Poets of the Fall & Flight Brigade – Knust, Hamburg; November 29th, 2016
It was the first day of Poets of the Fall’s Germany tour and as usual the train to Hamburg was late. I wasn’t worried though, since I had booked an early one and had no VIP ticket anyway. Got there eventually, left my bag at the train station and went to the venue where I met D., A., E., G. J. and G. waiting at the front of the line. It was great to be back among the sisterhood and time went by fast. All the VIP people got in later than they should have and a new line formed behind me. I think we were all pretty cold by the time they let us in. They made a fuss about my camera despite Nina’s email proving I was allowed to carry it, but luckily I found her and she told them. <3 All my friends were gathered in front row, but I aimed for the stairs instead of getting in row four. It was the perfect decision, the view from there was great.
Support act Flight Brigade were really good. I liked them lots better than Softengine. Their music was nice with lots of variety. I’m sure I’ll be singing along to their songs by the time this tour is ending. They have seven band members, but I could not see all of them from my point of view, only noticed there must be one more because the photographer at the front kept taking pictures of someone on the far left. The band was quite happy with our response, telling us people might boo or throw bottles at the support act back home in England. Really? How rude! No wonder they were a bit nervous at the beginning. They visibly relaxed when they noticed we were a friendly bunch. 🙂 I enjoyed the songs they played and watching them. Lots of movement and good energy. Especially their violinist rocked. It was fun and time passed quickly. 🙂
Setlist:
House Fire
Where Eagles dare
U kill me
Tearaway
Our Friends Our Enemies
Hurricane Season
Thick as Thieves
Once Flight Brigade had left the stage I felt the excitement building. I already loved this tour, felt positive energy running all through me, ready to have a good time. I watched my POTF sisters at the front, waving to them when they looked up. My spot was great to see everything that happened on stage and in front (except for things going on in that far left corner that is 😉 ). The venue was packed, much fuller than I had expected judging by the number of people I had seen outside. Once the house lights went down they made themselves heard too. Going to Hamburg still feels like a homecoming for me, even though I have not lived there in 13 years. Gotta love those Northerners. 😉 Of course a lot of people had come from outside Hamburg especially for the gig too. <3
The intro started and spotlights were going over the crowd, showing them in pink and red. I looked down at my POTF sisters, smiling, feeling connected, even though we were standing apart. From the moment the guys walked on stage I knew it was gonna be a brilliant gig. The audience response was great and most of the guys saw me standing up there right away. 🙂 Already during ‘Daze’ Marko was on my side of the stage, pointing at me and singing with me. I leaned over the staircase railing, singing right along with him. Had lots of room to move and used it well, only occasionally worried I might accidentally jump off the stair I was standing on and holding on to the railing to avoid that. 😀
A couple of songs into the set one of the security guys came up and asked me if I had a photopass. I started wondering what happened to Knust, because none of the other times I’ve been to this venue anyone had ever bothered asking about my camera. It had already happened on the way in and despite the email from Nina confirming I am allowed to take pictures, the door man wanted personal confirmation. He did let me in though, which was nice and when I came back with Nina to confirm my status it was fine with him. Thus I explained to the security guy that he could either ask the door guy or Nina, because they had not given me a pass. After some discussion he was OK with it and left me alone. Oh well, the man was only doing his job, I know. 🙂
None of this kept me from enjoying the gig. I soon realized just how exposed I was on the stairs, because all of the guys smiled at me eventually, even Jari and Captain spotted me up there. Jaska played to me a few times, winking when I smiled at him. Awww <3. All of them had lots of fun by the looks of it, beaming smiles through the whole show, feeding on the energy coming from he audience and playing/singing their hearts out. It was beautiful.
At the start of the show Marko was wearing a cap and when he finally took it off, he had to fix his hair. Ollie, having no such issues just headbanged with his hair flying all over the place. 😀 In contrast Jani’s mohawk stayed in place all night, making me wonder how he fixed it with all the moving around he does. 😉 It seemed like they guys never stood still and from my vantage point I could see what everyone was doing too. Even Jari and Captain were always in action and for once I could see them well too without any of the others blocking my view. 🙂 It was great viewing my POTF sisters too and once in a while they looked up to me. During ‘Locking up the Sun’ D. and I shared a moment of singing together. 🙂
The show rocked and I was already sweaty from lots of jumping by the time the acoustic set rolled around. For ‘Stay’, Marko asked us to take out our phones and put the lights on. It looked beautiful from the stairs so I was struggling to hold up the phone and take pictures at the same time. At the end of ‘Someone special’ Marko took one of the chairs Jani and Ollie had had to sit on and he tried turning round and round on it even though it was not a revolving chair. It tipped over eventually, much to everyone’s amusement. 😀 He wanted to come out and walk among the crowd too, but feared the speaker feedback.
When the band started playing ‘Once upon a Playground rainy’, C. and A. at the front held up a sign that everyone on stage laughed at, Marko took it from them and showed it to us. It read “Who the fuck is Tony?”, referring to “the shack Tony built last year” from a line of the song. It made me realize I had never thought about that particular line, but it was a good question. 😀 What a great idea for a sign!
Happily singing along and dancing on the stairs I lost track of time completely and was surprised when ‘Carnival of Rust’ came up. How did it happen so quickly? At a Poets of the Fall show I am always running out of time. They are over in a heartbeat of a blink of an eye and that’s exactly what they should feel like. It’s part of the magic this band creates that time morphs from being stretched overly long to something that seems to disappear, leaving me with the feeling of having witnessed something great, but looking for the rewind button to experience it all over again. If that ever stops and I get bored with a gig then it will be time to quit. There is no danger of that though. I am enjoying this tremendously. 😀
The guys returned for ‘War’ and I got lost in Ollie’s solo for a little while. The song still makes me really emotional, feeling every line and all the memories connected to it. Looking at how many people sing it out at the top of their lungs, looking as if they knew exactly what it meant makes me believe that it’s a special song for many. We all have our personal wars to fight and if we’re lucky, we have someone by our side on the front line as we do so. 🙂
‘Lift’ came and went, had me jumping and dancing with Ollie looking up at me smiling. Jaska was throwing guitar picks into the crowd and when one came flying my way I snatched it out of the air. He laughed when he realized that I caught it and I kissed the pick. 🙂 Too soon ‘Children of the Sun’ was over too, Marko told us to take good care of ourselves so we could take better care of each other and left the stage. The others bowed to us, looking happy. It was a great start to the Germany tour and I loved every minute of it.
Found my sisters, chatted, hugged. I. picked me up because I was spending the night at her place. With everyone else we took the subway to the train station where the others went for a drink and we got my bag and went home. Once there we had a quiet chat before calling it a night. I cannot remember and dreams I had, but they must have been happy ones. 🙂
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: 7 gigs down, 17 to go, next stop: Hannover