Poets of the Fall – Ravintola Piazza, Tahkovuori, April 8th, 2012
The day started with a cup of tea and my friend C. who was our patient and wonderful driver for the entire trip, picking K. and me up at our hotel in Jämsä. I had slept quite well, if too short, but K. was in bad shape due to an awful headache. We let her sleep in the backseat while we chatted away in the front on the long drive. Our first destination was Kuopio. The original plan had been for K. and myself to take her car, but unfortunately it had broken down. It was too late to change hotels, so we dropped our things at the hostel we had booked and went on with C. towards Tahkovuori. It took us another hour to get there with a little detour because I had managed to lose my glasses when we stopped for gas. How? I was wearing my sunglasses and dropped the sunglass case with the glasses inside without noticing it. Luckily, they were still at the gas station.
Tahko is your typical skiing center I guess. I don’t ski, so I would not know, but it was quite similar to Himos the previous day. C.’s hotel was awesome. She had five beds in her room and invited us to stay. (Thank you!) Thus, no taxi ride back to Kuopio in the dead of night. 🙂
We went for dinner, rested a bit. At 9 p.m. we went to the venue and were alone close to the stage for quite some time. We sat down on the side, talking, waiting until it was time to go and stand in front row. Both C. and I had presents for Ollie, the birthday boy, but he didn’t show his face before the gig. Slowly, the place filled up. The crowd was pretty wild and many of them drunk.
They started a bit before midnight and we soon found out that we were standing in a dangerous spot. The railing that bordered the stage was pretty high this time (about up to my nose), but that did not keep Marko from climbing up on it. It was quite shaky and he didn’t see me offering my hand for support. Thus, standing up on top of it didn’t work, but sitting or lying down did. Also the thing was structured like a fence so there were quite a few places to step on. Thus, we had Marko leaning out into the audience right next to or between us all the time. I had quite some fun studying people’s faces when he suddenly got close to them.
The setlist was the same as before just without the acoustic set. They probably thought it didn’t fit the venue or the crowd. I really hope it is not gone for good now. Unless it gets replaced by more songs off ‘Temple of Thought’ that is. 😉 Yeah, I know, wishful thinking. When would they have time to rehearse those songs with all the gigs they are playing?
With every band I see multiple times I will eventually find a few songs I grow tired of, sometimes even songs I love dearly, while there are others that I don’t mind listening to again and again, even if they are played at every gig. I realized that I would not mind ‘Diamonds for Tears’ being put to rest for a while. Don’t get me wrong, I like the song, but right now I’d rather hear something else. That was bound to happen and I know a few people who would be unhappy not to hear it, just like I would be if they suddenly skipped ‘Illusion & Dream’. Oh the mess it would be if the fans could decide on the setlist – we would either end up with no concert at all or one that contained every song they have ever published. 😉
The audience was surprisingly good. I had expected more drunken pushing from the back and less singing along, but people seemed to enjoy the concert. The only exception was the woman next to me. She enjoyed it alright, but she could not keep her hands to herself and was all over Marko whenever he made the mistake of coming anywhere near her. Apparently failing to understand “subtle” signals, such as moving backwards away from her or later only singing to the people on the far right or far left and ignoring those in the center where she stood, she kept it up through the entire gig. Second hand embarrassment is an understatement here. Oh well, thanks to her, K. and C. got to see a lot of Marko – once even upside down, almost hanging from the railing like Spiderman. 🙂
Ollie worried me that night. He played flawlessly, but he kept shaking out his left hand and later even massaging his arm. It really looked painful to me. 🙁 Good thing there wasn’t another concert scheduled for the following night. Less than that the guys seemed to be having a good time and even though the small stage did not leave them much room to move, they didn’t stand still much.
After trying to stand up on the railing in vain, Marko stole Ollie’s chair and stood up on that. It was rather shaky and Ollie watched him worriedly, but he managed to keep his balance and didn’t miss a note. 😉
As they left the stage for the encores, I succeeded in calling Ollie over and we gave him our birthday presents. Technically, a day late, but he was happy about them anyway. 😉 They were back for ‘Dreaming wide awake’, ‘Carnival of Rust’ and ‘Lift’, then left for good. Captain came over to us to shake our hands before he walked off stage. <3
We went back to our hotel soon after, tired and happy. C. and I didn’t feel like going to bed so we went to the sauna instead. There’s nothing like a relaxing sauna after a gig and standing on the balcony in minus 14 degree weather, just dressed in towels and completely oblivious to the cold. Fun! The night was short and we had a 7 hour trip back to Helsinki ahead of us in the morning, but right then and there, none of that mattered, right then and there, life was beautiful
8 gigs down, 8 to go. Next stop: Berlin
Setlist
Kamikaze Love
Diamonds for Tears
Temple of Thought
Roses
Cradled in Love
Locking up the Sun
War
The Lie Eternal
Stay
Illusion & Dream
Gravity
Late Goodbye
Encore:
Dreaming wide awake
Carnival of Rust
Lift