Poets of the Fall – Patronaat, Haarlem; December 6th, 2016

Roughly three weeks after seeing iamthemorning at Patronaat, I was back there to see Poets of the Fall, at the main venue. Luckily it was not raining this time around and my trains were not late either. The first Dutch gig of the tour and the first one in a while without a meet & greet ticket turned out to be a good one, with a stage big enough for the guys to move around on and some fun and funny moments. The audience was a bit slow to respond, but seemed to enjoy the show nonetheless and they guys clearly loved it.

I worked half a day before getting on a train to the Netherlands, spent the travel time blogging about the previous gigs and arrived in good time to check in before the gig. My hotel was less than a ten minute walk from the venue and I got there just before the doors opened for the meet & greet. Chatted with a few people from England and the US before they walked in, then waited with the remaining ones, a few of them even first timers. 🙂 One, R., stayed with me and I learned she had discovered the band just a month before by playing Alan Wake. To our surprise we got a spot in front row, on the far right. The stage was the perfect hight for me to rest my arms on and I joked that shorter people might be in trouble there. I got excited and was looking forward to seeing the band soon. They did not have any support here so they’d hit the stage at 20:15.

Still tired from the first part of the tour, I tried to relax a bit, leaning on to the stage and chatting with R. Turned around to see how many people had gone up to the balcony on second floor, but could not see anyone up there. Spotted P. and A. near the mixing desk though. The venue wasn’t sold out, but it never bothers the guys. They give everything they have no matter if they are playing for ten or 1000 people.

I kept checking my watch, feeling time had slowed to a crawl. This always happens – if only it didn’t speed up to light speed as soon as the concert starts. 😉 That’s exactly what happened too: It was over in a heartbeat. A very powerful and amazing heartbeat though. 🙂 When the lights went down, people cheered. Marko stood at the back of the stage, singing the chorus of ‘Shadow Play’ while slowly moving to the front. The others joined him one by one and to bright stage lights they kicked off the show. From that first moment on it was full of high energy and the audience clearly loved it. So did the guys.

Being so far on the right side I had an interesting perspective and full overview of the stage. After the small stage in Cologne the band made much use of having room to move. Only Captain and Jari were forced to stay in their places, but the others hardly ever stood still. One time or another, they all ended up in front of me too. I loved just leaning on to the stage, head resting on my hands and looking up at them. 🙂 It feels like I have not had such a happy, carefree tour in a long time. I get to hear great music every night, have lovely moments wit the band and my friends, can go home with my heart content and my soul rested. Everything is beautiful and nothing hurts.

It was a night of many small memorable moments that made me smile. When Jani stood in front of me, Marko walked over, grabbed his leg and sort of slid down on it. I wish I had pictures, it looked really funny. Jani was just playing on, never once losing his balance or playing any wrong notes. Later, after Marko had been on the far right, he tried to move over to the other side, but Jani blocked his way and they had to mock fight it out before he let him pass. 😀 I did not watch Captain and Jari as much as I should have this time. Seeing their reaction when something funny happens at the front of the stage is always great. Especially Jari is often laughing out loud at whatever is going on. Captain, on the other hand gets so lost in the music that he plays air drum or conducts everyone when he does not have to play. I love it. This night, Ollie, Jaska and Jani were visiting him and playing on the keyboard raiser, jumping off a few times too.

Overall the audience was a bit slow to respond. They were enjoying the show, but whenever it came to clapping or singing along it took them a long time to react. It often needed several of the guys to urge them on before they started clapping and as soon as the guys stopped, the audience did too. There were a few exceptions of course, but compared to the previous gigs it was a bit of a letdown. Luckily there was lots of jumping and dancing going on so apparently they had fun.

I can rarely remember what happens during which song, except for the standard movements that all the long time fans know. Some of them always stay the same, like the turning back of time during ‘Locking up the Sun’ and others change from tour to tour, like Jaska hitting the cymbals during ‘Lift’. I love these moments, great and small and it adds a special feeling of connection to the concert when I know what is going to happen of what to do. 🙂 I think it was during ‘Diamonds for Tears’ that Marko came over to our side, crouched down in front of me and sang to me, hand outstretched. I still have that picture on my mind. It was such an awesome moment. 🙂 Later, Ollie was back in his spot and Jani came over to watch him play, sticking his tongue out at everyone.

For the acoustic set, someone threw a teddy bear on stage for Marko. He picked it up, told us he loved it and proceeded to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to himself. Eventually, everyone joined in. The acoustic part was beautiful as always. Only now I realize I should have looked at the balcony when everyone had on the lights on their mobile phones. It must have looked amazing. Marko and Ollie did a guitar and singing duel where Marko was singing what Ollie played. Awesome! 😀

It was over too soon and before I knew it they played ‘Carnival of Rust’. As they left stage, Ollie shook hands with people and Jaska was walking along front row, clapping everyone’s hands. <3 Everything had happened so fast and the encores felt shorter than a blink of and eyes from Ollie’s beautiful intro to ‘Wat’ all the way to the last notes of ‘Children of the Sun’ ringing out and the guys taking a bow. Marko always says goodbye before they do so the last image of the night is a band of five, arm in arm. I bowed right back to them, happy for a wonderful concert.

We walked out, I said goodbye to R., P. and A. and went to my hotel, happy that I’d get a good night’s sleep for once. It was great, see you tomorrow!

Setlist:

Intro: Shadow Play
Drama for Life
Daze
The Child in Me
Dreaming Wide Awake
Diamonds for Tears
The Game
Stay
Someone Special
Sleep
Running Out of Time
Once Upon a Playground Rainy
Locking Up the Sun
Carnival of Rust

Encore
War
Lift
Children of the Sun

Clearview tour 2016/17: 12 gigs down, 12 to go, next stop: Uden