Poets of the Fall – Allas sea Pool, Helsinki; August 25th, 2023

Poets of the Fall played a bunch of summer open airs this year as part of their 20th anniversary tour, but the show in Helsinki was the only one I could make it to. It wasn’t the greatest gig I’ve ever see, but it sure was a fun one with a good audience and friends by my side. An enjoyable evening for sure.

My trip started with a delayed flight, but since I arrived the night before the show, it didn’t really matter. On show day, I met up with C., C. and A. for a relaxed lunch and even returned to my hostel before getting in line around 3 pm, where some people had already been standing since 10:30 – whatever floats your boat! There were a lot of familiar faces among those waiting and some new ones, one being a woman who’d traveled from the US and was wearing a red copy of Marko’s distinctive jacket with the shoulder spikes. It looked cool and must have taken a ton of work. She brought a fan letter and thus got to meet the band (in this case Marko) before the gig to hand it to them. Lovely gesture to talk to her for a bit. 🙂

When the doors opened it was at the same time more and less chaotic than I expected. I ran and scored a front row spot on Olli’s side with enough space to bring a few more people in. Good company – check! There wasn’t all that long to wait and we passed the time chatting.

At about 5 to 8 the show started with some spoken words by Marko. Unfortunately this was completely lost on most of the crowd and people kept talking right through it. It was something about arriving and thinking about how you feel, and how long it was to show start… but so hard to understand that I gave up on even trying to listen. I thought it was too long for an open air venue, because it was barely audible at times. Might have worked at an inside venue, with less background noise, but here it fell completely flat. I’m assuming the idea was getting people ready for the show, so I liked the sentiment, but shorter and more volume would have done the job much better in my opinion.

Finally the real intro started, the guys walked on stage and kicked it off with ‘Revelations’. I immediately realized that I should have spent some time listening to the Ghostlight album – I did not remember the lyrics at all. Many people around me did and sang along, while I was watching the band and had the feeling they were in a good mood. Nice! Luckily the second song was ‘Locking up the sun’ and I do know that one in my sleep. 😉 Olli had smiled at me right away and now Marko was pointing to K. and me because we were “turning back time”. This was the show I had been hoping for.

Singing along was easy for ‘Illusion & Dream’ – it was my first favorite and is still a song that makes me happy. I did not have a bottle to toast them with so I just raised my hand. ‘Temple of Thought’ was beautiful and had us all wave our hands. Instead of ‘Rogue’, ‘Requiem for my Harlequin’ followed and I remembered some of those lyrics. 😉 That was a fun one. By now I was into it and enjoyed watching the guys work.

With ‘Rogue’ the usual shenanigans started like Jani refusing to play until there was sufficient cheering. So many little gestured during the show, so many moments that happen repeatedly and that I had missed dearly since April. They were al smiling a lot and playing off of each other, teasing each other. Marko made rabbit ears for Olli at one point and motioned for people to take pictures. He was also dancing goofily across stage later on.

For the first time ever ‘Dreaming wide awake’ felt weird. usually, I always feel the “cause I can’t let you go” line, no matter what. It is a line that rings true in my heart. That night, however, I was feeling indifferent about it. I knew why, I was still upset because with the new “priority passes” they want to make the fans pay for nothing and everything about it felt wrong to me, especially the way they communicated the idea. Usually, being upset with them doesn’t matter that much. It has happened before and they always get me to a point where I forgive everything, because they are still one of my favorite bands and they are still one of the best live bands I know. Yet, it felt like the magic had worn off and it made me sad.

Despite all that, ‘My Dark Disquiet’ had me dancing along and I even enjoyed ‘Diamonds for Tear’, a song I had been so tired of a few tours ago. In singing along, jumping and moving with the music, I tricked myself into enjoying the concert, screamed the cal and response for ‘Daze’ and did my best to sing “It’s a late goodbye” not totally off key. That already ended the main set, it had felt so short.

They came back with ‘War’ and it made me really happy. I love that song and it has always had a special place in my heart. “You were there by my side on the front line” – but were you really? When ‘Lift’ started right after, I waited for the “on and on and on” line, did my part and of course Marko looked my way. He never fails me there. <3 Jumping along to the chorus felt great. The song never gets old. Then, of course, the perfect finale with ‘Carnival of Rust’. I watched Olli closely, his fingers dancing across the guitar. <3 “And more then ever I hope to never fall, where enough is not the same it was before!” – we will have to see about that.

I somewhat felt disappointed, because back in April they had played ‘Maybe tomorrow is a better day’ and I could not believe they had retired the song already. It was so special to have it on the setlist. It was a fun show overall, and I didn’t regret going, but there was a bitter aftertaste still lingering. Luckily, I had friends around me, who always make the experience so much better. With drinks and some yummy bar food, we chatted into the night. All is well that ends well.

Setlist

Revelations
Locking Up the Sun
Illusion & Dream
Temple of Thought
Requiem for My Harlequin
Rogue
Dreaming Wide Awake
My Dark Disquiet
Diamonds for Tears
Daze
Late Goodbye

Encore:
War
Lift
Carnival of Rust