Poets of the Fall – Varastoklubi, Rauma; March 4th 2017
“Oh my God!” Marko said as he got down on his knees and crawled towards us at the start of ‘Locking up the sun’ last night. Those three words pretty much sum up the concert. It was absolutely unbelievable! From the first notes of the intro when we watched the guys walk down to the stage to the last bow Jaska, Captain and Ollie took after the stage lights went out for the final time it was one amazing gig. Every note, every move, every gesture, every smile was somehow special that night and when it was over it felt like waking from a beautiful dream: Slightly dazed, but tremendously happy.
The day started with a long, good breakfast in Turku, before S. and I took a bus to Rauma around noon. Once settled, we decided to go out for a bit. On the elevator I had just told her how I often run into at least one of the guys when we reached the ground floor. Imagine our surprise when the doors opened and Ollie was standing in front of us. 😀 We said hello, hugged, chatted for little while and went our separate ways. Good thing we met him too, because we had been thinking the doors would open at 10:00 pm and that was actually the start time of the gig as he told us.
The afternoon went by quickly and around 7:00 pm we found ourselves at the venue waiting. Twice, someone came out and made sure we knew they would not open the doors until 8. Yep, we are that crazy. We briefly met Jari and Jani as they left the venue shortly before they let us in. Jari confirmed that we were crazy indeed. 😀 Well, we were rewarded with front row center spots. Only then we remembered how high the stage is at that venue and we were joking about getting stiff necks looking up. S. suggested Marko should just get down on his knees for the duration of the concert so we’d be able to see him better. Great idea! 🙂 Would we have wanted to trade our places for a spot further back? Hell no! S., who had joined us outside completely agreed. It was a long wait and I envied the girl to our left who had brought an iPad and was watching Sherlock.
Finally, just before ten the venue filled up and we all got ready. Lights out, intro on and we could watch the guys as they walked towards the stage via an upstairs walkway, descending stairs at the end, with Marko leading the rest of them. Once they had taken their places I knew I had chosen the right spot. I had a clear view of everyone, even Captain was not always blocked by Marko. 😉 the show was off to a beautiful start, the guys were clapping, Marko leaned out into the crowd to our right, Jari was beating the drums madly and everyone was so close I forgot all about picking up my camera until three songs in.
The sound was good, the lights gorgeous and not as blinding as we had thought when they were tested earlier that night and the guys looked like they were having a blast. When they stood right in front of us, to was kinda difficult to see their faces, but the perfect perspective to watch Jaska’s, Ollie’s and Jani’s hands work the guitars or bass. It was so beautiful. Often I found myself leaning back to take pictures from a weird angle, but some of them turned out rather nice. Marko was directly in front of us most of the time and not only did he lean forward and looked at us a lot, he did indeed get down on his knees several times. As usual my ability to take pictures completely failed me the moment he looked at me. 😀
The first few songs went by in a rush with me singing along, watching the guys one by one, smiling like a loon and moving with the music. I absolutely enjoyed every second of it, but it felt like each song didn’t last longer than a heartbeat. During ‘Daze’ I raised my arm, shouting the line “We’ll be loving till the first light of the day”, for ‘Diamonds 4 Tears” I head out y hands and during the chorus of ‘Dreaming wide awake’ I looked at each one of them, because I do dream you wide awake. 🙂 ‘The Game’ is always a highlight and this time we got the treat of first Marko singing directly to us and then having Jaska right in front of us playing his solo. Awesome.
The most magical moment of the night came with ‘The Labyrinth’ though. It always starts with absolutely gorgeous backlight and I had just raised my camera to take a picture of Jari, when unexpectedly Marko got down on his knees right in front of me and sang to me. Needless to say I forgot all about my camera and most of the lyrics and just stared at him in awe. It was so beautiful and he stayed there for almost the entire song. <3 Maybe he did it, because he remembered I told that it’s my favorite song on the album or maybe he did it because I just happened to be in that spot, but either way, time stood still for a little while. The song always gets to me and this made me even more emotional. It could not have been more perfect.
The setlist stayed the same from the previous night with ‘Temple of Thought’ being next. It it one of the songs that I have always loved, but sometime it seems stronger than others and this was one of those times. Chills indeed. ‘Rogue’ was just fun, with me not being able to decide whom to watch. 🙂 At one point Ollie realized I was taking a picture of him so he pointed at me. 😀 I really love it when they pose for me from time to time. ‘Drama for Life’ was so powerful it just blew me away. S. and I looked at each other, singing a few lines together, smiling, understanding without words that it does not get any better than this.
‘Everything fades’ brought me close to tears again, just before the band exploded into ‘Locking up the sun’ was Marko on the floor crawling towards us on his hands and knees at the start of the song and later Jani leaning on to him with his head against Marko’s chest. During the “look within yourself for absolution” line Marko crossed himself. I’d never seen him do that before. I had so much fun, the entire concert was full of happy, crazy, beautiful moments. During ‘Carnival of Rust’ I remember the moment just after Ollie changed from acoustic to electric guitar, leaning back with the guitar neck raised high, illuminated from behind.
The left the stage while we yelled for more. Soon the came back, but they had to stay on the stairs for a moment, because the crew member whom I refer to as “gorgeous hair guy” (sorry, don’t know your name yet) just needed a tiny moment to get the guitar ready for Ollie. 🙂 ‘War’ brought me some close-up looks at the band again, and Ollie was leaning against Marko’s shoulder at one point. During ‘Lift’ they were all dueling each other again, Captain was conduction the audience or his band members, Marko beat against the strings of Jani’s bass, used his mic stand like it was a guitar and Jani inspected how Ollie played. 😀
Just before ‘Children of the Sun’ Captain walked up to Jani, tapped him on the shoulder and said something. I was dying to know what it was, but that will remain a secret. Soon after there was some pointing guitars, bass and drumsticks at each other going on between Jani, Ollie and Jari, but I was at the wrong angle to see what was happening and Jaska was blocking my view so I have no clue what really happened, but it must have been funny because Jari could not stop laughing and made me laugh in turn. 😀 Too soon the last song was over and the guys said goodbye. Ollie was shaking hands with everyone in front row, while Jaska and Captain waited for him to take a bow together. It didn’t happen, the stage lights went off before he was done. 😀
We all agreed that it had been an amazing night while we gathered our things. S. and I said goodbye to S. who wanted to stay and went back to our hotel where we had drinks and chatted until late into the night. We were already looking forward to the coming weekend and the next concert
Setlist
Shadow Play
Daze
Dreaming Wide Awake
Diamonds 4 Tears
The Game
The Labyrinth
Temple of Thought
Rogue
Drama for Life
Everything fades
Locking up the sun
Carnival of Rust
War
Lift
Children of the Sun
Clearview Finland tour: 4 gigs down, 9 to go. Next stop: Pori