Poets of the Fall – Szene, Vienna; October 7th, 2022
I don’t think I’ve ever missed a Poets of the Fall show in Vienna and yet, this one was not planned until May, when my friend S. asked me if I was coming. Then, in September I talked my friend A. into joining me there. It turned out to be a good decision. We had a lot of fun at the show.
It was another all night train trip for me, but I got to Vienna at the scheduled time and could relax a bit at our hotel before going for lunch with A. It was lovely weather so we decided to walk to the venue and find a café on the way. Only: there was no café to be found and we arrived an hour earlier than planned. we joined everyone else who was waiting and even saw the bands arrived. They waved at us as they walked in. More people joined and eventually my friend S. arrived. We didn’t have enough time to catch up, having been on this fan journey together for so long.
We got cold and bored eventually and they didn’t open the doors on time either, but finally we were inside, I got my photo pass and we ended up in front of Ollie. The venue is on the smaller side and when Tom Lumley and the Brave Liason started playing I remembered why I don’t like it much: The lights are terrible. Anyway, I enjoyed my photo pass privileges and walked around behind the barriers for three songs, taking pictures and not hearing much of them, because the sound wasn’t great either.
Once back at my spot I enjoyed the rest of their set nonetheless. They just spread so much positive energy and slowly but surely I even remember some of the lyrics. From where I stood, I could barely understand what Tom was singing, but had lots of fun watching them as usual. They just can’t stand still. 😀 With the less than ideal light and sound I was skeptical as to how the gig was going to be, but the guys set us off to such a good start, I already felt much more positive about it.
Setlist
Modern Age
Anchor
Shrink
No Trust
Comedown
Say Nothing
Fake Friends
Crawling
I was so ready for the show and decided to not go behind the barrier again, because some people behind me were already discussing about squeeing in to my spot. I can take pictures just as well from where I stand.
The intro started and I was relieved to hear that the sound had improved. Some shows just draw you in from the start and this was one of them. It was really hard to remember that I was only allowed to take pictures for three songs, because all I wanted to do was jump, sing and clap along. As far as singing goes I could not understand everything Marko said or sang, but it didn’t matter at all. I know the gist of it anyway. 😉
The woman to my right had never seen Poets of the Fall before, even though she had been a fan for year, so she was extremely excited and her enjoyment made the show even better. Seeing the delight on her face was wonderful and she was over the moon when Ollie gave her a guitar pick in the end. “You are amazing!” she shouted at the band. She’s right, they are.
Fandeer Pam was sitting on my side, in front of the speaker, watching the show from there. She really should be wearing ear protection. 😉 When Jani stepped on there, I was scared he’d step on here, but he seemed conscious of where she was and set his foot down next to her. He was too close even for close-up shots. 😛 During ‘Dreaming wide awake’, as Ollie stood on the keyboard raiser, ready to jump, Jani stood in my way and I tried to focus on Ollie and not Jani’s legs. Just before the jump he noticed and move out of the way – and then the lights were way too bright to capture it. 😀
During ‘Rogue’ I was supposed to stop taking pictures, but as long as I wasn’t too obvious the nice security guard didn’t mind. The guys were on fire and spent quite a long time urging us to clap along before they started getting into the song. Tuomas even played the drums standing up for a while. All the guys were in a good mood and joked around with each other a lot. During ‘Firedancer’ Marko watched Jaska’s playing closely and made the most funny faces doing it.
Even though I could not understand all of the words from where I stood, I didn’t mind at all and sang along at the top of my lungs. Both, Ollie and Marko checked from time to time if I was singing along and at least this time they did not catch me when I didn’t know the words. 😉 It was so much fun to dance and jump and I was so into it, that I missed quite a few nice moments, i.e. I saw them but did not manage to capture them with my camera.
Several times Ollie was the center of attention with everyone else watching him, Jani even from down on his knees, but I cannot remember which song that was. Marko, was playing along on the mic stand when he was not making funny faces and pointing to Ollie. Jaska of course gt his moments to shine as well and was wearing such a bright smile it as contagious. Glen did not take as many pictures taht night or at least he did not run around to do it, but he sure took part in the ‘Choice Millionaire’ exercise.
‘Sounds of Yesterday’ and ‘Chasing Echoes’ felt especially beautiful to me that night and there was only love in my heart for this band, who have been part of my life for 15 years. <3 With ‘Stay forever’ the main set ended and they all set down in front of the drums and keyboards for a while, goofing around while doing so. Especially Marko was always moving and teasing the others. I remember at one point he was pointing his butt towards Ollie, but that might have been during the encores. Captain had his hands in the air a lot, rocking out and Jani was spending a lot of time standing on the boxes side stage.
When the encores rolled around, he sat down on one and even the security guard was watching him. That guy was rocking and clapping along during the entire gig. Awesome! During ‘Lift’ Marko picked up a towel and held it up like a torero, with Ollie running towards it, guitar neck pointed front. It was hilarious. When the gig ended I smiled ear to ear and mouthed “thank you” to all of them. Ollie shook my hand, the others smiled at me and for the band picture they took Pam off of her seat so she got to be in it.
We agreed that it had been a great show, said hello to Tom Lumley and band and goodbye to those who would not be joining us again on this tour. I was happy to hear that S. had loved the show. Hugs all around, see you soon!
Setlist
Requiem for my Harlequin
Dreaming wide awake
Temple of Thought
Rogue
Firedancer
My Dark Disquiet
Sounds of yesterday
Choice Millionaire
Chasing Echoes
Stay forever
The Sweet Escape
Daze
Lift
Carnival of Rust
Ghostlight fall tour: Seven gigs down, two to go. Next stop: Graz