Poets of the Fall – Grünspan, Hamburg; October 27th, 2018
The Poets of the Fall concert in Hamburg was a fun show among friends and exactly what I needed to say “all is well that ends well” when the day was over. The venue had a nice balcony for me to stand on, the sound was great, the band was on fire and the audience was happy. The guys absolutely rocked the house and it was packed too. One more show on the Germany tour after this, one more show for me this year. With my countdown almost at 0 the guys delivered and made me forget everything else.
The trip to Hamburg was surprisingly easy and upon arrival my friend I. and her husband H. were already waiting for me. We got to their place quickly, we had tea and then the ticket buying frenzy for the Nordic Film Days started for me or rather it didn’t, because neither with the two browsers on my computer, not on my phone I got it to work. I’d never had that kind of trouble before. Luckily H. had a tablet where it was working. It still took an hour until I had all tickets I wanted. Then I realized that the system had given me three tickets for the wrong days and I needed to buy them again. 🙁 I was majorly stressed by the time I had everything I wanted. Good thing I had sold my VIP ticket the previous day. I would have never made it to the venue by 5 pm.
We got ready and left soon after. I had talked I. into joining me. On the way we grabbed some food and arrived at Grünspan about 20 minutes before the doors opened. There was a line, but it wasn’t huge. We got in easily, getting my photopass was a breeze and soon we were on the upstairs balcony, where C. and J. were waiting already. I had a great view of the stage and my friends at the front from up there. Several of them were waving to me and I waved back.
It felt like a long wait and most of us were tired, but with drinks and talking time passed quickly. The songs played before the concert were more or less the same every time, but this evening there seemed to be a few different ones. Either way, it was showtime when the lights went out. The intro was on its way and I waited for the audience to scream, but it wasn’t as loud as I had expected. Might have beenmy spot though, because it felt the same in London.
Once on stage the guys exploded into ‘Dreaming Wide Awake’ and soon most people in the room were partying with them. I looked over at C. and saw a happy smile spread on her face. It had been a long time since the last gig for her and she was clearly enjoying it. J. was a bit under the weather, but still rocked with us and I. on my other side was smiling as well. All was good. 🙂
This time around nobody had told me I was allowed to take pictures only for the first three songs, but I still wondered if somebody would stop me after that. Thus, I tried to get in as many as possible in the beginning. Being upstairs gave me an interesting angle to take pictures. It usually is the perfect place to take picture of everyone, but someone must have wanted to keep people from photographing Jari. Has was either in the dark or completely blocked out by bright white lights from the side. It was absolutely impossible to get a decent shot of him. Otherwise the lights looked really pretty.
During ‘False Kings’ Marko was visiting Ollie, watching his guitar playing closely and I think I saw him sing to one of my friends, but I could not tell for sure. Upstairs we were singing along, but noteably better to the older songs. 😉 We all swung our arms back and forth for the chorus of ‘Temple of Thought’ and as far as I could tell we were the only ones. I asked myself if that might be visible from stage. Ollie was certainly looking up a lot, but always to the side and hardly ever towards us.
The nice thing about being upstairs, apart from the great view, was that there actually was some space to move. There were people behind me, but not so close that I ran the risk of jumping on their feet. 😉 Thus it was a night of much dancing and jumping for me when I wasn’t trying to take pictures. ‘Rogue’ was fun. While Jaska, Ollie and Jani took turns standing center stage, Marko was hiding somewhere to the side and only re-appeared when it was over. It was interesting to watch the others showing off their skills, sharing the spotlight and pointing their instruments at each other. Only Jari remained invisible in too much fog and bright lights.
It was such a fun show. I cannot really pinpoint why, but everything seemed right. Maybe it was because I brought someone new there and tried to look at all of it as if it was the first time, maybe it was just the general mood. The show just made me happy and seeing the guys do their thing was the best I could imagine for a Saturday evening. 😀
For ‘Brighter than the Sun’ Marko was over on the left, laying down on his back, propped up on his elbows, looking at the audience. I could not tell who he was looking at specifically, but he was close to my friends. At one point I remember Captain throwing his towel in the air and then wiping off the keyboard with it. Playing must have been a sweaty affair that night. 😉 I also remember Jani throwing kisses at someone in the audience. During ‘Cradled in Love’ I was looking down at E. willing her to look back, but my mojo was not strong enough it seems. 😉 Seeing the lamp Marko used on stage and all the phone lights in the room looked great though.
Just at the start of ‘War’ J. felt too exhausted to stand and had to sit down for a while. She said she was OK though and just continued watching from where she sat and got up again later. When the song started (or was it the second verse) Marko missed the right moment to start singing and started with the second line. It made me smile, because I had just wondered if he should not be singing already. Shit happens and it did not hurt the song at all. During ‘Choice Millionaire’ all of the guys were jumping again and I jumped right along with them, doing the same for much of the next three songs as well. I was exhausted and sweaty by the time ‘Locking up the sun ended’. After the show I told I. that this was my daily workout. 😀
At the end of the show, when they said goodbye to us, everyone seemed to be lifting everyone (and I did not manage to take one picture of it). I remember for sure that Jani lifted Marko, then Ollie and Captain lifted Jani. It’s the current end of the sow thing I guess, from hugs in the UK to lifting up in Germany. 😀 Eventually they left and we gathered everyone to go out as well. I. said she’d come along again next time they’ll play in Hamburg. Yay, success! 🙂 Once outside we said goodbye to those who did not want to join us for food & drink and ended the evening at a nice restaurant/bar near Sternschanze with good food and good drinks until half of us almost fell asleep at the table. That was fun!
Poets of the Fall Ultraviolet Tour 2018: Eleven gigs down, one to go. Next stop: Cologne
Setlist
Dreaming Wide Awake
Dancing on Broken Glass
False Kings
Temple of Thought
Rogue
Standstill
The Sweet Escape
Brighter Than the Sun
Cradled in Love
My Dark Disquiet
War
Choice Millionaire
Lift
Encore:
Daze
Locking Up the Sun
Carnival of Rust
Choir of Cicadas
Ultraviolet Tour 2018: Eleven shows down, one to go