Poets of the Fall – Hirsch, Nuremberg; October 9th, 2013
Nuremberg was a show with way too much anxiety beforehand, but a happy ending for everyone. It took Poets of the Fall to unknown territory in a known country where they played to a small but happy audience. With two shows under their belts they seemed to have warmed up to the tour now and the day off after Vienna had done them good. There was a nice flow to the entire show, everything was just right.
The night before, while still in Vienna, S. had texted me with bad news: A. had lost her passport at the airport and could not travel. Thus she had traveled from the US on her own, hoping A. would get a replacement passport and still make it in time. Not much I could do from afar except for moral support, but it had me worried. When I finally arrived in Nuremberg A. was already on a plane, it was all going to work out after all. After lunch S., E. from Norway and I went to the venue where A. joined us later.
We were waiting alone for a long time and when they let us in for the meet and greet there were around 20 people – nice and cozy. It was all very relaxed and I got the chance for quite a long chat with Marko. Talked to everyone else as well – it sure has its advantages not wanting a picture or having anything to get signed. :)There was a certain routine to things by now and for the first time we got to stay inside the venue after the guys were gone.
Since the others wanted to stand on the right while I took up my usual spot on the left, I spent the waiting time chatting with the people around me. One told me he had been waiting 7 years to finally see the band live. When the doors opened for everyone M. arrived and joined me. The place wasn’t sold out, but nicely filled. I exchanged a few looks with S. and A., who could hardly believe they were seeing the guys again, especially after all the excitement. In addition to the lost passport, also some of their tickets had gotten lost on the way to the US and all they had was an email confirming the purchase. It wasn’t a problem though. They were here and ready to rock. All this made me smile. Thank you to everyone who reminded me what it feels like to be at your first Poets of the Fall concert. 😀
It was an evening of teasing, mock fights and stealing stuff from each other, all the while laughing about it. Especially Jani was up to all kinds of shenanigans from stealing Jaska’s baseball cap to chasing Marko across the stage. Of course it was an evening of great music as well. The show started with Ollie walking out to the intro and starting to play the first notes of ‘Dreaming wide awake’ in on bright spotlight, while the rest of the stage was still in the dark. Next was Jaska, playing in the spotlight too. Then Jari, Captain and Jani – each one of them getting their own spot on the dark stage. The last to walk out was Marko and with him the show was on the road.
During ‘Temple of Thought’ Marko was out on the speakers by the side of the stage, leaning down to shake people’s hands, before he left while the others played ‘Rogue’. That instrumental changes every night – it gets better every time I hear it and the five minutes are over in a heartbeat. Marko was back for ‘Locking up the sun’ and for the first time he yelled “rain dance!” before dancing across the stage, turning in circles. Jani was standing on the drum raiser a few times, Marko and Ollie were mock fencing at some point, Ollie with his guitar and Marko with his microphone. Captain could be seen air drumming along with Jari. 🙂
About halfway through the show, Marko turned to S. and asked her if she believed in dreams.”Yeah!” she yelled. “Then don’t let illusions get in the way!” was Marko’s reply and they played “Illusion & Dream”. <3 For ‘Late Goodbye’ he ended up with Jaska’s baseball cap and practiced a few hip hop hand moves before he started singing. The cap was thrown aside eventually and Jani put it back on Jaska’s head. The crowd sing along was pretty good and everyone screamed for more when the main set ended.
The acoustic set started with just Ollie and Marko playing ‘Desire’ . After the bridge, Ollie took a break for effect. I was wondering if they’d stop there, but they didn’t. For the second song, Jaska joined Marko. It was introduced with a little speech: “Guys, now, the first thing: girls like chocolate, they like flowers. So every now and then you can just like go somewhere and spend some of that hard-earned money, get some of the stuff and take it home to her, and you know, the night will be perfect after that. No worries, no headaches, no nothing. Just a tip from rockstar.” 😀 What followed was a beautiful rendition of ‘Roses’ during which the rest of the band walked back on stage and joined in. It ended with some awesome instrumental improvisations giving everyone the chance to shine.
The end of the show neared, but there were still three songs to go. I looked around and saw only happy faces. Once again it was the first Poets of the Fall concert for many of these people – clearly they were glad to have made the track to the show. 🙂 The guys were enjoying it too, singing and playing their hearts out. Jani took the feather boa during the acoustic set and kept it for the rest of the show – he wore it proudly. 😀 Ollie went over to Jaska to play his guitar and during ‘Lift’, while Ollie stood at the edge of the stage for his guitar solo, Marko walked over to cool him down with a towel. People were still clapping while the outtro ended.
Once the lights were back on I went to find my friends. A. was tired, but very happy and E. and S. were all excited about the show. Knowing the guys would not come out again we did not stay long. M. drove us to our hotel before going home. 🙂 A. went to get some badly needed sleep while A., S. and I gathered in S.’s room to chat and look through our pictures until it was bedtime for us too. New concert adventures awaited us the following days.
Setlist:
Dreaming Wide Awake
Show Me This Life
Cradled In Love
Kamikaze Love
Temple Of Thought
Rogue
Locking Up The Sun
Illusion & Dream
Diamonds For Tears
The Distance
Late Goodbye
unplugged
Desire
Roses
Running Out Of Time
Carnival Of Rust
Lift
Poets of the Fall Switzerland/Austria/Germany tour: 3 gig down, 7 to go. Next stop: Mannheim