Poets of the Fall – C-club, Berlin; October 19th, 2013
I had many reasons to look forward to the last show of the tour. I’d see my friend L. and M. again, I’d get a chance to thank the guys for Hamburg, and Berlin usually gets good shows. I wondered what they’d have in store for us this time. 🙂 Travel from Hamburg was uneventful. We met up with L. and M. at our hostel, had lunch on the way to the venue and were almost the first people there. We met a British couple that had been waiting since ten in the morning. The crazy things you do for he bands you love… Many more people arrived before they let us in – it was a pretty big meet and greet crowd. For the first time this tour, people were running to the front. That was unexpected, but we got a good spot anyway. 😀
Whenever a tour ends I get a feeling that is probably best described as melancholia. It always surprises me how easily I settle into the routine of concert – travel – concert and forget all about the fact that “real life” is waiting for me out there, that I’m going to have to go back to work eventually. Yet this contrast between my day-to-day life at home and the fun I have on tour is exactly why I am doing this. The melancholia wasn’t all that bad though – I already knew the date for the next concert. However, it’s important to me to say goodbye whenever there is a break between tours. I don’t always get the chance, but quite like the little ritual of a hug and “see you in (enter city here)”.
The guys walked out to meet us and for once I did not wait and let everyone else go first. Each one of the guys got a big hug and a thank you from me. Finally it hit me just how overwhelming it had been, especially when Jari described the look he had seen on my face the moment they started playing ‘Morning Tide’ the previous night. They were all really sweet about it too and Captain emphasized that it “was for you in case you didn’t guess”. Yes, I know and I’m eternally grateful to all of you. <3
Berlin is not an easy city to play for any band that isn’t already well known. Like most big cities Berlin offers much entertainment every night and the audience there is not the easiest to win over. Yet Poets of the Fall have been coming here since the beginning of their carrer and have built a solid following by now. It helps that Berlin is easily reached from other Europen countries too. Thus, whenever the buys make an appearance, they can be certain to meet and enthusiastic crowd full of fans from all over Germany and Europe. This night wasn’t any different. The venue was buzzing with excitement even before they hit the stage and they were greeted loudly as they walked out. From the first moment on they seemed to have decided to make this last show of the tour one to remember. The audience happily played along, following every cue they got from stage.
The band had about as much fun as we did which was a lot. 😉 They moved a lot, they showed off, they joked with each other and they made sure the audience was involved. During ‘Dreaming wide awake’, Ollie visited Captain behind the keyboards, during ‘Kamikaze Love’, Marko was balancing on one leg, wrapping his arm around the other and for one of the slower songs Jaska and Jani sat down on the boxes on both side of the stage while Ollie had the usual barstool. 🙂
My friends M. and L. both had their special moment when Marko reached out and shook their hands. He got in touch with the audience a lot and the others exchanged looks and smiles with us too, playing their solos at the front of the stage. The sound was good, I could hear them clearly, only the lights were a bit too bright at times. Marko told us they had come a long way to be there and continued he knew some of us had come a long way as well and how much they appreciated it.
All the songs were powerful and once again the guys showed us how well they can play. Rogue was one of many highlights and certainly not the only chance for the guys to shine. ‘Illusion & Dream’ was a lot of fun. During Ollie’s solo Marko decided to do a handstand on the drum raiser and a bit later he played Ollie’s guitar with his butt. That sure made me laugh. He was in a playful mood throughout, one time drumming on Jaska’s head and another time holding on to Jani’s head.
With the acoustic set the Poets came full circle and returned to the beginning of this tour with ‘Desire’. It was lovely, but the true gem followed after. They played a brilliant version of ‘King of Fools’, starting acoustically and slowly morphing into a full band version. This song does not happen often and never fails to make me happy.
It got hot in the venue during the show and eventually Jani decided to go shirtless. Marko pretended to take off his pants, but decided to empty a bottle of water over his head instead. Of course he sprayed the audience with water too in the process. The others were in a great mood too and it showed. For his last solo Ollie dropped down on his back to play guitar and Einari came to pick him up. It was awesome! At the very end of the show all the guys hugged each other, waved at us one last time and left.
A special thanks to POTF for allowing me to have a photopass and to Nina for arranging it for me. It is much appreciated. <3
Setlist:
Dreaming Wide Awake
Show Me This Life
Cradled In Love
Temple Of Thought
Kamikaze Love
Rogue
Locking Up The Sun
Illusion & Dream
Diamonds For Tears
The Distance
Late Goodbye
unplugged
Desire
King of Fools (acoustic into full band)
Running Out Of Time
Carnival Of Rust
Lift
A group of us decided to go out for cocktails. We said goodbye to those who didn’t want to come along and to Petri and went searching for a cocktail bar. Unfortunately the one we had visited last year had closed down. And it took us a while to find one that offered enough empty seats. Still, we had a nice night out, ending the tour on a high note.
Poets of the Fall Switzerland/Austria/Germany tour: 10 gigs down, none to go. Last stop: home