Where are we here? What’s this? A place we’ve never been…

Poets of the Fall – Lux Nightclub, Helsinki; July 30th 2008

My second Finland trip for Poets of the Fall started very innocently with a joke on the Prowlers of the Fall (German Street Team) forum. We were discussing a weekend to hold our BBQ and I suggested the weekend after my birthday, figuring we could start Friday and all celebrate together. Then I said something along the lines of: “In case the Poets should play on my birthday, I’d rather celebrate with them though”, knowing fully well they had festivals scheduled for August 2nd and 3rd, but nothing on the 1st. Since I am not a festival person I did not consider going….

At the end of June all of this changed. I checked the tour page and al of a sudden there was this gig on my birthday, somewhere in the middle of nowhere, western Finland. Classic case of “be careful what you wish for”? Whatever it was, I got my birthday wish and I was not about to let this chance go by. With a little help from my friends I managed to find out everything I needed to, booked flights and accommodation and spent the days until I was supposed to leave with growing excitement.

To top it all off I found out there was a gig at Lux Nightclub in Helsinki on the day I was supposed to arrive. I didn’t think twice about changing my flights and since I was going to be in Finland anyway, I bought a ticket for Ankkarock on August 3rd too. So in the time of two weeks one concert had turned to three and I could not be happier.

From the moment I arrived in Helsinki I knew this trip was going to be special. The first sign of that was hearing “Carnival of Rust” at the supermarket. Something that is not going to happen in Germany any time soon. It instantly put a smile on my face and set the mood for the rest of this trip.

Spent the next day sightseeing until it was time to get ready for the nightclub. They had a dress code so I did not dress in my usual jeans, t-shirt and sneakers but actually wore some nice black pants with heels and a brown soft top. Since I could not possible go to a POTF gig without some Poets attire, I also wore a tank to with the moth logo and “Passion colors everything” written across. Some other fans were already in line when I arrived and I recognized some familiar faces from the last Helsinki show I went to. Met S. from the Poets forum and we had a nice chat. She was nice enough to take me in on her free card too. 🙂

Once inside we immediately went for the stage. The interior of the club was very stylish, but a strange setting for a concert. Really small and in the middle of the room with only about three meters of space in front of it. After that came a metal fence, and a lower level with the dance floor. Totally weird. Even stranger was the fact that there was some sort of small “bar” in front of the stage and barstools we set on until half an hour before showstart. I would have liked to stay seated until the show just to see the reaction of our guys. 😉

Finally, after midnight the guys walked on stage one by one. They started with ‘The ultimate fling’, the ‘Diamonds for tears’. I was already lost in amazement again by then, not noticing much of what was going on around me. Still I realized that the audience wasn’t exactly great. There seemed to be quite a few people who didn’t really know the Poets. The guys had to work hard to get them to participate and the response still wasn’t great. The sing- along had been much better in Berlin back in April. Still, the poets seemed to have fun on stage and judging how much the people around me laughed, whatever Marko said that night must have been funny.

That night I got to hear ‘Clevermind’ for the first time and my personal highlight was ‘Passion colors everything’, my favourite song on the ‘Revolution Roulette’ album and the one song I had hoped they would play. It was beautiful. ‘Miss Impossible’, a song I don’t like much on the album, totally rocked the house and I loved to see ‘Illusion & Dream’ back in the set as well.

The guys were joking around a lot. During band introduction, Marko first touched Jani’s hair and then his own so I assume he said something about them having the same haircut. But what do I know; he might as well have said they cut each other’s hair with a hedge trimmer. Either way, it was a fun gig and once again, over in a heartbeat. No sign of the guys after, so I made my way back to my hotel.

The Lux gig was a strange but wonderful kick-off for my personal mini-tour. Strange because the club seemed such an unlikely location for a POTF gig and wonderful because it was so much fun and despite a rather unresponsive audience the guys played and sang their hearts out.

Setlist

The ultimate fling
Diamonds for Tears
Sorry go round
Stay
Clevermind
Passion colors everything
Miss impossible
Illusion & Dream
More
Carnival of Rust
Lift
Late goodbye

Part two of my trip

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