Poets of the Fall – Sellosali, Espoo; November 23rd, 2013
Some days I wish I could be in several places at once. This was one of them, but in the end, two out of three ain’t bad and my decision was right. Before the night was over I knew I would not have wanted to be anywhere else. <3
The original plan for the day had been to travel to Leopoldsburg in Belgium to see Árstíðir. At the time of planning it looked like it was the only gig of their Benelux tour I would be able to attend. Luckily that assumption turned out to be wrong, but that’s another story. Anyway, my hotel in Leopoldsburg was long booked when I learned that that Poets of the Fall would be playing in Espoo that night. It is a great venue, many of my friends were going and for a while it looked like it would be my last Poets gig in 2013. Thus, I changed plans. 🙂 Then, about a week before the concert, I found out that not only was it The Day Of The Doctor, i.e. the 50th Doctor Who anniversary, but it was screening worldwide on TV and at the cinemas. WHAT? How could I have not known this? I immediately researched and learned that it was not going to be shown on the big screen in Finland, but it would be on TV. I further learned that – thanks to the time difference and an early concert start time – I would actually be able to watch it. Yay!
Despite my direct flight being rescheduled to one via Frankfurt and having to get up in the middle of the night I was happy and nothing could spoil my excitement. My friends were already waiting for me at the hotel when I arrived – it was a happy reunion. 🙂 To honor the day I dressed up in full 11th Doctor outfit. Soon we met up with H. and S. for dinner, ending up at a table close to Captain and Ollie. We said a brief hello and left them alone, enjoying our food and conversations.
Around 6:30 pm we were at the venue. We said hello to Petri when we arrived, hugged, chatted a little, then just stood around wating for the doors to open. It was a seated concert so we didn’t have to line up this time. H. and S. decided to take pictures of me so I posed with my sonic screwdriver. The sound of it made some heads turn. We had a lot of fun with that. 🙂
The concert was all ages so here were a lot of kids around. It was sold out too. 😀 We had talked about getting out of our front row seats first chance we got, but once we saw how low the stage was we realized people behind us would not be able to see anything so we decided not to be so impolite. Sitting during a Poets concert is almost unbearable because their music makes you want to move. However, the great sound at the venue made up for that.
They started pretty much on time – I had the feeling our group was yelling the loudest. When Jani walked out he looked at me, started laughing and gave me a thumbs up for my outfit. I think he was the only one who got it. 😀 The show was still structured the way it was in Germany. When it started with ‘Dreaming wide awake’ and everyone stepping out into the spotlights I hoped it would be. The venue is perfect for an acoustic set and the sound was just as amazing as I had remembered.
In front of Marko’s mic was one of the boxes that usually contains some of their technical equipment. It was there for him to step and stand on. The first thing he did though was lie down on it and curl up like a baby. Whenever he was elsewhere, the others took over the box. It became the place for any and all solos that night. 🙂 He was wearing a really long scarf that almost went down to the floor – it must have been the one he has been knitting lately. I turned to A. joking that his scarf was longer than the one she had just knitted. 😉 The scarf seemed to be the new feather boa. At one point Marko even used it to lasso Ollie.
The stage was big with much room for the guys to move so there was an awful lot of running going on. Ollie and Jani both joined Captain behind the keyboards at times, Captain came to the front to check out the audience and their singing abilities and later during the show Ollie and Jani ran up the stairs on the sides of the seats. Marko did it first though, Jani and Ollie just followed his lead. While Ollie ran back down again on the one side and up the other, Jani decided to cross over behind the mixing desk and run down the other side. 😀 Only Jari was stuck behind the drums and they were even walled in with acrylic glass. He looked like he was having fun though.
My friends and I had real trouble staying in our seats. We were screaming, clapping loudly, headbanging and basically dancing in our seats. The guys sure liked that. Whenever one of us took a look behind, most people were just sitting and clapping politely. It must have been such a contrast to what we did when viewing it from stage. After the show we joked about these strange six people in front row not knowing how to behave. 😉
It made me very happy that they kept ‘Rogue’in the setlist. I knew my Finnish friends wanted to hear it and it still gets more awesome every time. They have so much fun showing us what they can do. At one point during the song, Marko ran out on stage and hugged Jani, then he left the stage again and the others went for another round of awesome instumental music. 🙂
When Marko returned to the stage for ‘Locking up the sun’ he looked at me and grinned. I knew immediately what he was up to. “Rain dance!” he yelled and started spinning. I laughed really hard – guess he got tired of doing a sun dance instead. 😉 C. and I shared a look and smiled at each other. Ah, it would have been so nice to get up and dance.
Jani and Jaska prompted us to clap along many times and it worked. The audience may not have moved that much otherwise, but they did a great job at clapping. Singing along was a bit more difficult, because it was possible to clearly hear everyone and that made people a bit shy. It still sounded nice though. 🙂 For ‘Diamonds 4 Tears’ Marko put the microphone to the floor and tapped his foot in rhythm. Later he used the mic stand to pretend sweeping the floor behind Ollie during a guitar solo. 😀
The highlight for me was the acoustic set. I would have been happy enough with any acoustic song, but they did what I had hoped for and kept the two songs they had played in Russia. ‘Can you hear me’ was amazing. It really works well unplugged with just Ollie and Marko. After that came the song I had been waiting to hear for years: ‘All the way (4U)’. It started with just Marko, Ollie and Jani for the first two verses. After that the guys took a break – I had seen the videos so I knew what was going to happen, but most people started clapping, thinking the song was over. Of course it was not. The full band set in for the “Oh my love…” part – it was so beautiful it was unreal! <3 At the end of the song, for the instrumental part. Marko hopped off the stage and sat down in an empty chair next to S., goofing around. Awesome! Thank you so much guys! Seeing the video of a song you love is one thing, but getting to hear it live, up close and in such a beautiful version? Priceless! I have been so lucky this year so far! 😀
Oh the outburst of energy at then end of the concert! Those last three songs I could not keep still for if I tried. For ‘Running out of time’ I sang at the top of my lungs, with ‘Carnival of rust’ I got lost in its beauty – it happens time and again – and during ‘Lift’ I didn’t have enough eyes to follow all the guys. Jaska and Ollie running back and forth, both meeting mid stage and jumping high in the air or Jari, beating the drums like crazy. It was all awesome fun to see. Nobody seemed to want the night to end, but eventually it did and they walked off stage. Everyone clapped and yelled loudly, but we did not get them to come out again. We all smiled at each other happily and hugged, not ready to leave yet.
We hung out for a bit, even though we knew hey had friends and family with them and would not come out. That never matters, only the good company does. After a while we said goodbye to Petri and left, accompanied A. to the train station, then sat down in the lobby of our hotel to talk.
My plans were to leave soon and go for a visit with The Doctor. However, at 9:15 there was a fire alarm at the hotel and we had to leave. I thought I was not gonna make it and almost settled for drinks instead. Yet luckily the alarm was over 15 minutes later. Thus, I said goodbye, being the boring geek who needed to watch TV. Let me assure you, only on The Day Of The Doctor something like this happens. I had a great time watching the episode, laughed, cried and yelled at the TV (to show my approval). Caught up with the others when it was over. H. and S. left, but B., C. and I had a final drink. An awesome night ended how it had started: Among friends. The best thing: I will see all of them again this year! 😀
Setlist:
Dreaming Wide Awake
Show Me This Life
Cradled In Love
Kamikaze Love
Temple Of Thought
Rogue
Locking Up The Sun
Illusion & Dream
Diamonds For Tears
The Distance
Late Goodbye
unplugged
Can You Hear Me
All The Way / 4U
Running Out Of Time
Carnival Of Rust
Lift