Poets of the Fall – MS Isabella; October 19th, 2012
Once again, Poets of the Fall have left me speechless and I am struggling to find the right words to describe the show I witnessed. Mind-blowing seems to fit, unreal also come to mind and indescribably awesome still would be an understatement. As I type these words I wonder if my readers will think I’m exaggerating or if they are willing to believe that one band just manages to surprise and amaze me every single time. Now you can accuse me of being biased all you like and I’m not denying that it’s hard to be objective when it comes to my favorite band, but the truth is, really, that they are just that good!
The gig at the MS Isabella had everything that makes these guys so special: Beautifully sung ballads and powerful rocker, guitar solos to die for, awesome sound effects, a grooving rhythm section, great sound and enthusiastic fans. The guys nailed every song, even the few times there were minor mistakes. The mood was just perfect on stage and in front. I doubt there was anyone in the audience who didn’t enjoy this performance.
We had gathered in front of the stage quite some time before the gig started. I didn’t count, but I’m guessing there were less than ten people in front row. When the curtains opened we faced the smallest stage I have ever seen the guys on. Jari’s drums and Captain’s keyboards took up the entire back of the stage with not much room in-between for the guys to squeeze through and take up their places. The rest of the guys had to share the space in front of them with Ollie, Jani and Jaska slightly to the back of Marko whose mic stand was maybe 40 cm from front row (I could easily touch it – I tried ;)).
The first notes of the intro had everyone clapping and the smile on my face only grew bigger when Marko started singing and I could hear him loud and clear. From that moment on I knew it was going to be great. ‘Running out of Time’ was greeted with great cheers and it only got better from there. Marko proved he does not need any make-up or masquerade to put the audience under his spell. Ollie, Jani and Jaska showed they can be very creative with having very little space to move. Somehow they managed to still change places and play together without tripping over any cables or falling over each other’s feet. Captain and Jari stayed in the background, but added their own unmistakable character to the mix.
The sound was pretty close to perfect this time around – loud and very clear. Only very few spoken words still got lost, but that was OK, I would not have understood them anyway. 😉 The lights were pretty good too – everyone could be seen (unless he was blocked by one of the others :p ). The audience loved every bit of the setlist, cheering and clapping a lot. I found myself headbanging a lot when I was not listening in total awe.
Once again it was fun watching the guys. They were smiling and laughing for most of the gig, always joking with each other. Somewhere in the beginning of the show, Marko was giving Ollie a shoulder massage and later on he wiped the sweat off his face with a towel and pretended to fix up his hair. Before ‘Cradled in Love’ Marko asked who had come there alone and added that it didn’t matter he was sure everyone could find someone by the end of the night. 😉 (My friend A. translated for me.) Jani took the cue to hug Marko from the back ad rub his belly. Just funny. Ollie pretended to stab Jari with his guitar and Jari later took revenge by sneaking up on Ollie and using his shaker right next to his ear. Captain fanned Jaska with a towel to cool him down and at the end of the show took his keyboard and pretended to throw it into the crowd.
All the songs sounded great that night, but my favorites where ‘Signs of Life’ where I noticed for the first time that Marko has changed the spoken part, ‘Miss Impossible’, because I could not stand still. ‘Jeremiah Peacekeeper’, because it was so emotional and ‘The Happy Song’ where A. and I just grinned at each other singing “Psycho! Psycho!” in unison. Not only was Marko really close to begin with, he also leaned out to the crowd right in front of me many times so I actually needed to back up a bit if I didn’t want him to bump into me. I’m not complaining though. 😉 During ‘Lift’ he saw me gesturing the “and on and on and on” part with my hand and during the next chorus he leaned down to me until we were almost touching foreheads and sang that line back to me. It was almost impossible to look into his eyes from that position, but I quite enjoyed it. 😀 Jaska, Jani and Ollie all came to the front to play solos, but only Ollie was directly in front of me. I just stood there and stared at his fingers in awe. How can anyone create such sounds with just 6 strings and two hands?
I had looked at A. and my other friends only a few times during the gig, was mostly busy watching the stage. When the show ended I turned and saw “WOW” written on everyone’s face. Apparently I wasn’t alone in the impression of having seen one of their best gigs this year. 😀
Soon the house band started playing on the other stage so A. and I got a seat and chatted until way into the night. None of us was tired and we enjoyed going over some details of the show again. Much later, we even ended up on the dance floor for a while, but then got tired and eventually decided it was time to call it a night. Only happy dreams awaited us.
Poets of the Fall autumn tour – 5 gigs down, 9 to go. Next stop: Berlin
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