Poets of the Fall – Nosturi, Helsinki; September 22nd 2007

After getting my first taste of the drug that Poets of the Fall live concerts are in Odense, I knew I just had to see them again. The only way to do that again this year was to travel to Finland, a country that didn’t even exist on my internal map before I heard about the Poets for the first time. “All the more reason to go,” I told myself, “it’s about time you see something new.” Never mind that I had decided to save up some money or that I really didn’t have any vacation days left.

So there I was, sitting in my hotel room in Helsinki, not quite believing I was really there. The city is very beautiful – nice buildings, lots of water and lots of green. It looks different from most other cities I have seen so far and the difference is lovely. I want to return and see much more of this city, but I’ll stop talking about that now and get to business: the concert.

Arrived at the Nosturi around 7 p.m., saw a few familiar faces and had some people to talk to until the doors opened an hour later. I ended up in second row center, happy and excited. I knew there’d be three other bands before the Poets, but the important part was that I made it – nothing else mattered.

It was weird because I could not understand what people where saying and kept repeating “Sorry, I don’t speak Finnish” all night.  At 9:00 pm the show started. The first band, ‘The Ruby Foos’, were not really my taste, but the sound was bad too and it took me about 3 songs to finally realize they were singing English and not Finnish. 😉 The second band, ‘Kings of Fools’ played acoustically and were OK, but the lyrics were rather boring. The third band ‘Traffic Island’ seemed to be know already because the audience greeted them enthusiastically and sang along a lot. They were pretty good.

Finally, at 11:30 it was time for what most of us had been waiting for: Poets of the Fall. From the very first moment there was magic in the nght. They started with ‘Fire’ and right away I was totally into it. Ollie was going wild, turning round and round while playing his guitar. Second song was ‘Sorry go round’, then ‘Overboard’. The sound was great this time and I could hear every one of Marko’s words.

I don’t remember the order after that, but we got to hear ‘Gravity’, ‘Stay’, ‘Late Goodbye’, ‘Lift’, ‘Desire’, ‘Don’t mess with me’, ‘Carnival of Rust’, ‘Locking up the sun’ and in the end ‘Illusion and Dream’. I loved every second and my eyes were pretty much glued on Marko. From the beginning he kept going toward the audience shaking our hands. The first time around I had to stretch to grab him, but the second time around he looked straight at me (very nice eyes too 😉 ).

The stage setup was a little different than in Odense. Captain had been on the right there and was on the left now, where I could hardly see him. Everyone else I could see well and they were in such a good mood it was pure joy watching them. The audience was having fun too and did a pretty good job singing along, especially during ‘Stay’ for “It’s the little things, little things, little things that make the world.” 🙂

Marko threw all sorts of stuff into the audience, postcards and even a hat. At the end of ‘Illusion & Dream’ he shook hands with us once again, looking at everyone and telling us “kiitos” (thank you). That was such a sweet thing to do. Jari threw drumsticks and one came flying towards the girl next to me so I caught it and gave it to her. She was over the moon with happiness.

The whole concert was so mesmerizing and in a heartbeat it was all over and I wanted more. I was hoping they band would come out after the show, but this time they did not. I felt so high and elated I could not sleep. Hopefully I’ll make it back to Finland for more shows next tour. Going to Helsinki for the Poets was one of my best decisions ever.

I’ve been back for four days now and still havent touched ground. I would love to go to the next gig right away, but for now, the memories will have to suffice. It’s been a long time since something got me so completely. This could be the beginning of a great love affair with a great band. It certainly feels special.

Setlist (probably out of order)

Fire
Sorry go round
Overboard
Gravity
Desire
Stay
Don’t mess with me
Late Goodbye
Carnival of Rust
Locking up the Sun
Illusion & Dream