The world I’m seeing is all in Mathilda’s eyes

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Martin and James – Huxley’s, Berlin; December 16th, 2012

When it became clear that seeing them support Paul Weller would be the last chance for a Martin and James concert this year, I decided to make the track to Berlin. Sure, they were going to play a support gig in Glasgow in late December too, but that was announced so late that the flight cost put an end to that idea.

I had an uneventful trip to Berlin, found my hotel, got ready and set out to meet with K., A., S. and K. We had a lovely dinner at an Asian restaurant across from the venue and passed the time chatting. There were some people waiting already when we arrived. We got in line, talked some more until A. went home and it was time for us to go in. The venue was pretty big and we found ourselves a nice spot in the front row on the right. The people to our left had come from the UK to see Paul Weller, but didn’t know Martin and James yet. K. and I left for a bathroom break. On the way we spotted Martin by the merchandise and went over to say hello. We talked briefly about the Glasgow gig and I handed him his Christmas present before we each went on our way. The time to the concert passed surprisingly quickly thanks to K. who chatted with me about languages. 🙂 She even had to tell me the guys were on stage, because she stood to my right and I was looking towards her at that moment. 😉

Before the concert I’d been tired and wondering if it was really such a good idea to have another too short night and work the next day. Yet the moment I saw them pick up their guitars, I felt a smile spreading on my face. This was why I was there!

They started with ‘Turn it up’ and my smile grew bigger. I sang along and with the lines “Won’t you play something, I’ve been waiting for and won’t you play anything for me?” K. and I looked at each other smiling. That was exactly what I felt like then and there. Next was a surprising ‘Crashing into Love’ – I knew they were going to play it, I just had not expected it that early. We were not the only people in the audience who knew the song, some others cheered too when it was announced. The audience reaction was generally good, if not as strong as for some of their own gigs.

‘Little Bits of Light’ followed. It was noticeable that the applause and cheering grew louder with every song. Slowly but surely Martin and James were taking over the Paul Weller fans. 🙂 They said they were going to try some new songs. This first one was ‘The Rope’ which of course is not new any more to us, but always beautiful. The same goes for ‘Life’s a show’, another song they announced as new. I’m not entirely sure if they said these were going to be on the new album or if they just mentioned they were recording a new one. For ‘Cynical Skin’ they called Dan Telander (from Jim Kroft’s band) on stage to play percussion with them. Fun! He stayed for the rest of their set.

Much to my surprise they did treat us to two songs we hadn’t heard yet in the end. As soon as James asked if anyone in the audience was named “Mathilda” I knew he must have written a song for his daughter and he had. “This is about a little girl back in Scotland” he said at the start of the song. ‘Mathilda’s Eyes’ was really beautiful and got stuck in my head for quite a long time after the concert. The audience did a good job singing along to the chorus too. 🙂 The last song of the evening was ‘You’ll be gone, I’ll be here’. I also liked that one immediately. Thus ended a short but great gig. It was sure worth traveling for.

Paul Weller and band started after a short break. I had checked out a few of his songs on youTube, thought they were all right and was curious to hear what he was like live. The music was really loud though and I didn’t like his singing much. Some of the songs were OK and I liked the drumming, but all in all this was not for me. We left front row after the main set and waited for the end in the back of the room. When it was over, S. said the words of the night “We survived Paul Weller!”

We went over to the merchandise and talked with Martin and James for a bit. They were quite busy selling and signing CDs. Good for them. We chatted about Glasgow again and about going home for Christmas. I gave James his Christmas present, which led to chatting about music for a while. I expressed how much I’d liked the new songs. They told they would release the new CD in April and were planning to tour after that. Soon it was time for us to say goodbye and we left. It was fun evening, see you all next year!

Setlist:

Turn it up
Crashing into Love
Little Bits of Light
The Rope
Life’s a Show
Cynical Skin
Mathilda’s Eyes
You’l be gone, I’ll be here

I kept the love you gave me alive, and now I carry it with me

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Poets of the Fall – Virgin Oil, Helsinki; December 8th, 2012

After an eventful year the day had arrived: the last Poets of the Fall concert of 2012 would happen at the Virgin Oil. B. and I had spent the previous night in Turku (already booked when the originally planned concert for that day was cancelled). We arrived in Helsinki in the afternoon, it was dark already. we fought our way through the snow to our hotel, got ready and spent the evening at the Virgin Oil’s bar, chatting over tea.

B. left for a while to get food when Petri arrived. We hugged and he sat down with me to chat for a bit. 🙂 B. returned, people came and went, a few stayed and apparently waited for the concert as well. The guys arrived and said hello to us. Jani, Jari and Captain got their Christmas candy and Jari finally received the second part of his birthday present and Marko thanked me again for the birthday present I had given him on the cruise.

Waiting. A. and her mom arrived, lter H. and S., lots of people whose names I don’t know, S. and M., P., T. and S. – when we lined up in front of the door it got crowded fast. The line was a bit chaotic as it is possible to line up from two sides. The fact that the cloakroom didn’t look like it was going to open any time soon didn’t make things any better. I really wish they’d find a better system for lining up there. However, what made the chaos perfect was the fact that the staff suddenly decided that we had to go back to the main entrance of the Virgin Oil to get our tickets checked and our hands stamped. WHAT? You’ve got to be freaking kidding me! How is this going to work? Of course they only told us in Finnish, so it took a while before the message reached everyone. We went in pairs and finally left our coats at the cloakroom too. Everyone was packed in a tight bundle at the door, not very comfortable. When they finally opened they told us to move back – sure, where to? Seriously, I felt as if I’d been transported back to Germany. *sigh* anyway, I did make it in first and secured a spot for B., A. and me. They got in behind me, only a guy and a girl who had arrived at the Virgin Oil almost as early as B. and I did were nowhere to be seen. We kept a place for them until they made it through. Finally I relaxed a bit. Phew!

We had some more waiting to do, time to get acquainted with those around me. We were all there for the same reason after all. The woman behind me told me I reminded her of a friend. Interestingly enough I had met her friend. Small world, really. We had a nice chat. 🙂 For a while we hope it might not be a midnight gig, but it was. I stood in my usual spot. left of Marko, in front of Jani. B. was next to me. H. and P. at the center/right. The group to my left passed out roses and instructed us all to sing “Happy Birthday” to Marko after ‘Temple of Thought’.

As usual, they kicked off the show with ‘Running out of Time’ and they rocked. They audience responded immediately – this was going to be good. Early on, Jaska threw a guitar pick to a woman in the audience. Without aiming anywhere in particular, he managed to throw it right into her cleavage. This caused much laughter. 😀

During ‘Temple of Thought’ Marko sang to H. and later on during the show he sang to the only guy in front row, which was funny, because he seemed a bit unsure about how to react. When the song was over we threw our roses and sang (or tried to). It was fun, but didn’t work all that well. They guys enjoyed having the roses though – they always make for good decoration. Marko used one of them to spank Ollie with it and Captain threw the last one back at the audience.

‘Cradled in Love’ was really beautiful that night. Over the course of the year I have learned to appreciate this song more and more and by now some of these words have a very special and personal meaning to me. This time, I held up my burning lighter during the entire song and when Marko saw what I was doing he gave me the sweetest smile. Jaska and Ollie were swinging their legs up and down in unison as they had done at the previous gig. They seemed to have practiced though –it was the perfect choreography. 😉

The guys were in such a great mood, laughing a lot and joking with each other. Jari was smiling the whole time and laughed at Jaska when he pretended to drink wine straight from the bottle. At one point Oll, Jaska and Marko were al twirling in circles. Jani took one look at them and decided that he was gonna do no such thing. The expression on his face was priceless. Captain was air drumming and during ‘Signs of Life’ Marko licked Jaska’s tattoo. Watching all this I could not help but laugh.

For some odd reason Jaska had a used rubber glove in his back pocket. At the beginning of ‘Late Goodbye’ Marko pulled it out and put it on for a while, replacing a few lines in the song with “and used gloves”. 😀 When I wrote about the Kemi gig last summer my friend P. had commented on Marko showing us his naked butt complaining she always missed the great fun. Well, not only did he do it again that night, he was also standing right in front of her. I totally cracked up and after the gig I could not help but ask her if that had been enough for her. 😀

Apart form all the fun the music was also exceptional that night. So much beauty, so much energy. For the encores they had a special treat for us. Once again they played ‘Salaisuuksia’ the song originally written for Johanna Kurkela. Before they started, Marko made quite a long speech, telling us that he was nervous about doing a song in Finnish. I don’t know what else he said, my friends didn’t translate every word for me. Either way, there was no need for being nervous, everything about the song was perfect. <3

These were only the highlights of one amazing gig. I could not have imagined a better last concert of the year. When it was over I hugged my friends, said goodbye to some and had drinks with the rest. I got to chat with Ollie a bit before we left to grab some late night food. We parted with one last hug, before B. and I headed t our hotel where we chatted well into the night. Can’t wait  to see you all again next year.

Poets of the Fall autumn tour – 14 gigs down, none to go. Last stop: home

Setlist

Running Out of Time
Diamonds for Tears
Temple of Thought
Cradled in Love
Locking Up the Sun
Signs of Life
Stay
Illusion and Dream
Jeremiah Peacekeeper
Kamikaze Love
Miss Impossible
Late Goodbye

Encore
Salaisuuksia (the Poets wrote this song for Johanna Kurkela)
Roses
Dreaming Wide Awake
Carnival of Rust
Lift