Passion colors everything - On the road | Touring with the bands I love

Poets of the Fall – Tele Club, Yekaterinburg; March 26th 2013

The big question after tonight’s gig is not “Why? Why? Why? Why?” but “HOW?” How do these guys manage to get better time after time? Where do they take that unbelievable energy from? And how am I ever gonna manage to find the words to describe what I have just witnessed? I’m not sure a simple “WOW” is enough to do so. I told the guys after the show “this might have been a ten”, but really, if Moscow was an 11 on a ten scale, then this one might have just blown the scale to pieces.

Got to the club in the driving snow around 3 p.m., met a few people, found out cameras were not allowed and returned to my hotel to leave the camera there. Back at the club at 3:30 p.m., still the same four people. We introduced each other, chatted, laughed. We were happy to have a roof above our heads and it wasn’t even as cold as I had expected. More people showed up, from all over. I think Novosibirsk was the furthest – 22 hours on a train to see the guys. Awesome. Time passed slowly, we shared food, listened to Poets and sang along. It was getting cold after all and time dragged on. Somewhere between 6 and 6:30 they let us in, took ages to check our bags and made us wait again at the doors to the actual concert hall. Luckily there were no problems with my eTicket this time. When they opened the doors I ran and made it to my favorite spot just to the left of Marko’s mic. Yeah!

The fans had brought a huge banner that spread all across front row. I still have no clue what it said, but something about the tenth anniversary. Also many were dressed in black and white striped shirts. Once again there were balloons to throw at the stage. I wrote “Touring with you is the best thing ever” on mine. Waiting, excited people, screaming loudly. When the lights went down I felt happiness surge through me, but I needed a bit more patience first.

I think it was about 8:15 p.m. when the intro started. The response was instant and unbelievably loud – everyone seemed to scream their lungs out. The guys walked on stage with big smiles on their faces, probably wondering why it had taken them so long to come back here. Our balloons flew, but most didn’t make it across the wide trench between stage and front row. Mine did, only to be kicked off by Marko right away. 😉

Once again I realized how I love the fact that the show is rockier now than last year. The combination of ‘Delicious’, ‘Locking up the sun’ and ‘Kamikaze Love’ could not possibly leave anyone standing still. Many in the audience were jumping, Ollie was headbanging and Marko dancing all over the place. During ‘Kamikaze Love’ he got down on his knees to kiss the earth beneath Jani’s feet.

He introduced ‘Jeremiah Peacekeeper’ as their most talked about song where everyone is trying to figure out what it is about and continued that it is about a real life hero, who always gave love. Tonight’s version then was extremely beautiful. I think this was one of the songs where Marko blew feathers from his boa at the audience and also stepped on the boxes in front of the stage to get closer to us, shaking hands. Jani and Ollie also stood on the boxes quite a few times during the night. 😀

All the guys were in a crazy mood and they looked so happy. Both Ollie and Marko were dancing, twisting turning all around with the guitar and mic stand respectively. There was a lot of jumping going on as well and Captain even came to the front at one point to play air guitar next to Ollie. 😀 Later, Ollie in turn stood next to Captain behind the keyboards.

All the songs were awesome and even the ones I occasionally get tired of just made me happy this time around. Along with everyone else I sang my heart out. Marko made us sing a lot and it always worked well, for ‘Don’t mess with me’, ‘Cradled in Love’ and especially ‘Late Goodbye’. During the song at the beginning of second verse the mic gave out and Einari had to change the batteries. Thus, Marko made us sing and we gladly obliged. It was so amazing. A funny point during the song was Jari suddenly playing the triangle. 😀 For their usual duel between guitar and voice Marko and Ollie stood on the boxes in front of the stage.

There were so many happy smiles, in the audience and on stage. Lots of love flowing back and forth between us, surely a miracle was happening right then and there. So many great moments too: Captain coming to cool down Ollie with a towel and to wipe his brow, Jani and Marko mock fighting and laughing about it and Jaska trying to jump up on the drum raiser and half falling into the drum kit. That scared me a little at first, but he was laughing about it and shook Jari’s hand to apologize.

Way too soon we reached the encores. They barely left the stage before. ‘Sleep’ was exceptional and the crowd sing along was perfect. During ‘Dreaming wide awake’ Marko climbed up to the balcony at the side of the stage and walked over to the VIP section to shake hands, while Ollie stepped down right in front of us to play a solo. It might have also been then that Jaska and Ollie played together and Jaska playfully bit into Ollie’s shoulder. He later returned the favor. 😉

I think I was smiling the entire time, but many emotions were raging inside of me. I choked up slightly at the beginning of ‘Everything fades’, I felt so much love during ‘Cradled in Love’, screamed out some hurt during ‘Don’t mess with me’ and was generally on a wonderful emotional rollercoaster ride all night. They guys really outdid themselves – every note fit, everything was alright! When ‘Lift’ had ended in amazing solos and Marko came back out for ‘The Happy Song’ I was quite surprised that I still had a voice after all the screaming and singing along. Once again it was time to scream in response to Marko “Psycho! Psycho!” and “We told you that we love you”. It was a beautiful ending to a magnificent show. Still, words are not enough to describe it. It was just pure love.

The guys did not make us wait long before they came out and I briefly said hello to all of them. They had loved it and Jani even considered it the best show in Russia, because it was the most relaxed one. Way to go Poets! The audience agreed that it was an unbelievable show, On the way out I spoke with me new friends again and they were just as speechless as I was. Before I left, they gave me one of those black and white striped shirts with a morpho and Poets of the Fall drawn/written on it. Such an unexpected and wonderful gift! < 3 Smiling, I walked back to my hotel through the snow. I might just come back here next time around. 😀

Poets of the Fall 10^th anniversary tour – 6 gigs down, so far 5 to go. Next stop: Kiev.

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

Poets of the Fall – Arena Hall, Krasnodar; March 24th, 2013

After the Moscow gig I got a meager three hours of sleep before I had to go to the airport. The traveling was taking its toll and all I wanted to do was sleep. I managed to stay awake until I was on the plane, but already missed the start. When we landed in Krasnodar, I felt a little better. Had airport pickup agreed with my hotel, but nobody came to get me. Luckily there was a really helpful taxi driver, who, even though he didn’t get any business from me, helped me find someone who spoke English and called my hotel. They did send me a car after all. Hotel was nice, but nobody spoke English there either. I ended up communicating with them via Google translate. Note to self: get Russian phrasebook!

Didn’t have time for sightseeing or resting much, but managed to get some food before I set out to find the venue. It was surprisingly complicated since it as in one side building of a large shopping mall. Arrived around 3 or 3:30 and was the second person at the door. Good start! It was also nice to have a roof over my head and the weather wasn’t nearly as cold as in Moscow. I didn’t feel very communicative that day so I spent much of the waiting time listening to music and watching the local street team blowing up red balloons (many of which were killed before we even got in).

I can’t remember when they opened the door, but for some reason they could not read my eTicket and everyone was running by me while I waited. When they finally did let me in, the front row was pretty much take already. I ended up on the far right side. Not a spot I was happy with, but nothing I could do to change it. Shit happens! I was also sorry I hadn’t brought my camera since they were allowed. Only when I found out it was too late to get it from the hotel.

However, all the negative thoughts and emotions fell from me when the intro started. No matter how I feel, Poets of the Fall always manage to put a smile on my face. Lots of red balloons flew on stage as the guys walked out and they had much fun kicking them about. Marko took a particularly big one, read what was written on there (I could not see it) and put it up on his mic stand. It fell of though and he kicked it about a bit, always hitting the ceiling, until it finally ended up behind the drums. It made a reappearance later when Captain picked it up and kicked it into the audience, it came right back. Ollie tried kicking it off again, but failed, hitting the speakers that hung from the ceiling. Jani and Jaska tried and failed the same way at different times during the concert – it was hilarious. Finally Jani stepped on the balloon and popped it. The satisfied smile on his face was just priceless. 😀

It was such a relaxed show for the guys and they were all going a little bit crazy that night. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Ollie dancing across the stage and turning on the spot this wildly and I’ve seen him do it many times. Everyone else was going just as crazy and they all wore very happy smiles on their faces – with good reason I’d say. After the filming went so well they should be happy. The good mood carried over to the audience as well. Everyone looked like they were having a great time. I felt sorry for the guy next to me, because I sang along loudly and only later realized he was filming – that can’t have sounded good.

Since I was not on my usual side of the stage it took the guys a little while to see me, but they did eventually. 🙂 At one point Marko even came over to shake my hand. <3 Since the front row was closer to the stage than at the previous two gigs he took the chance for close interaction with the audience a lot. At least when he was not busy dancing across stage like crazy, twisting and turning round and round with the micstand in both hands. During ‘Kamikaze Love’ he picked up a heart shaped balloon, took it close to his chest and made it move like a beating heart.

Jani and Jaska both had trouble standing under the speakers that hung from the ceiling on the sides of the stage, because they were just hanging too low. Later on, when Ollie stood under there, Jani came over and said something, pointing upward. I imagined it being along the lines “You’re the only one short enough to stand under those”. XD Either way, they were both grinning.

The whole show was fun and all the songs were amazing. I enjoyed having some space to dance and jump around instead of being squeezed in. Too soon the encores came along. Marko noted he had put his striped shirt on backwards. 😉 Everyone rocked out and/or sang along for the last few songs, jumping, dancing, having fun. The Poets surely gave Krasnodar a great first show.

Afterwards they all came out, Jani was jokingly wondering who I was and I got hugs from him, Ollie and Captain. I told them I enjoyed it and that we’d see each other in Yekaterinburg. 🙂 On my way back to the hotel I tried to find some food, but everything was closed so I had to make do with some candy. A few hours of sleep, then I was on the road again.

Poets of the Fall 10^th anniversary tour – 5 gigs down, so far 5 to go. Next stop: Yekaterinburg.

Setlist

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

Passion colors everything – On the road

Touring with the bands I love

And if words should fail here I’ll just read the way you sound…

Red balloons, wild dancing and limited football skills