Poets of the Fall – Warsaw, Proxima; September 4th, 2023

The gig in Warsaw was the best one on Poets of the Fall’s tour so far. It wasn’t about the venue or the light or the sound or even the setlist, but about the interactions among and with the band and all the little things that made it special. We had such a great time.

We spent the day after the Budapest show on a train ride to Warsaw. That meant more than 11 hours of sitting down, staring at the landscape outside the window and trying to catch up on sleep. It also meant a lot of time for discussion, going over the previous night’s show and the meeting with Captain and Olli afterwards. A. and I both felt that now we knew the real reason behind the priority passes, we wanted to support the band, even though we still did not like the idea. So once we were in Warsaw, we bought them and E. joined us.

After a good night’s sleep – the first one on this tour – show day started with breakfast and some downtime that I spent playing ukulele. A., C. E. and I met up for lunch at a restaurant close to the venue and had some good food, before going for a nice long walk in a nearby park. arrived at the venue around five with surprisingly many priority pass holders already in front of us, i.e. more than at either of the other venues.

We sat on the stairs for a while talking, eventually got up to form a line. This time they checked our names before they opened the door to make sure everyone had arrived. There was a woman in a wheelchair among us who was let in first – with the venue not being accessible they had to carry her up the stairs and she ended up in front of Olli. The rest of us got in just fine, but the venue was so small that we barely made it to the front over on Jaska’s side. Had we come later we would have been second or third row even.

It was a long wait until show start and I got bored of talking after a while so it made me happy when the spoken intro started. What made me less happy was the people who kept talking through it. I would have actually liked to listen for once.

All that was forgotten when the show started for real. Even though we were on the other side, Olli saw us right away, giving us a big smile and Marko must have seen us too, because during ‘Locking up the Sun’ he was already singing to  us. It instantly made me foregt that the sound and lights weren’t all that great. It didn’t matter, because the energy coming from the band was amazing and got reflected right back by the audience.

It was nice to see Jari for a change and the view of Captain would not have been bad either, if it hadn’t been for too much artificial smoke. 😉 Very soon, Olli decided to come over and play in front of us for a while, so we got a great close-up view of his guitar work. 😀 He did it a few times during the show and it felt like he was doing it just for us. I remember at one point he was standing on the drum raiser and noticed I tried to take a picture past Jani, so he leaned forward and posed until he was sure I got it. <3

When raising their glasses or bottles for ‘Illusion & Dream’ everyone except Jari stood at the front of the stage so I raised my non-existent glass to all of them. It’s such a nice gesture every time. 🙂 For ‘Rogue’ Jani put one foot up on the barrier and played like that for a while which made the security guys very nervous. It’s OK guys, he knows what he is doing. 😉 Some time later, he walked over to Captain and laid down on his back in front of him, playing the whole time. The guys were having so much fun all night!

The first set ended in dancing and this time I was really feeling ‘Dreaming wide awake’ again. We are not done yet, I can’t let you go. Marko was singing to us a few more times, always making sure to make eye contact and we got lots of attention from Olli too. <3 Jaska, as always, was so focussed on his playing he did not notice anything happening in front of him. I just enjoyed watching him play up close.

That had all gone by rather quickly and even the intermission felt shorter this time and soon Marko, Olli, Jani and Jaska (!) were back on stage. Marko thanked us all for coming to the show and asked if we were having a good time. He talked about doing this for 20 years and appreciated that we had been there along with them, some from the getgo and some “new recruits”. He received a gift and joked about hiding it so Olli would not take it. He referred to him as “Olli Guitar”, but I only noticed that we he repeated it later, adding that he had given him a new name.

They played ‘Fragile’ and it was lovely. Only the people behind us would not shut up until I turned and shushed them. Really? Just because you don’t like a song you do not have to be disrespectful and loudly talk through it! I can’t remember when I’ve heard that one for the last time and really enjoyed it.

Jari and Captain were not back on stage yet and Jaska left so for a moment I thought they might be doing something other than ‘Sleep’. They didn’t, but before they played it Marko said “What we do when we go around every place, every city, every country: we get up on stage and we just unleash mayhem. Me and my teddy bears.” 😀 At that point, Jani went and hugged him so the audience responded with “awwwww”. Then he kissed him on the cheek and Marko said he’d remember that and pay it back later. He never took revenge though, at least not as long as they were on stage. 😉

When Olli picked up the acoustic guitar for ‘War’, Marko referred to it as “ukulele” and Olli gestured “it’s a big one”. It was so funny. The song was perfect and drove tears to my eyes. :’) Marko sang to me at one point and later I shared a few lines with Olli, who saw me singing along and did the same. <3

‘Choice Millionaire’ followed. We had heard them rehearse it, but until that point I was not sure they were actually going to play it. Nice. Of course it involved the whole arms up and down movement and lots of jumping around. I thought they’d use it to replace ‘Daze’ but then Marko said something about coming to dance with him and shook his butt before they launched into the song. 😀

The second set ended with ‘Late Goodbye’ and thus concluded the longest set two on this tour so far. Yay, I was liking this. It wasn’t long until they were back for the encore. The energy was still high and ‘Lift’ was amazing! During Olli’s solo, A. and me were both filming. Marko saw that, got up, ran over to our side of the stage, jumped down and asked A. to take a selfie with him, so she did. 😀 A perfect moment. As he left, I patted him on the shoulder. At first neither of us had understood what was happening and it was over so quickly that we wondered if it actually did, but A. has the pictures to prove it.

In preparation for ‘Carnival of Rust’ Jani looked at the barrier in front of us, so we made room and invited him to step on it. That was a real close up view. The song started and a woman at front row center fainted. Marko looked really worried and signed to security to take care of her. She got water and I couldn’t see it all, but it seemed to have helped. The band still looked concerned and when the song was over, Marko jumped down to hug her and everyone close by.  The repeated the hug on our side and on Olli’s side. Awwww!

At the very end they stood together, thanking us, Jani tickled Marko, which he didn’t enjoy at all and Captain came over to our side, bowing in front of us. Then we all took a selfie together. D It was a wonderful show that ended on a real high note.

Afterwards we gathered everyone and even got the chance to say hello to Jani, who came out. He gave me a hug, asked me how I liked the show so I told him it was great and how I loved the energy. We found the other A., who had arrived later and together with her, A., C. and E. I went for post show food and drinks. Back at the hotel we had more drinks and A. and I talked through the night. Perfect show was perfect.

Setlist

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

Fragile
Sleep
Diamonds for Tears
War
Choice Millionaire
Daze
Late Goodbye

Encore:
Lift
Carnival of Rust