Poets of the Fall – Puikkari, Kuopio; April 1st, 2017
It was winter in Kuopio when we arrived. Considering I had left spring in Germany, I could have done with less snow. The weather has rarely stopped me from attending concerts though and it was not gonna stop me now. in fact last time I had seen Poets of the Fall in Kuopio they played in July and it had been unusually cold, whereas snow in April is not a surprise in Finland. Surprising, however, was the late start time. S. and I both had read showtime would be at 22:00, but it was actually midnight. Waaaah? Oh well,… Needless to say the gig was worth freezing in the cold and losing sleep over. It was brilliant and we both walked away quite happy.
The day had started with a long and relaxed breakfast in Lati, followed by an uneventful train ride to Kuopio. We had just settled in and gone downstairs to have a tea when the guys arrived. I only noticed when Captain walked up to me from behind and said “Boo!” 😀 We briefly said hello to Captain and Jani, who had seen us, but left everyone else alone and went for a tea. Fast forward a few hours and we were standing outside the venue waiting. There was an entrance from the hotel, but we were not allowed to sue that one. Luckily it was not as cold as I had feared, we had a nice chat with the people who arrived after us and got in just a little bit late.
The meet & greet had ten or twelve people – a good sized group. The guys had fun posing for some band pictures after all of us were done with their photos. 🙂 S. and I started talking to Captain first, then Ollie joined us. I joked about him looking familiar and he was like “No, you must confuse me with someone else”. this went on until S. quipped that I had used a terrible pickup line. 😀 We all laughed at that. we told them about the fun we had the previous weekend and how good the sound was all this tour. We also told them how much we light the current lights set up – bringing their own lights was a good choice. Marko joined us and I said “Look, today they are all coming to us.” 🙂 He demanded a hug from me too which I gladly gave. 🙂 We talked about tour life and he gave a funny description of people sleeping on the tour bus, doing everything to block out too much light. Jani joined us, but somehow we were interrupted and went back to him later. We admitted to being crazy and having to stay in front row now for the next three hours and he thought it was crazy indeed. After that, we talked to Jari for quite some time too, about great Italian food in Kuopio, the life of a session drummer and other things. Food was an ongoing theme that night. Everyone was hungry. We never got around to speaking wit Jaska, even though he had already been there when we walked in and we had briefly said hello. Somehow it was over too fast, or it felt like it because we were taking our time.
Having to wait much longer than we thought we would have to, S. went back to our room to have some food, since she did not have much since breakfast. I kept our spot at the front, having to move out of the way a lot for the crew to get through. The stage had a bannister around it everywhere but at the center where the gap was closed by two ropes. This was the only way to get to the stage if you weren’t coming from backstage, so everyone had to pass me. Glen apologized every time too. Awww. 🙂 S. got back and we spent the time taking – for once the music in the room was not too loud to do that. Eventually the place filled up and by the time midnight rolled around a nice crowd had gathered.
It was a good crowd too, into the show right from the start. That was what I had been hoping for. 🙂 The bannister around the stage that strangely went on on the stage to the left and right of the center, thereby fencing in Ollie, Jaska and Jani, was not great for taking pictures, but sure gave the guys some opportunities and a few ideas. 😉 Already during one of the first songs, Marko climbed up on it, walked towards the audience and then jumped down again. It served as a seat quite a few times too, but turned out being a little too high as a footrest. 😉
There was good energy in the room and on stage. The Poets played together as much as they teased each other. Ollie spent a lot of time with Captain, both rocking out behind the keyboards. He jumped off the keyboard raiser again as well, together with Jaska. I knew that was coming and wanted to capture it, but Marko was in the way. It happens. There are many times I’ve seen Marko pulling on Jani’s tie, but it was different that night. Not only did he grab Jani’s tie with his right and pulled him closer (with Jani making a scared face too), but he pretended to punch him with his left. Later on though, there were lots of hugs too with Jani leaning on to Marko’s shoulder. Once, they were standing right at the center of the stage, but the mic stand was in the way. Marko noticed and pushed it over to the side with his foot, all the while continuing to sing. 🙂
Everyone, who was not stationary behind his instrument got their moment in the spotlight at the front and center of the stage, playing close enough to us to touch. When it was Jaska’s turn he stepped all the way to the edge of the stage, almost knocking us out with his guitar. 😀 During ‘War’ he stood in front of us with his arms crossed over his face and slowly leaned forward. It was a very cool moment. His space googles made an appearance again as well and were first worn by Jaska and later by Captain, who bowed to him in thanks when he returned them.
Marko did a lot of acrobatics with the mic stand that night, like twirling it round and round, all the while rolling it up his arms and lifting it over his head all the time. He also used the microphone like a baseball bat, pretending to hit Ollie with it. 😀 At one point he randomly asked if his bottom looked good in the jeans he was wearing and turned so we could check it out. Someone yelled back “good enough.”
Ollie got lots of appreciation. During ‘Rogue’ Jani pointed to him with his bass and when the encores rolled around Ollie was on the keyboard raiser, playing on his knees with Captain pointing down to him during a solo. Then Jani got down on his knees playing in front of him, Jaska joined them and in the end Marko was on his knees bowing to Ollie. Some people in the audience did it too. A perfect moment!
It must have been hot on stage, because Jaska got rid of his jacket for the encores and Jani was shirtless and sweating all over the place. During ‘Lift’ he was standing in front of Jari, who showed him four fingers, then only three. I was wondering what that was all about, joking with S. after the show that he was ordering three beer. Turns out he was grading Jani. After the show we ran into him and asked. His answer was “He was dissing me!” So that must have been four on a ten scale. They were just having a laugh though, nothing worth dissing occurred.
These are all the little moments I remember, but I a sure there were tons more I forgot. They stood with each other a lot and often leaned on to each other that night too. It was one of those concerts you just leave with a big happy smile on your face, knowing you’ve been part of something wonderful. Both S. and I were too excited to sleep afterwards, chatting and laughing for a long time before we finally went to bed, dreaming of the next weekend.
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: 12 gigs down, 3 to go. Next stop: Lappeenranta