Phoenix Effect – frannz club, Berlin; September 16th, 2009

After stressful months at work I really needed some cheering up so I decided to go to Berlin in order to see Phoenix Effect at the ‘Helsinki meets Berlin’ concert, thinking they might help me “lose these blues I found”.  Not that I am a fan and not that I would usually travel that far to see them, but right now it was the best thing I could do.

I worked half a day, hopped on a train and arrived in Berlin to beautiful late summer weather and a warm hug from J.. We went straight to the frannz club, found out you could buy tickets only at the door and spent about an hour sitting on the stairs in front of the club. When they opened we sat down in the foyer for a while and saw all the guys walking around. They half smiled at us greeting sort of like saying “I know I’ve seen you before, but I’m not entirely sure”. Only Anton walked straight up to me, shook my hand and said it was nice to see me again. 🙂

Met B. and the Phoenix Effect fan gang and waited some more. B. was “abducted” by Janne for a bit, but safely returned to us. 🙂 We were kicked out a while before they opened up the actual club. Had a nice chat with the really funny bouncer. He told us to step back and that we were gettingon his nerves, then asked: “OK, I pushed you back, I yelled at you, did I forget anything?” Thus I told him that he had to look angry and he replied he could not do that without having a drink of redbull first. It went on like that for a bit and was really funny. Later that night he even let us hand in our jackets at the cloakroom for free.

We were in around 19:30 and sat down on stage for a bit. The first band “The Souls” played to an empty hall at 20:00. They were OK I guess but a bit too loud for my liking and the mix was so bad I could not understand what they were singing.

After they were done, all the Phoenix Effect Fans occupied the front and even had some banners and signs prepared to hold up. Finally at 21:00 Janne and the others came out, greeted with screams from us. They started with an awesome ‘Flashbacks ‘n’n Memories’. It’s one of my favorite songs on the album and the line “To remember you need to forget, you need to forget” made a whole lot of sense to me right then and there. Despite the sound not being great and me having trouble understanding what Janne was singing, I fell right ino it and loved every minute.

The second song, ‘One Day remains’ was new to me and I thought it might have been something they had recently written, but I was later told it was a cover version. Either way, I liked it.’Carry me’, my favorite tarck on the album was next and if I hadn’d already been into it that would have been the song to make me forget all my worries and carry me for the rest of the night (and a few days to come). It is such a beautiful masterpiece. 🙂

The upbeat ‘Hey you’ made us all smile, happy to be there. The band clearly enjoyed being on stage and playing to us. We weren’t many, but we made as much noise as we could, listened attentively when needed and sang along. For us, they gave their all. ‘My Heart is a beating drum” became my theme song for the night. My worries indeed seemed to wash away with the music.

‘Into Flame’ was truly a new song and allowed us a little preview of the upcoming album. It was hard to understand the unknown lyrics, but the song was very powerful. The two singles ‘King see no evil’ and ‘Broken Promises’ ended their set. Way too soon if you ask me, but I was happy to get to see them at all. They played only 8 songs, but those were well worth the trip.

Setlist

Flashbacks ‘n’ Memories
One Day remains (Alter Bridge cover)
Carry me
Hey you
My Heart is a beating Drum
Into Flame
King see no evil
Broken Promises

I hung out in the back, listening to Indica (the third band of the night) playing and really enjoyed their set as well.

Janne came out to talk to the fans and we chatted for a bit. Saw Pyry hanging out as well, but felt weird going over there because he was so intently watching the stage. B. dragged me over there and I finally got his autograph and a picture with him and Laurie as well. 🙂

Around 23:00 J. and I said goodbye to everyone and left. Spent the night at a friend’s place and didn’t get much sleep before having to go to the airport the next morening. Got there at 5:oo and to my surprise met a very tired band at the check in counter. I said hello briefly, then left them alone. They clearly were tired and not in the mood for talking. After arrival in Düsseldorf I said goodbye to the band and went to work with a smile on my face.