Poets of the Fall – Tampere, Pakkahuone; October 18th, 2012
Oh wow! This gig was explosive, fun, entertaining … and unfortunately much too short. Worth the trip? You bet it was!
When I walked by the Pakkahuone in the late afternoon, they were soundchecking ‘Signs of Life’ and I could hear it well through the open door. It istantly made the rainy day much brighter. After all, I had left sunshine in Germany for the Finnish rain and needed a reminder why I was doing all this. A few moments later I bumped into Petri and said hello – hugs sure are good against the cold. 🙂
It was a long wait still so I got some food first and returned later. Not somany people were around when they opened. Easy front row. I didn’t see any familiar faces, except for the POTF crew. Shortly before the fist band started, more people came, among them a few I had met before – finally the room got warmer.
Don Johnson bIg Band were lots of fun. They played a mixture of Hip Hop and other stuff, very entertaining. I loved watching them, they had so many instruments and guests on stage. They audience enjoyed their set and even fllowed suit when the singer asked us to all crouch down and stay there during ‘Hit the Road, Jack’. He spoke a mixture of Finnish and English for the international audience and even jumped off stage at one point to be closer to us. Fun!
As the Poets walked on stage I wondered which outfit Marko would wear. This time it was a combination of the top hat / boa and the Joker make-up. 😀 The others were in their usualy attire as well – Captain with only one light ring this time. They started with ‘Running out of Time’, which was so powerful it blew me off my feet. I love a rocking start.
After having played on small stages the past two weeks, they surely enjoyed having a big stage to move around on, there was not much standing still this night with Ollie, Jaska and Jani switching places all the time and Marko all over the place. Due to the shorter time frame they had to leave out a few of the usual songs. The first one to go was ‘Temple of Thought’, but we did get a rather beautiful rendition of ‘Cradled in Love’ instead.
‘Locking up the sun’ rocked the house and got good participation from the audience. On stage there was so much movement, I didn’t even know where to look. The guys were smiling happily, showing off during solos, having fun. ‘Signs of Life’ is soon becoming my new favorite. I just love it and it is still getting better each time I hear it. When ‘Illusion & Dream’ followed I wondered where time had gone so quickly. After that we were already in the usual encore set with ‘Dreaming wide awake’.
A guy handed Marko a baseball cap that he wore for a while before giving it back. 🙂 ‘Carnival of Rust’ had everyone singing along and ‘Lift’ was a powerful ending. I felt like I’d blinked once and it was over. Wow, how did that happen? Needless to say that I loved it, but I really missed the full set. In the afternoon I had been joking with Petri, about them “better playing a damn good show” to make it worth the trip from summer to fall. What can I say? They sure did!
Setlist
Running out of Time
Diamonds 4 Tears
Cradled in Love
Locking up the Sun
Signs of Life
Illusion & Dream
Dreaming wide awake
Carnival of Rust
Lift
I contemplated whether I should leave, but I didn’t feel like going home just yet and I knew I liked the music of Neljä Ruusua who were next. Thus, I decided to check them out and stay. Good decision! They absolutely brought the house down with everyone singing along loudly. I don’t know their music all that well, but I did recognize some songs and understood surprisingly much of what they said. They’ve been around f0r 30 years with fans of all ages. It showed that they are a long standing band. They knew how to entertain and work an audience. I surely enjoyed watching them!
The night wasn’t over yet, there was still one band on stage at the Klubi next door. We decided to check them out and were in for a nice surprise. Timo Kotipelto the singer of Stratovarius and Jani Liimatainen a former member of Sonata Arctica were playing acoustic numbers, some of their own and lots of covers. A powerful voice, a beautiful guitar and many familiar rocksongs from Bon Jovi’s ‘Livn’ on a Prayer’ to Gary Moore/Phil Lynott’s ‘Out in the Fields’ and Europe’s ‘The Final Countdown’. Great sing along by a small but enthusiastic audience and a wonderful way to end the night. As we walked home in the rain we agreed that it had been totally worth it to see all the bands of the evening. Yes! This is how concerts should be
Poets of the Fall autumn tour – 4 gigs down, 11 to go. Next stop: MS Isabella