Hell, the way you walked in I would kiss the earth beneath your feet!

Poets of the Fall – Crystal Hall, Kiev; March 25th, 2012

When my alarm rang at 6:30 I felt like turning over in bed and just going back to sleep. I was still exhausted from the previous night, but I did have a plane to catch so there was nothing I could do but get up. Shower, breakfast, airport. I just could not bring myself to walking through the cold and go there on the train so I splurged on a taxi. Ah the convenience. I soon realized getting there an hour later would have been more than enough, but I’d rather be too early than too late.

Waiting, always waiting. As much as I love travelling, waiting is always a low point. So much time wasted, especially when I’m just too tired to read or do anything else. Boarding, a nap on the plane, bus, subway and finally my hotel. Dropped my things and went straight to the venue. Met a few people, chatted, relaxed in the sunshine. Compared to Russia it was spring here. It got windy so we went inside to the small entrance area. Met S. and had a somewhat weird conversation with him. He actually thought because I travel to so many gigs I could not possibly have a job. Seriously man, how did you think I was paying for all this? 😀 Anyway, no offence taken, I blame it on being nervous about his upcoming interview with Marko. I doubt I would have been coherent in such situation. 😉

All was nice and relaxed until about an hour before they opened the doors the usual chaos broke out. Security decided we had to leave the entrance hall, then could not agree on where and how to put up railings and the once very organized queue turned into a total mess with those who had been first to wait ending up behind people who came much later. I hate it when this happens, but this far I had thought it was a typical German thing, because it seems to work in all other countries. Apparently not. 🙁 So once again I asked myself why the hell I was doing this and putting myself through hours of waiting when I’m gonna end up in the back anyway? *sigh*

Finally the doors opened, I went around quite a few people on my way in and didn’t only manage to get a spot in front row, but to pull Y. in next to me as well. The other three who had waited early on were in before us so we did all make it to the front. Phew! I had my camera with me this time so I got it ready and tried to relax a bit before the showstart. The hall was considerably smaller than the arena the previous day and the stage and distance to it was much smaller as well. Nice. 🙂 Also there as a sort of catwalk to each side, something Marko had been musing about the first two gigs.

Everything looked like perfect conditions for a great concert: just the right size of a venue, a perfect spot in front row, happy and excited people all around me (but not as much pushing from the back as in Moscow) and not much waiting time left.   All exhaustion left me and I was just looking forward to what was about to come.

The audience’s response as the intro started just blew me off my feet. To me they seemed to scream louder than the much bigger crowd in Moscow, all their collective happiness and excitement exploding into cheers. The guys walked on stage and a wave of emotions washed over me, the most destinct of them being pure joy. Everything was just perfect. The smiles on their faces, the reaction of the fans, the sound and my own mood. I have no idea what zone or which sort of trance I went into when the gig started, but I didn’t come out of it until it was over. It seemed that everyone was singing the lines of ‘Kamikaze Love’. I smiled at Marko when I sang along “Hell the way you walked in, I would kiss the earth beneath your feet”. This is not something I would generally do, but at that very moment, I meant every word.

I immediately knew Marko would love the opportunity to walk out to the side of the stage. The others did too, so there was a lot of walking going on, lots of action to watch. My eyes were just going back and forth between all of the guys and I enjoyed watching whoever was right in front of me. They all seemed so much more relaxed than the previous night, even Jari was wearing a happy smile again.

‘Diamonds for Tears’ and especially ‘Temple of Thought’ were so beautiful. The latter is quickly becoming my new favorite song of the show. It carries so much emotion and so much promise. *happy sigh* ‘Roses’ had Marko walking all the way to the left for the first time, making the fans who stood there very happy. Gave me a chance to see Ollie’s guitar work up close.

Before ‘Cradled in Love’ Jani touched Marko’s belly and got a kiss on the top of his head in return. Awwww! People were blowing soap bubbles and Marko caught some of them. He was shaking a lot of hands too, this time on the other end of the stage. 🙂

The current setlist is just the right mixture of slow and fast songs always switching between slower and rockier parts of the show. I don’t think anyone in the audience was standing still during ‘Locking up the Sun’. Jaska came over to our side for the first time that night, trading solos with Ollie. 😀 Before ‘War’ Marko tried to find out which half of the audience could yell louder and played the people left of stage against those on the right, conducting us. We sang along to every word.

All the songs worked exceptionally well that night, but especially the new ones seemed to have an extra kick, as if the guys had needed the first two gigs to practice and had now reached their full form. Fun! ‘The Lie eternal’ was unreal! Marko was down on the floor for a while and a woman took the opportunity to ruffle his hair.

For ‘Stay’ Jaska was sitting down at the edge of the stage to play guitar for the first part of the song, and after the traditional toast to the audience in ‘Illusion & Dream’ Jani gave his wineglass away. During ‘Gravity’ Marko threw water at us, then raised his coke can with a devilish grin and teased to do the same. Again, they played ‘Late Goodbye’ already and I was wishing someone would turn back time, but the song rang out and they walked off.

The audience didn’t shut up for a second and Marko was back on stage in no time promising if we cheered loud enough, the others would come back out too. He made it a great show to call Jaska, Jani and Ollie back on stage one by one and we went right along with it. Einari brought drinks for Ollie, Jani and Jaska, while Marko was watching and complaining that he didn’t get any booze. Thus, Einari brought him a glass too. He told people that they were gonna play two songs and that nobody except for me had heard the second one “but she’s like on every gig.” I was floored! <3

I loved both acoustic songs. ‘Sorry go round’ is always fun and ‘Someone special’ could make anyone dream. In between, Jaska played a beautiful melody on the guitar and Marko sat down on front of him to listen. Awwwwww.
The last notes whispered softly and the full band was back on stage in no time to rock the house with ‘Dreaming wide awake’. Captain conducted our yelling and screaming and Marko had a mock fight with Jani trying to push each other across the stage shoulder to shoulder, laughing.

There were so many looks and smiles exchanged that night on stage and between the guys and the audience. Happy faces everywhere. The entire audience sang along to ‘Carnival of Rust’ and went wild to ‘Lift’. The Ukranian fans had cut out morphos that we all held out and Marko took them from our hands. He also walked over to the right side to kiss a sign saying “Me rakastamme sinua” (= We love you). The room was charged with energy until the very last note. The guys left the stage to great cheers, Jari was throwing drumsticks, everyone was clapping and screaming with joy. Amazing.

Once the lights went back on it was time to come back to reality at least to a certain extent. The guys came to sign autographs. I thanked them, hugged Jani and had quite a nice long chat with Ollie. He told me they’d hardly had time to rehearse and therefore could not play more of the new songs yet.

Once they were gone it was time to say goodbye to my new friends and those I had know since last year. We hugged and went on our way. It was a cold night and I was freezing in just my hoody, so I went for a hot tea. I must have smiled like a loon sitting there in a cafe, reminiscing and taking a first look through the pictures I took. Much later, at my hotel, I replayed the entire gig and the past three days in my mind before I finally fell asleep.

3 gigs down, more to go. Next stop: Helsinki.

Setlist

Kamikaze Love
Diamonds for Tears
Temple of Thought
Roses
Cradled in Love
Locking up the Sun
War
The Lie Eternal
Stay
Illusion & Dream
Gravity
Late Goodbye

Acoustic:
Sorry Go Round (Bossa Nova)
Someone special

Encore:
Dreaming wide awake
Carnival of Rust
Lift

pictures from this concert

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