The stage is yours guys

Poets of the Fall – Szene, Vienna; October 7th, 2013

The first ever concert Poets of the Fall played in Austria drew a pretty good crowd. People did not only come from Austria, but also from the surrounding countries and many of them had never seen the band live before. It was a solid show with many fun moments that sure made everyone’s trip worthwhile.

It was a relaxed weekend before the second gig of this tour – one off night in Switzerland with C. and the next in Austria with S. 🙂 I traveled to Vienna around noon after a good breakfast and C. taking me to Zurich airport. Upon arrival, S. was waiting for me already. Perfect! On showday, S. accompanied me to Szene where we met up with R. and friends. She left, because she didn’t have a VIP ticket – we’d meet again later. It was a long wait once again and it got somewhat cold before Nina finally led us in. There must have been around 50 people at this meet and greet so the place was buzzing. I still managed to say hello to everyone and get a poster signed for S. My strongest memory is that of the Italian guy who had an accident just before he started his trip (and thus got the collar he had to wear around his neck signed). At the end of the meet and greet I took group pictures of all the attendants with the band. The light was lousy though.

Once again we got kicked out for a while, because Toyhead, the support act, needed to do their soundcheck. Wait what? Support act? Why? They let us in again and soon everyone with regular tickets followed, the Szene was nicely filled. Somewhere around 8 pm Toyhead started playing and they made pretty nice music. Still, I would have preferred to just see Poets of the Fall – sorry guys.

I think it was around 9 pm when they finally started. Everyone greeted them loudly. I looked for S., but she ended up a few rows behind me. She looked quite happy where she was though. The Poets looked quite content too and brought lots of energy into the room. The sound was not as good as in Pratteln unfortunately, but it was OK still. The previous night I had concentrated on taking pictures during the first three songs, because I didn’t know if I’d be allowed to take any after, but not this time. Sure, there was a security guy that told me to take my camera down, but as soon as I showed him my photopass all was well. 🙂

It was a fun concert that night – I laughed a lot at Marko’s antics and at the guys teasing each other. The audience was in a good and excited mood, many getting the first taste of the band’s magic that night. Ollie and Jaska were guitar heroes that night, showing off what they can do. Jani joined right in and all of them made use of the boxes by the side of the stage to stand on. At one point they were even whispering to each other before they went there. I enjoyed watching all of that. 😀

Marko was chatty, commenting on everything from the chair he had for the acoustic set “it’s all nice and comfy and stuff” to telling us how his personal trainer keeps him from Coke and sweet stuff and how much he enjoys having all of that on tour “today I had chocolate and it was sooo good!”. We also learned “Jani has discovered that I’m ticklish” after which Jani held up his hands, making tickling gestures and moved towards Marko who fled. 😀

The setlist was the same as in Pratteln, the performance just as good. I was still getting used to the new setlist, not quite knowing the order of songs yet. The fact that the acoustic set was back made me really happy – I do love acoustic songs anyway and it allows for more variety. ‘Rogue’ is a good counterpart, showing how well the band can convey emotions with just their instruments. I loved all the movement on stage too, seeing the guys interact, watching Jari behind the drums and Captain as he came to the front to listen to us sing along during ‘Late Goodbye’. At one point he took a picture of Jani and Jaska – saving the memories?

Of course Marko was all over the place. Turning round and round on the comfy chair until it tipped over, crawling under Ollie’s legs while he was playing a solo or telling the others “take the stage boys!” and then proceeding to climb up on the scaffolding by the side of the stage taking most of the audience’ attention with him. 😀 Later on, he pulled a scarf out of his pocket and draped it over his head. It was all good fun! Early on someone in the audience handed him a hat and a black feather boa. He gave the hat back, but kept the boa and put it over the micstand. Towards the end of the show Jaska  grabbed it from there, showed it to everyone and then draped it around Ollie’s neck during the final solo in ‘Lift’. At the very end, Captain grabbed his keyboard and motioned to throw it to us. All these little fun moments are what I will remember from this concert! 🙂

Setlist

Dreaming Wide Awake
Show Me This Life
Cradled In Love
Temple Of Thought
Kamikaze Love
Rogue
Locking Up The Sun
Illusion & Dream
Diamonds For Tears
The Distance
Late Goodbye

unplugged
Desire
Sorry Go ‘Round – bossa nova style

Running Out Of Time
Carnival Of Rust
Lift

pictures of this concert

Poets of the Fall Switzerland/Austria/Germany tour: 2 gigs down, 8 to go. Next stop: Nuremberg

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