And I stay up dancing all night in the sand

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Milow – Zeltfestival Ruhr, Bochum; August 27th, 2014

It was my 5th Milow concert, but going there felt almost like the first time around, because I had not yet bough or listened to his latest album and felt somewhat unprepared for what was about to come. Yet, so far Milow has always managed to make me smile and I was looking forward to an enjoyable night of music. He delivered even more than I had hoped for. Not only did he make me smile, laugh even, but he also moved me to tears and gave us two hours of lovely music.

From the moment the lights went out for the first time I knew it was going to be a good concert. The audience immediately responded with loud cheers. Unfortunately the lights went back on again and they made us wait a bit longer, but when the tent got dark again and the band walked on stage, everyone clapped and yelled happily. There were a few new faces in the band or rather only one familiar face for me: Tom on guitars. Everyone looked happy to be there and Milow was in a great mood from the start. Right at the beginning he told us how surprised he had been at being invited to the Zeltfestival Ruhr for the third time and how much he enjoyed playing there. He was rather chatty all night, delivering long introductions to many of the songs.

They started of with two new songs, ‘Blue Skies’ and ‘Learning how to disappear’, before going into more familiar territory with ‘You don’t know’. Thus, I could not sing along right away, but the good vibes in the audience and on stage made me smile immediately, no matter which song they played. Milow joked that they had flown to the festival in a helicopter and how it was getting bigger every year: “The first year we walked, the second time we came on our bicycles,..” He continued telling us he has specially requested one of the big tent pillars to be set up right in front of the stage where he was looking at it all night and how the band would later climb it. That caused an immediate flashback to the 2012 POTf concert in Mannheim for me and made me laugh. Anyway, he dedicated ‘Little in the Middle’ to said pillar.

I loved all the new songs as well as the familiar ones and even choked up during ‘Building Bridges’. The new additions to the band all did a great job and of course there were a few acoustic numbers with just Milow and Tom. During one of them they were talking about their first US tour – “It was only three gigs, but if it’s more than one concert you can call it a tour…” and how Tom became the ‘King of Nashville’ with his guitar playing. Milow joked that nobody talked about his singing or lyrics, but everyone recognized Tom the next day. It was fun and we got to hear Tom play a nice solo.

All in all I laughed a lot at the song introductions. For ‘Cowboys, Pirates, Musketeers’ Milow explained was about all the things you do for fun as a kid, giving examples of making up code language, smuggling beer bottles and looking at dirty magazines only to joke that it’s not autobiographical but of course about Tom’s childhood only. About ‘Born in the Eighties’ he talked of being 23 and studying and being locked in his room all day writing songs “and then I lost the key and had to stay there…”, then he laughed about it: “That first part was true but then it got out of hand”. 😀 He also had to start the song twice because he suddenly could not remember the lyrics. 🙂

The whole concert came across light and often tongue-in-cheek, from song selection to stories told. Once in a while there was a serious note too though, if not so much in the things he said then in the songs. Being able to make serious songs with a sense of humor and funny ones with a serious undertone is one if the things I like best about Milow. He also is a good showman who manages to draw his audience in. He never needed much asking for us to clap or sing along and the call and response singing for ‘Cowboys, Indians Musketeers’ and especially ‘I was a famous singer’ worked wonderfully.

Apart from telling funny stories and bantering with Tom and the rest of the band he also told us he was in a “fight” with Jamie Cullum who played a concert at the same festival that night about who could play longer. “It would be bad if I finished and you could still hear him play”. Near the end of the concert someone yelled from the back that Jamie’s concert was over and Milow responded “Oh, he’s done? See ya!” but of course he did not leave us then. 🙂

I love the atmosphere, the music, the stories and could have listened for hours. When they finally left us with ‘Ayo Technology’ I did not want to go, but it was a high note to end the show with. Milow and the band came out after the gig to chat and sign stuff, but I didn’t stay that long. It was a good night and it made me want to go again soon. Maybe I will.

Setlist:

Blue Skies
Learning How to Disappear
You Don’t Know
Little in the Middle
Echoes in the Dark
Waste the Dawn
We Must Be Crazy
Building Bridges
Cowboys Pirates Musketeers
She Might She Might
Mistaken
Canada
Wind Me Up
You and Me (In My Pocket)
Against the Tide
Born in the Eighties
Millions of Miles
If I Was A Famous Singer
Ayo Technology

pictures of this concert

Tousled hair, flowers and a toast

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Poets of the Fall – Down by the Laituri, Turku; July 25th, 2014

After what felt like my longest tour break in my personal POTF concert history (it wasn’t, but it was the longest since 2009), it was finally time to see the guys again. New Year’s Eve counted for last year so it was the first of their concerts for me in 2014 and what an amazing concert it was. It had absolutely everything a good gig needs: band in a great mood, friends by my side, wonderful songs, good sound and lots of the stage antics we all love so much. There was absolutely no way in which this concert could have been any more fun!

We had a relaxing start, arriving from Helsinki at 1 pm, being greeted at the train station by A., H. and I.-M. – they went directly to the festival while we took a detour via our hotel and arrived just as Pariisin Kevät were announced. There weren’t so many people around yet and it was still easy to get to the front. The band made nice music, but the sound mix was not so good. For some time I could not hear any guitar at all and had trouble understanding the singer. I still liked them though and hoped the sound would improve for Poets of the Fall.

A break followed and we all watched as they set the stage for POTF. Some people left, others arrived, and when I saw some of the guys on stage I finally felt the usual rush of excitement that accompanies their concerts for me. Until that moment being on the road again had almost felt surreal and all I could think of was that I had not even listened to their music in months. It was a beautiful day though and I know I’d love the concert as soon as it started. It had been way too long since the last one.

The guys were a s few minutes late, but when the intro started, my hands moved up in the air, clapping, a smile spread across my face and a scream of joy escaped from my mouth. YEAAAAH! The new intro was awesome and even better was the fact that they started with ‘Lift’. H. next to me and I were jumping from the start and I was drenched in sweat before the first song was through. The guys were all smiles as they walked out and Marko jumped right along with us, motioning for us to get our hands in the air and clap. People immediately went along – it was the perfect lift off for the show. 🙂

They kept rocking us with ‘Kamikaze Love’, a good reason for more jumping and clapping. Just watching the guys play made me so happy. It was a camera free concert for me so I got to take everything in with my eyes and mind only. From time to time I turned to watch the other people around and my friend beside me. The smiled on their faces were priceless. 🙂 The band looked like they enjoyed the gig and so did the audience. Everyone looked happy and was rocking along.

So many little things happened during the show that I’m sure I didn’t notice half of them. Marko was all over the place, walking along on the boxes in front of the stage and often stepping over to the barrier, getting closer to the fans. Once he got up close to the camera that filmed the show for a big screen on the festival grounds and stuck out his tongue at it. It must have looked funny on screen. Ollie stayed mostly on the left side of the stage this time around and only once came over to visit Jaska. They had a sort of staring contest for a bit and both cracked up laughing soon.

Somewhere early on, Marko got the lanyard holding his backstage pass tangled up in the cables of his in ear monitor and motioned to Einari that he was strangling himself and needed help. So Einari came running and helped him take the lanyard off. Later on he had to help Ollie whose monitor had fallen out, because Ollie had to keep playing. Some other time, Ollie’s in ear monitor came loose when he wiped his face with a towel and Marko walked over to fix it.

For ‘Temple of Though’ everyone was waving their arms in rhythm and I think it was then when Marko remarked it looked beautiful. At one of the show point he took a flower out of the vases side stage, took it apart and handed the blossoms out to a few fans, I.-M- was one of them, smiling happily when she received it. In the end three blossoms were left on the long stem so Marko waked over to Jani and spanked him with it, petals flying all over. Jani took revenge by pretending to kick him in the butt. 😀 Later on he took a red flower and stuck it behind Ollie’s ear. Ollie raised his hand to feel what was there so the flower fell off and he stuck it on to his guitar. Afterwards I noticed that Jani had stuck a flower on to his bass to.

‘illusion & Dream’ was great and not only because Captain toasted to my friend A., while Marko clinked bottles with me – he even said “Kippis!” (Cheers!) and I said it right back to him. 🙂 For the first “dishonesty” Marko was running around at the back of the stage so he could not hold out his mic to us. Thus, Captain took over and conducted the audience from behind the keyboards and the sing-along worked just fine. 🙂 Later, during ‘Stay’ the guys just stood there with their hands behind their ears when it was time for us to sing about the little things that make the world. It took a moment for everyone to catch on, but it worked too.

Two Italian fans had painted their faces with a Finnish flag and held up a poster that said Italy wanted Poets of the Fall. Marko took it with a smile and told them “Grazie mille” (thanks a lot). On my side there was a fan who patiently tried to give Marko a pendant as a gift. It took quite some time before he managed, but it the end Marko took it and put it around his neck.

Jani spent a lot of time on on our side of the stage, often standing on the boxes right in front of me to play. I enjoyed watching him and he gave me a big smile when he saw me jumping along with the music. Both Ollie and Jaska had Marko leaning on heir shoulders some time during the show. Surely and “awwww!” moment. 🙂 Of course there was some guitar dueling, mock fighting and playing with the whammy bar as well – it would not be a Poets of the Fall show without that. 😉

For ‘Locking up the Sun’ Marko did a sun dance and since it was a hot day, he took a water bottle shower several times, generously sharing the water with us by showering the first few rows as well. After every water shower over his head, Marko stepped over to the barriers, leaned out into the audience and motioned for us to tousle his hair. That was my fangirl moment of the show. I’d been tempted to tousle his hair more than once, but would never do so without permission. So now, since he asked us to, of course I did. 😉

Somewhere towards the end of the show, Jaska was walking around, taking pictures of the other guys with his phone and then taking one of the audience too and at some point Ollie was standing behind the keyboards, playing next to Captain for a while. Overall it was a great show and I enjoyed every moment of it. As usual, it was over in the blink of an eye, but it was one of the best blinks ever. When you forget about everything but the music and end up feeling it could not possibly be over already then it just shows how amazing the concert was. There is not much more I could wish for.

Setlist:

Lift
Kamikaze Love
Temple of Though
Cradled in Love
Locking up the Sun
Stay
Illusion & Dream
Diamonds for Tears
Carnival of Rust
Dreaming wide awake
Late Goodbye

After the show, B., C. and I briefly met Jaska and got hugs. He told us they’d enjoyed the show and how they were all excited about the upcoming album. We assured him we were as well and said goodbye until October. Is it too early to start the countdown for those concerts?