Passion colors everything – On the road

Poets of the Fall – Bingo Club, Kiev; March 28th, 2013

Who would have thought that my last Poets of the Fall concert of the Russia/Ukraine tour would become such an emotional ride? I have never ever cried at any of their concerts before, was always way too happy to do so, but in Kiev I did, all the way through ‘Carnival of Rust’. There were also some happy memories to take home though and many lovely moments to witness.

The previous day had been for traveling and due to my stupid booking mistake I got to spend five boring hours at Moscow Sheremetyevo airport – yawn. There weren’t even any Finnish guys around to entertain me. Luckily I managed to sleep a bit on the flights. Kiev was drowning in snow and the 60 km taxi ride to my hotel took well over an hour. Finally it was time for a bit of rest before my friend Y. picked me up, showed me the venue and we had some dinner. It was a lovely evening, but I called it an early night.

About 9 hours of sleep did me some good, I made my way through the snow to the subway, met Y. again and got a tour of Kiev city center. Lovely. We went for lunch and then I returned to my hotel to drop off my camera before heading to the venue. Was among the first ten people there and the usual long wait followed. We had earlier heard they’d let us in at 6 p.m., but it was much later when they finally did. Admittance was one of the worst I have ever seen in well over 300 concerts. Outside the pushing already started and once in they stopped us between two benched where those of us at the front ended up being squished in between the benches and the people pushing from behind – for almost 2 hours! 🙁 It was truly horrific, especially because the security people did nothing to ease the pressure or even inform us when we were going to get inside the concert hall. That nobody fainted is a small miracle. It was almost 8 p.m. (the time the concert was supposed to start) when they told us the technical problems had been solved now and they would let us in soon. Ah, there were problems – nice to know. At 8:10 they started (!) setting up the barriers in front of the stage and finally let us in afterwards.

We ran in, I barely made it to the front on the left side, once again squeezed up against the barrier. I was ready to pass out, hungry and exhausted. Luckily I spotted Poets’ tour manager and begged her for a drink. She didn’t ask any questions, just got me a Coke. Lifesaver! I shared it with the people around me. People from behind asked us to put up a sign that read “Welcome to Ukraine” in Finnish – unfortunately we put it upside down first. Epic fail that caused lots of laughter. There was not much time to get accustomed to being inside – the show started almost right away.

After the day off the guys were in a great mood. The audience greeted them loudly. This was going to be a good one. 😀 Instantly my mood got better and I forgot all about the stress beforehand. These guys indeed have magical powers. The stage was quite far from the front row, but I had a great view of everyone, including Einari at the mixing desk. It was actually fun to see him work for a change.

From the first notes the guys were on fire and even though there was not much room to jump and dance this time around, the audience rocked right along with them. Marko was wearing his Zoltar make-up with the black stripe over one eye. During ‘Kamikaze Love’ he sang the “Hell the way you walked in…” line to me with a big smile. I smiled right back at him and pointed to him while singing “…I would kiss the earth beneath your feet.” – it was one of those days.

There was so much movement on stage it was really difficult to take everything in. Whenever I watched one of the guys I must have missed ten things the others did. For example there was Jaska, suddenly picking up the triangle Jari had and playing it with a look that said “I really wanted to do this just once” – both he and Jari laughed really hard at it. There was Captain, walking to the front of the stage to play air guitar next to Ollie and later playing air drums behind the keyboards. Marko was singing ‘Temple of Thought to Ollie for a change and later fanned him with the feather boa to cool him down during a solo.

The audience knew how to sing along too and enthusiastically greeted every song. Someone offered Marko a rose so he stepped off the stage and up on some boxes to get it. If I recall correctly he put it own on the drum riser from where Jani picked it up, stuck it on his bass and later stuck it on Ollie’s guitar. The boxes also proved to be a god spot to shake hands from and once Marko had been there both Jani and Ollie decided to go there during the show and play solos. It was awesome, Ollie even high-fived people on the way back to the stage.

I can’t remember much about specific songs in particular, but they were all much loved and the sing-along parts were fun. Once again, ‘Everything fades’ was especially beautiful to me as if I was hearing it for the very first time. I remember Einari making me laugh a lot. During one song he ran up the steps to the stage and hit on Jari’s cymbals. Later, Ollie was playing a solo on the far left of the stage without any spotlight on him. Thus, Einari stood in front of the stage below him and shone a flashlight on him – awesome.

Many more funny interactions happened, not all of which I can recall. I remember Marko beckoning Jani to “attack” him, Jani refusing and Marko throwing the boa around his neck and drawing him in. I also remember Jaska pointing at Ollie and Ollie pretending to bite his finger. Later on, Marko showered Jani with water – it looked quite refreshing.

Surely an enjoyable show that I hope was as great for everyone else as it was for me. Over too soon of course and during the encores, the tears came. The lack of sleep and general exhaustion were taking its toll. I allowed myself to cry, still sang along and will always remember this version of ‘Carnival of Rust’ as being very special to me. By the time ‘Lift’ was over and ‘The Happy Song’ came around the tears had dried and I even managed jumping a little. The show ended in the usual announcement of “Take care of yourselves so you can take care of each other” and the guys were gone. Yes, you do that too, OK?

They came all out after and I managed to at least say a few words to each of them. Got a much needed hug from Marko too, told Ollie my next gig was gonna be the cruise in April and smiled when Captain showed me he is still writing with one of the pens I gave him. I really love these guys! <3 Unfortunately there was not enough time for a proper goodbye, so smiles had to do.

Getting out of the club took ages because for some odd reason the security people stopped us at the exit and would not let us out. I have no idea what time it was when we finally were outside. Soon I said goodbye to my friends and went back over the whole concert again in my head on the long walk back to my hotel. The next day was for sightseeing, one more night in Kiev and I was homeward bound. Thus ends my Russia and Ukraine tour with Poets of the Fall.

Poets of the Fall 10^th anniversary tour – 7 gigs down and so far 4 to go. Next stop: MS Mariella

Setlist

Delicious
Lockig up the sun
Kamikaze Love
Jeremiah Peacekeeper
Given and denied
Don’t mess with me
Temple of Thought
Everything fades
Cradled in Love
Stay
Running out of time
Illusion & Dream
Diamonds for tears
Late Godbye

Encore
Sleep
Dreaming wide awake
Carnival of Rust
Lift
The Happy  Song