. There was a lot of cheering going on and everyone seemed to be in a genuinely good mood. 🙂 Once the team was gone, the club cleared out and we moved to a table by the dance floor. Next up was some dance performance involving scantily clad men and women dressed in white. It made us all laugh.
Afterwards there was music until the Radio Nova host asked questions from the audience and played a game of musical chairs. I was amused by the fact that the POTF crew had “stolen” one of the chairs that had been set aside for the game, but it still worked. It was basically the same as two years before. Once they were done, we were finally allowed to move to the stage. It all happened rather quickly, but we managed to get to the front row. So far, so good.
When I saw the guys walk to the backstage area I noticed Marko’s new haircut and wondered if I had seen that right. Once he was on stage and took off the top hat, I realized I had. I immediately knew the pictures of this night would lead to lots of “What has he done to his hair?” – comments and smiled at the thought.
As usual on a cruise, the conditions were not ideal for the guys. These are the types of gigs where they can be sure that a large part of the audience does consist of people who just happened to be on the cruise and not fans, who came to see them. Often, people are already drunk and don’t really care which band is playing in front of them. Yet, the Poets managed to make the best of it.
One of the reasons I love them so much is that they are always on top of their game, no matter what the circumstances are. I’ve noticed that they tend to show off a little more when they play bigger crowds or are not sure of the people in front of them. They interact more with each other, the gestures get bigger, they move about more, seeking attention. Marko was all over the stage and Ollie and Jaska put lots of emphasis on their guitar playing skills. It was fun to watch and it worked. It took them a few songs to win over the crowd, but win them they did. 😀
Standing pretty much at front row center, I was in a somewhat dangerous spot. More often than not, Marko put his foot down on the railing right where I stood. Luckily he always watched out for my hands and didn’t step on them. He even sat down there a time or two and sang to me an my friend N. <3 Towards the end of the gig, Jaska picked the exact same spot to try and stand on the railing. I just managed to pull my hands away. It was cool, but he didn’t keep his balance for long. A round railing is just not good for standing on.
The setlist was the shorter one, without the acoustic set. All the songs are so familiar to me by now they seem like old friends. The gigs still feel short though, but not as much as they did when I had no idea what to expect. I find that my memories still don’t connect to any specific songs and once again I have no idea what happened when, but at one point Marko showered himself with water (which was pretty damn sexy!) and later on he was lying down on a stool, pretending to fly. At that moment I was busy watching Ollie playing a solo – maybe he just got a little too much attention from everyone else as well. 😉
The gig ended with Captain shaking people’s hands and Jaska jumping off the drum platform together with Ollie. As opposed to the other cruise gig, the curtain in front of the stage was left open until everyone had left. When it closed, I looked at all the smiling faces around me. We had certainly enjoyed it!
A while later I watched the guys leaving and only when some of my friends followed them, I slowly walked out too, but watched from the sidelines. They didn’t seem as if they wanted to chat with people. Met T. and S. and chatted with them instead until T. insisted I’d take a picture with Ollie and Jaska. I did and got a nice bear hug from Jaska in the process. <3
I said goodbye and retreated to my cabin where I discovered the downside of being directly above the club: No sleep until the wee hours of the morning. That gave me some time to think about the past weeks and mentally prepare for the last gig of the tour.
15 gigs down, 1 to go. Next stop: Tallinn
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:
Dreaming wide awake
Carnival of Rust
Lift