Poets of the Fall – Tampere; April 1st 2010

These words were the introduction to a story Marko told me before the gig in Tampere, but maybe I should start at the beginning…

Less than a week after the St.Petersburg gig and only 4 days after returning home, I was on the road again. The trip started early in the morning with a flight to Helsinki. A bus trip to Tampere followed. I met up with C. at our hotel and was pleased to see it was directly across the street from Klubi. Perfect.

But first there was food to be had and C. wanted to at least see the lake. I was too nervous to do much of anything as I always am before a gig and insisted on being there at least two hours before the doors opened. I think C. was about ready to kill me by the time we got there since I was all giddy and talking too much.

Being there early paid of though, because we met all of the Poets and Janne from support act Phoenix Effect before the gig. It made me happy that each of them greeted me, especially Captain who had never acknowledged me before. I spent a little time chatting with Jaska about the third Russian gig and then Marko told me “what happened in Moskau”. Whoever arranged the travel had booked a wrong flight for him back from Yekatarinenburg and he was late for the train to Helsinki so he had to run with all his luggage to catch it. This didn’t do his lungs an throat any good. The way he told it was very funny though and I could actually see it in my mind’s eye. “Imagine having to run 400 meters with 10 extra kilos.” … “Try to be a singer after that.” and the best part was “I had to run across this five lane road in the middle of traffic. So I just held out my arm like this (grand gesture of outstreched arm and hand) and they all stopped! It was like in the movies!” I could not help but laugh, it was very cute. He repeated the story during the gig, but in Finnish this time. I felt very special having gotten the English version beforehand. We talked a bit more and he told me how his voice suffered. Yep, I could hear that on the radio gig they had played the day before.  I cannot even remember much what else we spoke about, but I enjoyed it.

More fans arrived. We hung out and chatted until the doors opened. I was surprised at how small the Klubi was. I’m bad at guessing but I don’t think it can fit more than 3 or 400 people. What a great setting for a concert. We were in front of the line and got right in. I ended up front row center, close enough to touch.

Phoenix Effect had trouble with the sound a bit and with the guitars, but managed well and while Janne was busy with cables, Anton got to play a drum solo. They only got to play a short set, but it was a good one and the new songs sounded amazing. Loved them. 🙂

The Poets were pure magic. Marko was right in front of me – I had to back up every time I wanted to take a picture. Same setlist as in Russia, still the same awesomeness. I so loved it and hardly noticed the time going by.

Despite a sore throat, Marko handled the singing well, held back a little on the high notes though. Still, if I had not known I would have never guessed he had trouble singing. ‘Heal my wounds’ again was beyond amazing and compare especially the intro. <3 Also he obviously does not need glasses. The printout of the lyrics was tiny. I would not be able to read that even if I tried.

Ollie seems to always be wearing ties to gigs now. Nice touch. His playing was great. When I heard in an interview later that he goofed up at one point I didn’t even remember, had to go back to youTube to check a video of the song. Funny.

Captain was on fire, I love that he gets to play so much piano this time around. There was also a lot of artificial smoke around him most of the time. During their guitar duell he fanned Ollie and Jaska with his towel. Very funny moment.

Jani was quiet as always, but moved a lot, Jari smiled all the time and got a tattoo on his arm and Jaska? He had wild hair and was his usual rocker self.

I so love these guys and I felt part of one big family. Everything was so relaxed and fun and the gig was sold out too. As always, I wished the show could have been longer, but even if they played twice as long, I’d still be wanting more.

After the gig I spoke to Janne briefly and told him how amazing the new songs were. Anton came running to hug me and we chatted for a bit too. Sometimes I really wonder if all Finnish musicians are such nice people or if I just happened to pick the right ones. Anyway, I enjoyed talking to them.

Too soon C. and I said goodbye to our friends and went back to our hotel .That night I could not sleep for a long time, with all sorts of thoughts running around my head. How much better could it get?

Setlist:

Dreaming wide awake
Smoke & Mirrors
Diamonds for tears
War
Given and denied
Dying to live
You’re still here
Illusion & Dream
15min Flame
Rewind
Change
Locking up the sun
The ultimate fling
Heal my Wounds
Lift
Carnival of rust

pictures of this concert