Poets of the Fall – Nightclub Tähti, Oulu; November 26th 2011
Operating on barely two hours of sleep is not something I do well, but enough pre-gig excitement and adrenaline do wonders for me and Coke (the brown liquid in the bottle, not the white powdery stuff some snort up their noses) did the rest. It was a nightclub gig so I knew it would not start before midnight.
Met my friends in the bar across from Tähti around 6:30 p.m. and had a good time just hanging out and chatting. K. and I had decided to go to the gig dressed up as our favorite Doctor Who, even though we were fairly sure the guys would not get what we were up to. Still, there was a chance one of them might understand and get a laugh out of it. Besides, we had a bunch of fun picking our costumes and getting ready. Katja even had the tenth doctor’s 3 D glasses and with my hair grown out, I do a pretty good impression of the 11th doctor’s hairdo. Without having agreed to do that, K. was wearing a button that read “Trust me, I’m the Doctor” and I had a sign saying “The Doctor, here to help”. We also brought, but never used, our respective sonic screwdrivers. The only effect all of this had was people staring at us, but we got a kick out of it nonetheless.
The stage was triangular and small; the guys wouldn’t have much room to move. The place filled up slowly, but by the time they hit the stage at midnight there was a pretty good crowd gathered. People moved in much closer than the previous night, they were more excited, wilder and louder too. This was going to be a good one.
The intro called the guys to stage one by one. They looked happy and very much at home – being on a break since summer seemed to have given them lots of energy that still lasted. It immediately spilled over to the audience everyone was rocking along from the start.
The setlist was the same as in Seinäjoki, but the mood was more relaxed than the previous night. The mixture of rocking songs and slower ones is just about perfect and it worked well. When ‘No End, no Beginning’ started, K. took hold of my hand and pretty soon the entire front row held hands. During ‘Sleep’, Marko almost hypnotized me. When he ended the song with “And you will sleep” in a low voice I was ready to fall alsleep right there. Luckily that didn’t last long and ‘Locking up the sun’ woke me up again. 😉
The whole concert was brilliant and so much fun. I spent much of the night just laughing at the silly things the guys did. I remember at one point Jari cracked up out of the blue. I wish I knew what was so funny, but seeing him laugh was totally contagious. Also they kept posing for someone. I still want to see these pictures. 😀
During ‘Illusion & Dream’ I was toasting to Jani and he toasted right back to me. For the encores, some of the legendary POTF G-strings were thrown on stage. Jaska picked up the trophies and decided to use the first one to decorate Marko’s top hat. The second one was hung on to Jaska’s guitar. Everyone was laughing at that, especially when Marko tried to grab it from there and Jaska would not let him. Later Ollie got the G-string to decorate his guitar. His and Jaska’s guitar duell during ‘Lift’ was amazing and brought the gig to a fitting close. The guys waved goodbye to everyone as they left the stage and Jari was even giving out drumsticks.
We stayed and talked for a bit after the gig, then I left for me hotel, trying to get a little sleep finally. At 6 the next morning it was time to leave. Oulu was still in the dark when I boarded my train. I didn’t notice anything outside the windows or see any daylight until I woke up again four hours later. I smiled at the memonries all the way home.
Setlist
Dreaming wide awake
The ultimate Fling
Can you hear me
No End, no Beginning
Stay
Sleep
Locking up the Sun
Diamonds for Tears
Roses
Given and Denied
War
Illusion & Dream
Encore:
Late goodbye
Carnival of Rust
Lift