Poets of the Fall – Amarillo, Porvoo; October 6th, 2012

A beautiful morning greeted us in Kotka and after a good breakfast, C. and I went for a walk before checking out and getting on a bus to Porvoo. “Food!” was the first thing on our minds when we arrived there, so we checked in to our lovely bed & breakfast and went out for a late lunch. A walk around the old town, coffee/tea and it was time to meet with our friends at the Amarillo.

Together with H. and S. we hung out at the nightclub entrance, waiting for S., who had signed us up for the pre-party we had known nothing about. We had fun chatting, inventing new words and the others enjoyed teasing me about my recent music obsession with Icelandic band Árstíðir. No worries, I wasn’t planning on leaving the POTF fandom any time soon. 😉

S. arrived, we walked in, had food and drinks and could sit down and relax for two hours before the doors opened. A bit before 10:00 pm they allowed us to go in front of the stage. It was nice for us not having to wait at the door all this time. I immediately discovered a pen and paper that was left on stage by the crew so I suggested writing a setlist for the guys. Everyone agreed so I took requests and wrote down everyone’s favorite songs. We were nice, only including songs that had been played live before. 😉 I was thinking of making it extra long, but ran out of room. We figured the guys might get a good laugh out of it. When I was done, the doors opened and it got a little more crowded.

We watched the last preparations for the gig, water bottles and towels being placed, the mic put in the right spot and switched on, the last check of the guitars. There was no setlist, but we had ours so I put it on the next to Marko’s mic. When the music started I got a little anxious, remembering the previous night’s sound problems. Then Marko started singing and I understood every word – the smile that spread on my face didn’t leave me all night. *This* was the concert I had been waiting and hoping for. Back in March I said ‘Running out of Time’ would make a great opener and I was right – it was mind blowing. After this strong start the songs came like punches, the guys completely rocked the house even with the slower ones. From the very first moment they treated us to a top performance that drew me in right away and made me forget everything else. I might have even stopped breathing at times.

Jani kept looking at our setlist. I wasn’t entirely sure how to read his expression – was he wondering how it got there or is my handwriting just really bad? After a while, Marko saw it too and started laughing. Mission accomplished! 😀

For ‘Temple of Thought’ my friends and I held hands, swaying with the music. I kept looking back and forth between stage and their smiling faces. At one point or another during this gig we were all at a far away happy place for sure. For ‘Locking up the sun’ and ‘Fire’ I was headbanging, dancing, jumping. Ollie could not stand still either and kept jumping up and down. ‘Signs of Life’ was just other-worldly. During the “Signs of life, color your skin” line Marko walked over to Jaska and pointed at his tattoo. It made me think of my friend A. who said that a tattoo could be one possible meaning. 🙂

I didn’t have my camera with me so I could watch everything and everyone on stage, but got so lost in the music that I must have missed a lot of things. That wasn’t important though, because I just had lots of fun! The guys looked like they were enjoying the gig too, they all played their hearts out. Marko, as always used the railing to sit an lay down on, singing to some of us directly. The new setlist worked well for me, not only because it is fresh, but also because it makes me want to move. It has just the right amount of rockers to dance and the right amount of ballads not to get totally out of breath. 😀

During ‘Stay’ and ‘Illusion & Dream’ Marko spent so much time’ playing with Ollie’s guitar that I fully expected Ollie to hand it over to him – one of many reasons for C. and me to crack up laughing.  ‘The Ballad of Jeremiah Peackeeper’ created a beautiful atmosphere and a chance to calm down, before ‘Kamikaze Love’ picked up speed again. Once again I realized how much I like ‘Miss Impossible’ as a live song. It does not do much for me on the album, but works extremely well to dance to and let go of all worries.

This time around the encores were just perfect and by the time the band played ‘The Happy Song’ everyone on stage and quite a few people in front were jumping around, many of us screaming “I told you I’m a Psycho!” – it all felt perfectly normal. 😉

We hung out for a while, talking about how amazing this concert had been. My faith was once again restored and I just felt high from all the fantastic moments and wonderful music. None of us really wanted to leave, we watched the crew taking down the equipment and just enjoyed being there among friends. Finally it was time for one last hug and while C. and I retreated to our room at the bed & breakfast or friends were walking or driving into the night. Goodbye, see you soon!

Poets of the Fall autumn tour – 2 gigs down, 13 to go. Next stop: Vantaa.

Setlist

Running out of Time
Diamonds 4 Tears
Temple of Thought
Cradled in Love
Locking up the Sun
Fire
Signs of Life
Stay
Illusion & Dream
The Ballad of Jeremiah Peackeeper
Kamikaze Love
Miss Impossible
Late Goodbye

Encore
Dreaming wide awake
Carnival of Rust
The Happy Song / Lift