Leaving behind the weight vying for yesteryear

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Poets of the Fall – Logomo, Turku; March 23rd, 2018

We had seen Logomo in Turku the last time in the beginning of the Clearview tour and were wondering why Poets of the Fall chose that venue over one of the smaller ones. My memories of the other gig were fuzzy, but included a big stage and a somewhat cold venue. I was looking forward to seeing the guys, but somehow did not have high expectations. Apparently those were good conditions, because it turned out to be a brilliant gig. The band was in top form and the setlist was beautiful. There was nothing more I could have asked for.

It was an early day for me that started with getting up at 3 am to get my 6 am flight. Made my connection in Copenhagen, but of course it seemed to be the furthest possible distance between arrival and departure gates. Either way, all went well and when I arrived at the hotel in Turku in the early afternoon, S. was already waiting for me. We caught up, rested and eventually walked to the venue where we met up with G. The waiting time went quickly and we scored front row center spots. Said hello to a few people and passed the time chatting.

Suddenly it was 8 pm and the lights went down. Yay! I love early concerts. I also loved the intro and the new lights they have in the back, reading “POETS” in bright letters. 😀 S. had hinted at changes in the setlist since last time so I was curious what would happen before the gig, but stopped thinking about it immediately, too busy enjoying the great sound. Being free of my camera for the night and having some space behind me for once, I spent a lot of the time jumping and got a lot of smiles when the guys saw me. For the first time in a long time I was slightly right of the mic stand and got to see a lot of Ollie. I liked it.

Getting a first look at the guys as they walk out always gets me in the mood and I love looking out for little changes in their stage outfits. This time I loved the shirt Captain was wearing – very stylish and Marko looked mighty fine in a leather jacket and with stubble – rugged rocker look ftw!  😀 The first song was ‘Overboard’ and I was happy that was not a one-off. I love it when they dig up songs they have not played in ages. 🙂 It was fun too! I loved ‘Daze’ and especially ‘False Kings’ put a big smile on my face. It is such an amazing song and so different from the others that it makes me totally curious about the upcoming new album. If there is one thing I am sure of is that I will find something unexpected there. 😀

When ‘Diamonds for Tears’ came along I sighed briefly, then started jumping. I did not really expect them to scrap that one off of the setlist for good. 😉 ‘Shallow’ and ‘Rogue’ made me happy and I liked the changes it the setlist order. It felt right to have ‘Rogue’ earlier than it was at the last concert I had seen. Not to mentioned that the guys killed it. 🙂

My expectations of this show had been comparably low, because it is a big venue and it was not entirely packed, but it turned out to be a great show. The guys certainly had fun and after a while they had completely won over the audience too. 😀 In my mind, I was taking pictures of the band, while I enjoyed just watching and tried hard not to miss anything. It was impossible of course, but I saw many great, funny and lovely moments throughout the evening. 🙂 One I clearly remember was Captain playing air guitar. I’ve seen him air drum and also play air keyboards, but air guitaring was new. 🙂

When everyone was back on stage after ‘Rogue’ thy sure took me by surprise. Marko talked about their first single, but I didn’t understand everything he said and expected ‘Late Goodbye’. What he actually said must have been that they were going to play the B-side, of ‘Lift’ that is. Imagine my surprise when they played ‘The Beautiful Ones’. I had only hear that song once before and certainly did not expect it here. It was so beautiful it brought me close to tears. <3

Followed by ‘You’re still here’ another unexpected gem and ‘Given and Denied’ when G. turned to us and said “This is my song!” it was the absolute perfect string of songs in the setlist. So emotional. How much better could it get? ‘Kamikaze Love’ release all the tension from standing still and just staring at the guys and turned it into dancing, jumps and screams. I totally went nuts for that song and got smiles from the guys as they watched me. 🙂 It might have been after this that Jaska pointed to me and threw me a guitar pick. I tried hard to catch it, but it was a complete fail so I smiled, shrugged and mouthed “thank you”. He tried again and this one landed behind. I was lucky the people who stood there were nice and let me pick it up instead of snatching it away from me. <3

As I tried to write down the setlist later I had the feeling I was missing a song at this point of the show, but I still cannot remember so I’m gonna assume my feeling was wrong and ‘Late Goodbye’ was next. It’s good that they gave this one a break for a while. I am really enjoying it again now. 🙂 This ended the main set and once again I could not believe how quickly time had passed. One funny moment I remember is that somewhere halfway into the show Marko opened a coke bottle with great drama and much “Ahh” to express refreshment. 😀

They encore stayed the way it had been on the cruise with ‘Children of the Sun’ in the beginning. Even after more than a year of hearing it at every concert, the song still means a lot to me. If we remembered more often how similar we really are and how important it is to take care of each other, the world would be a better place. <3 ‘War’ never fails to get me emotional and I felt the tears in my eyes. The song will always be important to me. Needless to say it is great fun watching Jaska play his solo too.

We rocked some more with ‘dreaming wide awake’ and ‘Lift’ and somewhere during either song I must have had my gig face one while I was watching Ollie. Marko saw me watching and smiled at me, then watched Ollie as well. It was a brief look saying “Isn’t he amazing?”. He sure is. 😀 Time flew by ad already they started ‘Carnival of Rust’. A last few minutes to dream, a big sigh and they were waving goodbye. Ollie even came running by the first row shaking hands. 😀 It was a great gig and had me wanting more. Good thing they often come in twos. 🙂

Everyone was hungry after the gig so we ended up having pizza with so much arugula on it we declared it a salad. 😉 So the evening ended with food drinks and nice conversations. It could not have been any better.

Setlist

Overboard
Daze
False Kings
Diamonds for Tears
Shallow
Rogue
The Beautiful Ones
You’re Still Here
Given and Denied
Kamikaze Love
Late Goodbye

Encore:
Children of the Sun
War
Dreaming Wide Awake
Lift
Carnival of Rust

And then you smile though it aches

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Poets of the Fall – MS Vinking Grace; March 10th, 2018

It had been almost three months since the last Poets of the Fall concert and I’d been missing the guys, so I was happy to see them again. A new tour, for their 15th anniversary no less, would of course go with a new setlist and I’d been wondering what may or may not be on there. In my head was a list of songs I was hoping for, but sadly, none of those were played. Yet, they still managed to surprise me and it turned out to be a great concert that did exactly what I’d hoped it would do: make me forget about real life for a little while. No matter what the circumstances, these guys will always manage to do that. 🙂

The cruise concerts was the end of a ten day vacation for me. The first part of said vacation had been all sorts of wonderful, but the second part was rather exhausting so I was happy to get a small break before returning to work on Monday. I flew to Helsinki on a Friday evening, spent the night at my friend K.’s place and the next day we met A. for lunch before setting out to Turku and boarding the Viking Grace. There were not so many of the usual suspects around, but we all met at the entrance to the club an hour after boarding, said hello, waited, then filled up the for row and settled in for more waiting.

I chatted with S. for a while, telling her I did not feel it yet, i.e. I was curious, but not yet excited. We discussed the possible setlist, stated our wishes (we were both wrong!). Boat gigs can be tricky, because you never know which audience you are going to get, but the first few rows seemed to be fans for the first time in my personal history of boat gigs, they did not allow alcoholic drinks at the front. I liked it. 🙂 Time went by surprisingly fast, the music played by the DJ was not too annoying and eventually the guys were announced. I had just said something about wondering what the new intro would be when it started. I liked it, but had now clue which song it might lead to.

The band walked on stage one by one and we cheered for them loudly while the intro turned into the first song. Marko started singing and the lyrics were right there in my mind for me to sing along. still, I had no idea which song I was singing and it took me halfway through the first verse to realize it was ‘Overboard’. Really? Wow! That was totally unexpected. I immediately turned to K., because I know it is her favorite song, but she was busy staring at the guys in awe and did not even notice me. 😉 What a fun song to start with. I honestly could not say when I had heard this one for the last time or if I ever did at all. Possible at one of my first two concerts, but pretty sure not after that. Nice move guys! 😀

We didn’t stay in the past for long though as the next song was ‘Daze’, time for the audience to prove we could sing along. It worked too, of course it did. 😀 Slowly, the real life problems that had been occupying my mind released their hold on me and when Marko asked if we wanted to hear the new single, I screamed along with everyone else, allowed myself to fall into the lyrics of ‘False Kings’ and was finally there, fully enjoying the concert. I love everything about the song and hearing it live was brilliant.

Next up was ‘Diamonds 4 Tears’ and I turned to S. because I had told her earlier that I hoped they would not bring it back. It was a brief “why oh why?” moment for me, then I shrugged and sang along anyway. With every band I have at least one song that feels overplayed to me, but just seems to belong on the setlist. It’s all part of the game. 😉 The next song made up for that though. It was ‘Shallow’, an old love of mine, that gets rarely played and always brings a big smile to my face. I can still remember the first time I’ve heard it and it has not lost any of its magic since.

As far as surprises are concerned, I thought this was it and the rest of the gig would be the usual suspects. Boy was I wrong! No song could have been more perfect for me right then and here than ‘Kamikaze Love’. The perfect song to jump to and scream out the lyrics at the top of my lungs. 😀 Then as a counterpoint to take us back to calmer waters ‘Given and denied’ came along. There are other songs on ‘Twilight Theater’ that I would have loved to hear more, but I always welcome this one. It fit too and brought me close to tears. <3

‘Late Goodbye’ was back as well of course. It would have been strange to celebrate the 15th anniversary without their very first single. They unexpectedly said goodbye right after and the only thought on my mind was “Wait! This was too short!” When they came back and went right into ‘Children of the Sun’ I though it was really over already and could not believe how fast time had gone by. Wrong again! It was not the last song in the set any more. 🙂

‘Dreaming wide awake’ had me jumping again and when ‘War’ came along I wanted to hug them for putting it back on the setlist. The song brought me to tears again for many reasons. It was just perfect for me. with ‘Lift’ and ‘Carnival of Rust’ the concert ended on a familiar note. The guys took a final bow, waved and left. I wanted to rewind the entire gig and play it all over again. It was over too soon.

I loved the gig, loved the interaction between the guys, loved watching them work, loved the little gestures of recognition from the guys. I smiled at the red beanie Marko was wearing. It felt very retro to me, even though back in the day it was a red baseball cap if I recall correctly. 😉  I liked the look and am curious now what is going to be next. I fully expect the red Adidas jacket to make a re-appearance soon. 😛 Overall I liked the setlist too, but I had the feeling it did not really flow yet. It took me quite a while to get into it, but of course that may have just been me. We will see if it stays the same or not.

When it was over we sat down for drinks, talked for a while and then hit the dance floor until the wee hours of the morning. It was a good end to a fun night. 🙂

pictures of this concert

Setlist (not entirely sure this is complete or the right order)

Overboard
Daze
False Kings
Diamonds 4 Tears
Shallow
Kamikaze Love
Given and denied
Late Goodbye

Children of the Sun
Dreaming wide awake
War
Lift
Carnival of Rust