Poets of the Fall – FZW, Dortmund; November 22nd, 2012
Day six of my personal POTF Germany tour and concert number four was preceded by a day off, spent mostly at home with C. and L. who arrived in the evening. We didn’t go out, just enjoyed sitting on my sofa chatting. Finally I managed to get a good night’s sleep too and after picking up A. from the airport I was ready for what the evening would bring. I had to wait for seven years, go to 75 of their concerts and travel many miles to finally see Poets of the Fall in my city, just a short subway ride from home. The excitement I had felt at the beginning of the week was back full force. YES! This was what I had been waiting for. The smile on my face must have been huge. 😀
Time for lunch and off we went. Upon arrival at the venue the four of us met a few other people – this early? Already? We hung out, we chatted, I wondered what the big hall looked like because I’d only ever been at the smaller club in this venue. The gig was originally supposed to be there, but sold out so fast it had to be moved to the bigger hall. One of the waiting fans, H., was majorly excited and expressed this by randomly giggling “hihi” out of pure happiness. It was contagious; I ended up doing the same later that night and for days to come. More people arrived, J. from the forum brought cupcakes for the Poets. They looked delicious and tasted as good.
The doors opened and we found ourselves inside a huge venue. I learned it holds 1200 people when the upstairs part is opened too, the biggest venue of the tour. The 50 of us with VIP tickets seemed a little lost in there, but I was confident things would change once everyone was inside. For now we got to enjoy the soundcheck. It was immediately clear that the day off had done the guys a world of good. Everyone looked well rested and Marko showed no signs of being ill any more. The guys were relaxed and in a great mood, already joking around during soundcheck, playing bits and pieces of all sorts of songs. If I recall correctly, Marko mentioned Metallica for some reason, because I remember him joking about growing his sideburns really long. Either way, Jaska started playing ‘Enter Sandman’, the others joined in and Marko made up some lyrics on the spot. This was going to be a good one.
They came to talk to us, there were autographs, gifts and many hugs. J. was too shy to speak when she handed the cupcakes over to Ollie so I did the talking for her. It was kinda cute because Ollie was talking to her and she just could not. All was well, I surely remember how that felt like. I had brought my tour poster from Berlin for the guys to sign and asked Marko to raw one of his doodle dudes for me. He did and even wrote something next to it to which Jani wrote an answer later. 😀 I also jokingly complained about him throwing a bottle cap in my direction or jumping at me and asked if he was trying to tell me something. He assured me that it just happened because “you’re always right there where the action is.” Captain got a few new pens from me. His had given out in Berlin and I had promised to bring a new set. Had the chance to talk to each of the others as well before they disappeared backstage.
I passed the waiting time seeking out the crew and getting their signatures for my Prowlers of the Fall banner. When I made it I had said that aside from the German street team I wanted the band and the crew to sign it, had gotten the Poets’ signatures back in 2008, but never got the crew’s. Hannu was the first one. He looked at me in disbelief and asked me if I was serious. Why of course. Petri was next, but was busy selling stuff. His sales talk made me laugh, because after the woman was done choosing things, he asked her “Anything more I can do for you? CD? Beanie?” She said no so he continued “A guitarist? A drummer?,” but she declined. I teased he’d get in trouble for saying things like that one day. He deadpanned “Nah, I offer them every night. No one ever wants them.” 😀 Once I had his signature I went on to Pyry and told him afterwards that only Einari was missing now. He had been on stage earlier so I went back to the front, but he was gone. A moment later I heard Pyry’s voice behind me “Here is Einari.” – he had brought him to me. <3 Mission accomplished!
The Poets were a little late and when the lights went down and the intro began shortly after 8 p.m. people started clapping. They cheered as the guys walked on stage. “Welcome to the Temple of Thought” we heard Marko say and the cheering got louder. I took a quick look around and saw only happy faces, full of expectation. One frozen moment for all of us, right before take off and then… they took us on a rollercoaster ride. During these first few seconds I already knew this was a show were everything fit. The sound was perfect where I stood, the lights were great, I had a good view of everyone on stage and last but not least the day off had done wonders to Marko’s voice – he sounded amazing.
“Are you ready to have a good time?” he asked us before ‘Diamonds 4 Tears’ – affirmative shouts were the answer. Ollie had so much fun he was headbanging and ran across the stage to join Jaska in the back and play with him for a while. For ‘Temple of Thought’ me and my friends were holding hands, swaying with the music. When I looked around, I saw only happy faces, some even in awe. At one point H. smiled at me and made a thumbs up sign. For ‘Cradled in Love’ we dug out our lighters. Before the song started Marko told us that everyone there was his friend. When he asked “What do you say to your friends” some guy yelled “Rakastan sinua!” “Exactly” Marko replied and made people laugh.
The stage went down, Captain’s light rings were clearly visible in the dark, the intro to ‘Locking up the sun’ started, “How about we play you guys some rock ‘n’ roll?” Marko’s voice boomed. Hell yeah! That’s what I came here for! Hands went up in the air, people clapping in unison, jumping, dancing, headbanging. ‘Signs of Life’ had Jaska jumping up and down on stage. Marko walked over to the far right, too close to the speakers. When he got feedback, he stretched his arm towards the speaker a few more time almost teasingly, but it didn’t happen again. The song itself was beautiful, the best part of it was the spoken part though “You know, it doesn’t really matter, where you’re coming from or where it is that you’re going. Is what you think you wanna do with your life is what matters. That’s what I’m talking about here. It matters who who are, who you wanna be, what you wanna be and whether you know it or not there is always a way to achieve what you’re going after, because there are always options.”
‘Stay’ was next with Ollie conducting the audience during the “it’s the little things, little things, little things that make the world” sing-along and Marko telling us how good the arms waving looked from stage. ‘Illusion & Dream’ was the usual awesomeness including a great guitar solo and there are not enough words to describe the beauty of ‘The Ballad of Jeremiah Peacekeeper’. 🙂 After just listening in total awe for a while it was time to rock out again, with ‘Kamikaze Love’ and ‘Miss Impossible’. Everyone on stage and in front went completely nuts. Ollie, Jaska and Jani were showing off their guitar and bass playing, Jari drummed like the animal, Marko danced all across the stage and even Captain was headbanging. He also jumped back and forth between the keyboard platform and the drum platform for a while. 😀 The audience was dancing or clapping or jumping as well – everyone seemed to be moving. During ‘Late Goodbye’ Marko came down to us for a while and shook hands with people at the front. The song brought another great sing-along and of course Marko had to go and wanted to play Ollie’s guitar. To his surprise he pulled it away though. 😉
The Poets left the stage and we screamed for more. Jani came out first, putting his bass on a barstool, then walked away again. Jari stood by the bass for a bit, then went elsewhere, someone walked behind the drums. When the stage lights came on we saw Marko drumming, Captain with a guitar and Jari behind the keyboards giving it their best shot. Ollie grabbed the mic and sang into it. Laughing they changed back to their own instruments. After that Marko told us he liked a bottle of cold, cold water on a hot day and had much fun spilling it all over us. For some reason the others started playing ‘Billy Jean’ and he gave us a great impression of Michael Jackson, moonwalk and all. Marko then got another bottle of water, asked us if we knew the movie ‘Groundhog Day’ and did the whole water spilling all over again. 😀 He announced they were playing a different acoustic song every night and sang the first notes of ‘Enter Sandman’– Jaska and Ollie picked up on in and Marko sang the first few lines. When he asked how to sleep with one eye open everyone was laughing. He made up some more lyrics before claiming music was serious business and announcing ‘Roses’. The whole audience sang along to the chorus. Beautiful! Afterwards, Marko introduced the band. Jaska was first and launched into playing ‘You really got me’, Ollie jumped all across stage and bowed several times, Captain just raised both arms, cool as always. 😉 When it was Jani’s turn, Jaska blindfolded him with a BVB scarf he had been wearing and Marko told us that “real musicians can do it blindfolded”, Jari then proved that “real musicians can do it with just one hand” and drummed with one arm up n the air.
‘Dreaming wide awake’ rocked the house again. I sang along at the top of my lungs, jumping, being happy. Everyone else had fun too and the guys visibly enjoyed playing for us. ‘Carnival of Rust’ brought great cheers as usual. Marko asked us to put any lights we had in the air and create stars for them and many people did. It must have looked beautiful. “Don’t walk away, when my heart is yearning” – I surely didn’t want this gig and this night to end. Yet ‘Lift’ came along as the last outburst of energy before it was over. Once more the guys gave all they had. Jari hit the drums again like a madman, Ollie got on his knees for his solo, Marko danced round and around with the microphone stand, Jaska carried Jani on his shoulders and Captain conducted everything. Before he left stage, Marko thanked us and yelled “you know I’m a psycho” once. The others continued playing and Ollie jumped high in the air at the end. They waved and left while people continued cheering until the music stopped.
It was one hell of a show, people had huge smiles on their faces when the lights went back on. Those who stayed got the chance to meet all the Poets again. Finally I asked Captain for one of the LED light rings and got one. He explained that Ollie had bought a huge bag of them. I had bee giving the guys a scale for each concert in Germany and he was curious to know what it was. I gave them a ten out of ten. Jani joked if the after show party was gonna be at my house so I told him to bring limes. Jaska only came down to us after I waved to him, but then he signed everyone’s arms. They were in a wonderful mood. I thanked them all and hugged everyone but Jari who was carried away by the local crew as they wanted us to leave.
They kicked us out eventually and a group of us went out for drinks. We actually had trouble finding a bar that still served something, because it was a weeknight, but we did get drinks an spent some time reliving the gig. Caught a taxi home well after midnight, all still excited and very very happy.
Poets of the Fall autumn tour – 9 gigs down, 5 to go. Next stop: Hamburg
Running Out of Time
Diamonds for Tears
Temple of Thought
Cradled in Love
Locking Up the Sun
Signs of Life
Stay
Illusion and Dream
Jeremiah Peacekeeper
Kamikaze Love
Miss Impossible
Late Goodbye
Roses (acoustic version) + band intro
Dreaming Wide Awake
Carnival of Rust
Lift