Poets of the Fall – Logomo, Turku; March 23rd, 2018

We had seen Logomo in Turku the last time in the beginning of the Clearview tour and were wondering why Poets of the Fall chose that venue over one of the smaller ones. My memories of the other gig were fuzzy, but included a big stage and a somewhat cold venue. I was looking forward to seeing the guys, but somehow did not have high expectations. Apparently those were good conditions, because it turned out to be a brilliant gig. The band was in top form and the setlist was beautiful. There was nothing more I could have asked for.

It was an early day for me that started with getting up at 3 am to get my 6 am flight. Made my connection in Copenhagen, but of course it seemed to be the furthest possible distance between arrival and departure gates. Either way, all went well and when I arrived at the hotel in Turku in the early afternoon, S. was already waiting for me. We caught up, rested and eventually walked to the venue where we met up with G. The waiting time went quickly and we scored front row center spots. Said hello to a few people and passed the time chatting.

Suddenly it was 8 pm and the lights went down. Yay! I love early concerts. I also loved the intro and the new lights they have in the back, reading “POETS” in bright letters. 😀 S. had hinted at changes in the setlist since last time so I was curious what would happen before the gig, but stopped thinking about it immediately, too busy enjoying the great sound. Being free of my camera for the night and having some space behind me for once, I spent a lot of the time jumping and got a lot of smiles when the guys saw me. For the first time in a long time I was slightly right of the mic stand and got to see a lot of Ollie. I liked it.

Getting a first look at the guys as they walk out always gets me in the mood and I love looking out for little changes in their stage outfits. This time I loved the shirt Captain was wearing – very stylish and Marko looked mighty fine in a leather jacket and with stubble – rugged rocker look ftw!  😀 The first song was ‘Overboard’ and I was happy that was not a one-off. I love it when they dig up songs they have not played in ages. 🙂 It was fun too! I loved ‘Daze’ and especially ‘False Kings’ put a big smile on my face. It is such an amazing song and so different from the others that it makes me totally curious about the upcoming new album. If there is one thing I am sure of is that I will find something unexpected there. 😀

When ‘Diamonds for Tears’ came along I sighed briefly, then started jumping. I did not really expect them to scrap that one off of the setlist for good. 😉 ‘Shallow’ and ‘Rogue’ made me happy and I liked the changes it the setlist order. It felt right to have ‘Rogue’ earlier than it was at the last concert I had seen. Not to mentioned that the guys killed it. 🙂

My expectations of this show had been comparably low, because it is a big venue and it was not entirely packed, but it turned out to be a great show. The guys certainly had fun and after a while they had completely won over the audience too. 😀 In my mind, I was taking pictures of the band, while I enjoyed just watching and tried hard not to miss anything. It was impossible of course, but I saw many great, funny and lovely moments throughout the evening. 🙂 One I clearly remember was Captain playing air guitar. I’ve seen him air drum and also play air keyboards, but air guitaring was new. 🙂

When everyone was back on stage after ‘Rogue’ thy sure took me by surprise. Marko talked about their first single, but I didn’t understand everything he said and expected ‘Late Goodbye’. What he actually said must have been that they were going to play the B-side, of ‘Lift’ that is. Imagine my surprise when they played ‘The Beautiful Ones’. I had only hear that song once before and certainly did not expect it here. It was so beautiful it brought me close to tears. <3

Followed by ‘You’re still here’ another unexpected gem and ‘Given and Denied’ when G. turned to us and said “This is my song!” it was the absolute perfect string of songs in the setlist. So emotional. How much better could it get? ‘Kamikaze Love’ release all the tension from standing still and just staring at the guys and turned it into dancing, jumps and screams. I totally went nuts for that song and got smiles from the guys as they watched me. 🙂 It might have been after this that Jaska pointed to me and threw me a guitar pick. I tried hard to catch it, but it was a complete fail so I smiled, shrugged and mouthed “thank you”. He tried again and this one landed behind. I was lucky the people who stood there were nice and let me pick it up instead of snatching it away from me. <3

As I tried to write down the setlist later I had the feeling I was missing a song at this point of the show, but I still cannot remember so I’m gonna assume my feeling was wrong and ‘Late Goodbye’ was next. It’s good that they gave this one a break for a while. I am really enjoying it again now. 🙂 This ended the main set and once again I could not believe how quickly time had passed. One funny moment I remember is that somewhere halfway into the show Marko opened a coke bottle with great drama and much “Ahh” to express refreshment. 😀

They encore stayed the way it had been on the cruise with ‘Children of the Sun’ in the beginning. Even after more than a year of hearing it at every concert, the song still means a lot to me. If we remembered more often how similar we really are and how important it is to take care of each other, the world would be a better place. <3 ‘War’ never fails to get me emotional and I felt the tears in my eyes. The song will always be important to me. Needless to say it is great fun watching Jaska play his solo too.

We rocked some more with ‘dreaming wide awake’ and ‘Lift’ and somewhere during either song I must have had my gig face one while I was watching Ollie. Marko saw me watching and smiled at me, then watched Ollie as well. It was a brief look saying “Isn’t he amazing?”. He sure is. 😀 Time flew by ad already they started ‘Carnival of Rust’. A last few minutes to dream, a big sigh and they were waving goodbye. Ollie even came running by the first row shaking hands. 😀 It was a great gig and had me wanting more. Good thing they often come in twos. 🙂

Everyone was hungry after the gig so we ended up having pizza with so much arugula on it we declared it a salad. 😉 So the evening ended with food drinks and nice conversations. It could not have been any better.

Setlist

Overboard
Daze
False Kings
Diamonds for Tears
Shallow
Rogue
The Beautiful Ones
You’re Still Here
Given and Denied
Kamikaze Love
Late Goodbye

Encore:
Children of the Sun
War
Dreaming Wide Awake
Lift
Carnival of Rust