Poets of the Fall – Nachtleben, Frankfurt; December 10th, 2016

The Poets of the Fall concert in Frankfurt was proof that all is well that ends well and that even unfortunate circumstances can be turned around into a fun event. It was the smallest venue since Hannover with a low ceiling and it was packed with people. That would not have mattered, but most of the venue staff was rather unfriendly and not very helpful, causing stress for everyone. Either way, everything worked out eventually and we had a great gig we all loved.

The trip from Mannheim was uneventful, but even for a train ride under one hour German railways managed to build up 15 minutes delay so I had to hurry once I got to my hotel, because we were to meet at the venue between 14:00 and 14:30. Met up with C., got ready and left. Fond the venue after some walking in the wrong direction, met A. and were soon joined by D., G., S. and A. We had drinks and played a card game until it was time to get in line.

Nachtleben in Frankfurt has the advantage of being a venue inside a cafe. Therefore you can wait inside and have drinks while doing so. All OK, except for the cafe staff being somewhat grumpy and a bit irritated by the fact that we lined up two hours before the doors opened. The woman who ran the coat check took the crown of unfriendliness though, which was only topped by her unwillingness to cooperate. 🙁 While everyone in line was already standing there with our coats in hand, she slowly set up shop. Since the band was on a curfew, Nina wanted to start the meet & greet on time and due to the small venue she asked us to leave out jackets upstairs. That would have been easy if only the coat check woman had a) been willing to open five minutes early and b) started taking jackets from the front  of the line first and not from the back. However, not only was she extremely slow, she proceeded to leave the people at the front of the line standing their jackets in hand and instead took jackets from the back so most of us ended up taking them downstairs. Apparently assessing the situation and realizing it would be helpful and causing a lot less stress if she started at the front of the line was too much to ask. *eyeroll*. We all made it downstairs into the club eventually, but all through the meet & greet there were still people stuck in the line upstairs and missed most of it. 🙁

The band arrived and like in Osnabrück, Marko was first, joking that it was only going to be him this time, playing all the instruments and singing. I said I’d pay good money to see him do that, but I don’t think he heard me. As soon as the others got there we tried to do the pictures quickly. C. had a special sign prepared for the occasion saying she was celebrating her new job with them and they all congratulated her. 🙂 Once the guys were free to talk to I was on a mission, trying to find out if they liked my cookies and which ones were the favorites. I didn’t get answers from all of them, but now I know what to bake again next year. 😛 I also proceeded to tell them how much I loved this tour and how much fun it had been so far. I might occasionally complain about the setlist and there are always songs I would love to hear, but the current mix of songs is just about as perfect as it gets. 😀 They guys confirmed for me that they are having a blast too – it shows. The fun we, the fans are having shows as well. They commented on our sisterhood traveling together and how good it seems to be. It was my turn to confirm that it is indeed a great community. One that would have never existed without the guys. I asked Jaska if he was OK, because he looked a bit tired, but that was all there was to it, not enough sleep. With Ollie we joked about him having to be careful when jumping because of the low ceiling. I suggested a pillow attached to the head just in case and someone else commented that it might look stupid by safety should be first. 😉 Jari told us he loved his 5 minutes of fame being the last one to walk off stage and we joked ho he is so hard to photograph during the show because others always get in the way. It was a funny meet & greet for sure.

The doors for regular tickets opened at 19:00, but people only trickled in slowly. Despite being sold out it was not as packed as it had been in Cologne, but there was still enough room for us to comfortably stand and even move around in front row. 🙂

Soon it was 19:30 and Flight Brigade rocked the stage with everyone at the front clapping and moving along. I still don’t know enough of their lyrics to sing them, but keep trying. Every time I hear them it gets better, they look like they feel at home with us now, having fun on stage. They bring much positive energy to the room, often smiling, just as often moving with the music, seemingly lost in the moment. 🙂 By now they know and recognize everyone of the sisterhood of Children of the Fall and greet us happily. All of us enjoy their music and do our best to get the crowd going. Having a good support act makes the concerts so much better. 🙂

This night they gave us a new song. I thought it might be one from the album they had not played yet, but it is not on there. It was called ‘Street to Tokyo’ (I think) and I loved it. I like the songs where they rock out and those with a lot of harmony singing between Ollie and Miriam. <3 Just my type of music. They played a great, truly warming us up for what was about to come. 🙂 We sent them off with loud cheers while Tom C. was filming us with his phone. 😀

Setlist:

House Fire
Where Eagles dare
U kill me
Tearaway
Street to Tokyo
Hurricane Season
Thick as Thieves

Once Flight Brigade’s instruments were gone the stage looked a little bigger, but the ceiling didn’t get any higher. It was gonna have to do. Soon enough the show was on, the sound was great and the guys made me forget about the not so great lighting. They had fun! Already during ‘Daze’ Jaska got up on the drum raiser where he realized he could not clap with his hands over his head due to the low ceiling. He tried several times and eventually settled for taking his hands down a bit. Before jumping off he crouched down halfway and still didn’t dare to jump high. In contrast Ollie had no such issues and could still jump comfortably. 😉

When Marko asks us to release our inner child for ‘The Child in me’ it is always the time for a lot of jumping along with him and some funky dance moves on stage. This time Ollie was really going – something between moonwalking and I have no idea what else. Marko watched for a while and did some Riverdance moves as an answer to that. It was pretty hilarious. 😀 Jani, who is usually waving his bass about wildly was very careful not to hit anyone when he was at the front of the stage, playing to us. He jokingly pointed the bass at A. though and moved towards her, laughing. Jaska, on the other hand was moving his guitar back and forth so close to us that D. and I often had to lean back, much to Ollie’s amusement while we were like “Don’t kill us please!” 😉

Shows in small clubs always have a special kind of magic for me. I love being close enough to the band to touch them (even though I never do that). Somewhere in the beginning the tassels on Marko’s micstand were swinging in my direction so I caught them and let go again just for fun. The got pretty tangled up at one point too and he wondered how that happened. When Jani, Jaska or Ollie stood right in front of me to play, which they often did, I watched their fingers moving across guitars and bass. It’s so beautiful to see them work.

It got warm pretty soon and Marko got rid of his jacket. He then proceeded to tug at his shirt, exclaiming “We are Poets of the Fall and we’re here to perform for you naked”. D., A. and I shared a look that said “Oh no, please don’t!” and started laughing. Of course he didn’t strip, but he always has fun pretending he might. *shakes head smiling* I understood the sentiment though. Just before the encores it was too warm for me and I briefly wondered whether the guys would survive seeing me in my bra again. I decided against (to protect their sensitive eyes ;)) and only took off my undershirt this time. That one time in Munich it had been even hotter in the room. 😛

There were so many cute moments that made me smile, but I already forgot too many of them. The disadvantage of doing a full tour is having all the memories mixed up. Don’t get me wrong though, I am enjoying the hell out of this! I know I did not see much of Jari in the back there, unless he was standing up, but Captain was right in my line of sight and looked happy all the way through the gig. I remember Marko blowing at Ollie’s hair at one point and everyone pointing to Captain during ‘Sleep’. My favorite moment though was Marko turning to me during ‘Once upon a Playground rainy’ and singing “Still the acrobat with my heart on my sleeve” to me. During the meet & greet I had told him it was my favorite line on the album. <3 I spontaneously put my hand on my heart, then on my sleeve as I sang with him.

It was G.’s last show with us (not going to Cuba! 😉 ) and she got a good one. Poets absolutely rocked the house and I could not imagine anyone being unhappy with what that. The audience did their part too, happily singing and clapping along. 😀 For one song, Marko walked right off the stage to sing among them. On the way down, he slipped and fell on his butt, but he did so pretty elegantly. 😉 Everyone made room for him and then Jaska followed too. For a moment, I thought Jani was considering as well, but he stayed on stage. Since I could not see much of the guys in the audience, I turned back and watched the guys in front of me playing their hearts out. <3 Later I saw pictures revealing that Marko found a disco ball to play with. It was hanging from the low ceiling, just at arm’s reach. 😀

Way to soon the end of the show was upon us and we stood there, arm in arm, gently swaying back and forth to ‘Children of the Sun’. I felt very much at home with my POTF sisters right then and there and wanted the moment to last. It ended though and the guys said goodbye. Jari even got his five minutes of fame with everyone else having already left and us cheering for him. It was awesome!

After the gig, H. made his way to the front, hugging everyone. I had hoped to see him there, but surprisingly had not noticed him earlier even though he told me I walked past him twice. Tunnel vision I guess. We went upstairs, had a bit of a scare when A.’s jacket seemed to have disappeared, but luckily it was found. I called a quick goodbye to Flight Brigade and we were out looking for a bar. Didn’t find what we had intended, but ended up at Mexican place with great food. Hunger and thirst taken care of we said goodbye and went home. See you next time!

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: 15 gigs down, 9 to go, next stop: Milan