Poets of the Fall & Flight Brigade – Strom, Munich; December 14th, 2016
The Poets of the Fall concert at Strom in Munich was one of the hottest gigs ever (in the temperature sense of the word) and also one of the most powerful ones. The name of the venue means “power” or “electricity” and it felt as if the guys wanted to pay tribute to that name and show just how much energy they could give. It was one hell of a lot and took everyone in the room on through a 90 minute power workout . The show left me drenched in sweat as well as completely drained, but drained like you feel after a tough workout, knowing you’ve done yourself some good. I felt so high, it took me hours to come down. 🙂
Getting to Munich was simple – only one hour on the train from Nuremberg. At least I could sleep in a little bit after the late night after-party with A. at my hostel. Was still quite tired and cursed the fact that Munich was the latest concert on the tour. A. and I agreed that tis time we’d call it an early night and not have drinks after the show. She had meet & greet tickets and I didn’t so I only had a brief chat with her and other friends who had m&g tix before they went in. It got pretty cold soon, but luckily the venue staff took pity on us and let the first 15 or so wait inside. We got in a little late and the venue was smaller than I remembered, but in front row, on the far right, next to H. there was only a backpack, so I stood behind that in second row. The owner didn’t come back though thus I was practically front row. 🙂
Flight Brigade were off to a rocking start and the room soon started to feel like a sauna. The had changed their setlist order to begin with ‘Hurricane Season’ – it was perfect, because it introduced everyone to their music with a bang. With ‘House Fire’ they kept up the high energy and I already was sweating by the time the song was over. 🙂 It was awesome. Somehow they manage to get better every night!
I still don’t know enough of their lyrics to sing along, but from time to time I’m faking it OK. 😉 Since I can’t sing I do my best in moving along. The music is so much fun and I clearly wasn’t the only one who liked it. 🙂 After ‘Hurricane Season’, ‘U kill me’ is my favorite. Not a nice song for sure, but a good one. 😀 The new one, which is called ‘Streets of Tokyo” not ‘Street to Tokyo’ as I originally thought is amazing as well. I’ll keep the band in mind when this tour is over – maybe I’ll get a chance to see them again. 🙂 For now I was enjoying their set, danced along with their music, cheered for them and gave them big smiles when they were done. It was great!
Setlist:
Hurricane Season
House Fire
Where Eagles dare
U kill me
Tearaway
Streets of Tokyo
Thick as Thieves
Even before Poets of the Fall started it was almost unbearably hot in the room. I considered taking off my shirt when someone apparently switched on the AC and it got better for a little while. It did not keep the guys from kicking off at full power. Already during ‘Drama for Life’ Jaska was jumping, turning in circles while he did so and Marko followed his lead. I jumped right along with them, getting even warmer than I already was. 🙂 On the stage in front of me was a speaker that Ollie used to put his foot on during his solo, right where my hand had been before. Talk about being up close!
It didn’t get any cooler and a few songs in H. felt so bad she decided to spend the rest of the gig at the back. 🙁 Jari indicated to Ollie how hot it was and looked the part too. The guys still moved around just as much as they usually do, if not more. During ‘The Child in me’ Ollie and Jani were jumping from side to side together just for fun. It didn’t take long for Marko to make a comment about the sauna in the room and he asked us if we wanted to take off our clothes. M. answered “OK” and Marko was like “Someone said ‘OK'” then explained he wasn’t gonna strip today and instead just sing for us. Fine with me. 😀
After the acoustic set while Ollie was still standing side stage, Marko started fanning him with a towel, then followed him on stage, continued the fanning and fixed his hair too. He did the same to Jaska. I could have used someone to fan me too by then. 😉 That didn’t happen though, but from time to time Marko came over to check if I still jump and sing along. Why of course I do. He might have been trying to catch me off guard and find the lyrics I do not know yet. He always comes across those eventually. 😀
Sometime during ‘Sleep’ I think Jaska had left the stage and to everyone’s surprise he came crawling back on to it from the audience. I have no idea how he got there. Once he had climbed on stage he lay down for a moment and Marko commented that it was OK to take a rest there. 😀 With the small stage a had a good view of everyone and whenever they were on the right I could watch their playing in detail. Once, Jani came to watch Ollie, getting closer and closer until his head rested on the fretboard of Ollie’s guitar.
Marko and Ollie did the singing versus guitar duel again, but this time nobody won, they just played and sang together and agreed it was beautiful in the end. <3 I was having a lot of fun with this show, just observing the guys, taking pictures with my mind instead of my camera. The audience was really into it, making lots of noise and cheering the band on. They looked like they were having fun too. During ‘Locking up the Sun (I think). Jani went out to the merch stand to play. When I looked over, Dorrie from Flight Brigade and Cat, the merch seller were rocking out behind it, dancing wildly. 😀
‘Carnival of Rust’ happened and before they walked off stage I had a moment with Ollie, pulling at my shirt, indicating it was hot. He agreed and when I pretended to break down on stage exhausted he started laughing. They quickly were back for encores, still playing their hearts out. Jani had taken his shirt off and was dripping with sweat. Captain was fanning everyone with a towel, starting with Ollie. I indicated how hot I was and when he finally saw it he came over to fan me too. <3
As the final notes of ‘Children of the Sun’ rang out, Jari dropped his drum sticks, completely exhausted and everyone else looked the part too. I felt the same, but in a very good way, drenched in sweat, but energized at the same time. 🙂 Jani came over to shake my hand and then kissed it too. <3 The band bowed and finally walked out to loud cheers. It was a great show!
I went to chat with M. and his sister, then talked to Flight Brigade for a bit and bought a T-Shirt so I could get the sweaty one off my back. S. said goodbye and we hugged for a long time. See you next year! A. was there too. Neither of us felt tired any more, so we decided to go for drinks again and had a greta time until 3 in the morning. It was a short night before we both had a train to Berlin to catch…. totally worth it too! 😀
Setlist:
Intro: Shadow Play
Drama for Life
Daze
The Child in Me
Dreaming Wide Awake
Diamonds for Tears
The Game
Stay
Someone Special
Sleep
Running Out of Time
Once Upon a Playground Rainy
Locking Up the Sun
Carnival of Rust
Encore
War
Lift
Children of the Sun
Clearview tour 2016/17: 18 gigs down, 6 to go, next stop: Berlin