Sometimes tomorrow is a better day

Poets of the Fall – O13, Tilburg; October 25th, 2019

It’s 8 in the morning, I have slept less than 6 hours and I’m siting at Amsterdam airport, waiting for my flight to Belfast. About 14 hours ago I was wondering whether I should skip Poets of the Fall’s concert in Tilburg and just get a good night’s sleep instead. If not for my friend A. telling me “You’ll regret it if you don’t go!” I probably would have. As it is, I am glad I listened to her and went anyway. It was the absolute best to cure my horrible mood and I had a great time with friends by my side. 🙂

My day started with a nice breakfast at B.’s place before I embarked on my train journey to Tilburg. All went well until a delayed train made just me miss my connection in Düsseldorf and by “just” I mean i ran through the train station, saw the train, but it closed the doors on me and took off. 🙁 Then I found out with the next possible connection I’d be in Tilburg almost two (!) hours later. “Almost two” was especially annoying, because if you get delayed two hours or more German railways have to pay back 50 % of your ticket price. If it is just a few minutes under two hours, they don’t. Great! (NOT). When I finally got there I just wanted to sell my ticket, go to my hotel in Rotterdam and sleep. Fortunately, I didn’t find anyone who wanted to buy it, so I went back to the train station to leave my luggage. Well, all the lockers were either taken or broken, it was one of those days. The venue was supposed to have central luggage storage as well, but that was closed. Seriously? FML!  However , the people at the venue were great and told me to take everything in, they’d store it for me. Turns out they had a few lockers too. Nice!

I was way in the back of the line, so I figured I’d be standing by the mixing desk. Imagine my surprised when I walked in and the venue was not even halfway filled. On the right side, at the front I saw C. sitting on a chair. I went over to say hello and nobody minded me staying behind her by the side of the stage. I was closer to the stage than I had been the previous night, because there was no barrier here. This venue was much smaller, with a nice balcony upstairs. Things were looking better already. 🙂

There was a different support act than the previous night, called Ten Times a Million. They sported the typical tattooed, mostly long haired rockband look that was so popular in the late 80ies and early 90ies. Only the singer had short hair. There music was very listenable, but did not strike me as anything special. I was rather amused by their performance though, because everything about it screamed “we are a serious rockband!”. They knew all the poses, but somehow there was no spark for me at all. It looked like the band was having fun though, I guess that counts for something. The singer tried us to participate and sing along, but he mostly spoke Dutch which was lost on much of the first few rows. For the last song the singer had to crouch down to read the lyrics he had taped to the floor. That looked familiar, reminding me of the first gigs of the ‘Twilight Theater’tour.  It was OK to pass the time, but nothing more. Sorry guys, not my thing.

It didn’t look like Poets were going to make us wait for long, because the crew quickly change the stage. I spent the time talking with C. and looking at fandeer Pam, happily sitting on the stage next to Ollie’s pedal board. At this point I still wasn’t 100% sure I was feeling it, but now I was there , so I might as well enjoy what I was about to get. There was a false alarm with everyone cheering when the pre gig music stopped for a moment, only for the next song to start. Soon after it stopped for real though as the lights went down. Now!

The house was packed and when everyone screamed at the end of the “whatever you do…” intro, I knew this audience was going to be a lot more active than the previous one. 🙂 From my spot I had a great view of most of the guys, only Captain was a bit hidden at times. I wished I had my camera, but then again jumping is so much easier without it. 😉

It urned out to be a beautiful night of music After the first two songs or so I had forgotten all the bad mood I’d had all day and was much into enjoying the show, watching the guys do their thing, enjoying the fact that I had room to move and being happy with the audience response. C.had lots of fun too and we both watched fandeer Pam who was sitting on the stage, enthralled with the guys and even rocking along. 😉

The show is a bit of a blur in my head as I’d had so many other things going in the past weeks and always needed to manage switching between artists. I love doing so and with the Poets I know it is going to work no matter who I see before or after. This was the second show in a row though and lines started to become a bit unclear between nights. I know that the feeling was right, that I sang along as loudly as I could and enjoyed moving with the beat, doing all the usual gestures. With ‘False Kings’ it always makes me smile when I see Ollie or Captain conducting the music at times. The played together as well and I remember at one point Ollie was almost resting his head on the keys. He plays air keyboard well. 😀

‘Temple of Thought’ is always a highlight and a much loved song. There was some arm waving going on too, but it rarely happens automatically and at different points during the song. 😉 It is always great though and I am sure it means a lot to a lot of people. I know it does to me. <3 It might have been during this song that Marko was hugging Jani and Jani leaned into him in response. The affection for each other among the and members is always visible and makes me appreciate them so much more. 🙂

From where I stood, I could not see much of Glen, unless he came out from behind the mixing desk. I had a great view of the other side of the stage though and spent some time watching Tiia during ‘Rogue’ – she was caught up in the music with a big smile on her face, seeing the boys at work. Marko joined her and they watched them do magic together. After that small break she got back to capturing the show with her camera. There were so many amazing moments that I tried to keep in mind, but they usually escape me as soon as the concert is over. 😉

I remember seeing Ollie file his nails at some point, they must have been too long to play guitar. I also remember Jaska not missing his cue his time and being there for Choice Millionaire to stand in line with Glen, Ollie and Marko, all moving their arms up and down. It’s always fun to see the things they do during different songs evolve and become bigger over time. 😉

‘The Sweet Escape’ was back to the English version, but I had not expected anything else. This made me even happier about having heard it in French the previous night. It works both was for me and the mood of the song is slightly different. I’m not sure if that is only because I do understand one version and not the other or if is something else. I felt much love for the song and the band right then and there, waving my phone with the light on until the very end, thinking my arm might fall off in the process. 😉

There was much dancing during ‘My Dark Disquiet’ and lots of jumping for ‘Choice Millionaire’. Everyone was into it, with the guys going crazy on stage and prompting the audience to do the same. So much fun! In between we had ‘In a perfect World’ and ‘War’ to breathe, listen and just enjoy. I know I closed my eyes at times, then juts watched them doing their magic. At one point Marko was playing air guitar along with Ollie and everyone was watching Ollie play, admiring him. Later on then, he exchanged solos and guitar duels with Jaska. They all looked really happy and seemed to have a blast.

Much too soon we arrived at the encores and during ‘Diamonds for Tears’ Marko smiled at me and sang “When you’re sleeping right next to me, I know you’re the one”. What a line to sing to me, it really amused me. By that time I was totally happy and lost in the music, knowing I’d done the right thing not skipping the show. My spirits were lifted by the music and I loved seeing the guys do what they do best. Towards the end I even got a guitar pick from Ollie. <3 Of course it all ended sooner than I wanted it to, but they guys had poured everything into the show and were rewarded with much cheering. After the final selfie they all waved to us as they left the stage and Jari got a moment in the spotlight alone, sending a drum stick into the crowd.

Once again I wondered how time had gone as I gathered my belongings. After a quick goodbye to C. I picked up my suitcase and hurried to the train station, since I was not spending the night in Tilburg. While I drove or rather was being driven into the night, I mused about how the day had turned out so much better than it had originally seemed and smiled at the memories, happy there would be a few more shows this year.

Setlist

Dreaming wide awake
Locking up the Sun
False Kings
Temple of Thought
Rogue
The Sweet Escape
My Dark Disquiet
In a perfect World
War
Daze
Choice Millionaire
Late Goodbye

Diamonds for Tears
Lift
Carnival of Rust

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