Fancy dresses and feather boas

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Poets of the Fall – Ilves Barb ‘N’ Night, Tampere; December 5th 2011

Oh my, oh my what a night….

It started with getting into our fancy dresses in A.’s room, sharing stories and chocolate, laughing, hanging out, then going to the lobby meeting others and having good food at the Amarillo. Everyone looked so pretty all dressed up. Soon after the nightclub opened, so we went downstairs and in front of the stage. There was a lot of time to pass, we invented all sort of strange dances, laughing and just having fun. The Finns were clearly outnumbered in front row, five of them with two Germans, one Ukranian and six Russians. We were grooving and being watched by people too. Funny, I just hope nobody took pictures. 😉

When it was time for the guys to come out we got our feather boas ready. After we had seen the outfit Marko had worn in India and believing it was a one-time thing, G. and I had decided to wear feather boas with our dresses and talked 5 of our friends into doing the same. We also planned to sing Happy Birthday for Marko but that was a big failure. 😉

Since we were all in fancy dresses we had been hoping the guys would come in tuxedoes. What finally got our hopes up was the fact that Einari and Hannu were wearing dress shirts and ties. They didn’t quite come in tuxedoes, but they all had dressed nicely for the occasion and not in their usual jeans and T-Shirts.

Remembering the small and oddly shaped stage from last time I had left my camera at home, ready to just enjoy the music and the show for once. And what a great show it was. They had to play a short setlist, so they put all the usual show energy into a shorter time frame.

I’m running out of words to describe the awesomeness of their concerts. To see them smile happily, enjoying being there, joking with each other and the audience, to watch them do music magic, each one of them a master at their instrument of choice. I made it a point to watch each one of them, even though Marko was right in front of us for most of the night. It is just so much fun to wach the guys interacting with each other, joking, teasing, smiling, being lost in music. We had picked a good spot at the center where Ollie, Jaska and Jani came to play right in front of us. Watching them work was all sorts of amazing.

As always, the railing was the place for Marko to be. He stood up on it quite a few times, crouched down, singing to us, sat down right in front of me. I sure had fun watching him. A funny moment was when at one point he picked up his phone and sang into it without missing a beat, then hung up and put it ack in his pocket. A birthday call maybe?

The whole gig was great fun and there was enough room to move and jump arond during the faster songs. During ‘The ultimate fling’ I was jumping and headbanging (which does not look very impressive because I have short hair). Ollie watched me, smiled and headbanged with me. 😀 I loved every second of the gig, almost forgot to breathe at times and felt a little bit dazed when it was over. It all happened so fast.

After the gig I saw the guys leave. Ollie came over to us to say goodbye and asked me if I’d be there on Fridays. Why of course I would be. 😀

Some of my friends went on to see Happoradio, who were playing at a different venue at the hotel, some said goodbye. The rest of us went back to A.’s room, changed again and chatted for a bit before we left. We had a good laugh at the fact that my feather boa had given off color and made me look smurfy blue. Back at our hotel, G. and I chatted the night away, before we were tired enough to sleep. The following day, we took a train to Helsinki from where G. went home and I went to my friend’s place to stay until the weekend and see the last gig of the tour.

Setlist:

Dreaming wide awake
The ultimate fling
No End, no Beginning
Locking up the sun
Roses
Given and denied
Diamonds for Tears
Illusion & Dream

Encore:
Late goodbye
Carnival of Rust
Lift

We will rock you

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Poets of the Fall – Kooma, Turku; December 3rd 2011

Have I mentioned I don’t function very well on too little sleep? For the Turku gig I was so tired that most of it is pretty much a blur. I can hardly remember any details which is usually what I remember most, but let me backtrack and see what I can actually tell you…

After a nice breakfast with the guys at the hotel in Mikkeli, G. and I were on our way to Turku. No, I’m kidding you of course. At 9:00 a.m. most of the Poets were nowhere to be seen and those that were we left alone. I don’t want to be bothered before the first shot of cafeine in the morning (or while having a meal in general), so I certainly would not do that to anyone else. We kept to ourselves, chatted, said goodbye to M. from Belgium and made our way to the train station. We were in for a pitkää matkaa (a long journey) as the train attendant noted when she checked our tickets. From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with one change of trains. We talked and watched the landscape outside go by. I hadn’t taken any pictures the previous night, so I checked the ones from the week before and started editing. It was a nice and relaxing way of traveling and it slowly grew dark on the way.

K. picked us up at the train station, we left our luggage in her car and went for lunch. Then took G. to her hotel and spent some time there before meeting up with our friends.

The biggest surprise for me was to see my friend C. waiting for us by the club doors. I had no idea she was coming. 😀 The complex where the nightclub was had a pikkujoulu (pre Christmas party) going on, so we stayed at a pub across the road, having tea. More friends arrived, more chatting in three languages (German, Finnish, English) and finally a move over to where the club was. We stayed at the Karaoke bar until it was time to get in line. To pass the time most of us tried playing the idiot’s test on K.’s phone. If I recall correctly it deemed me “slightly more intelligent than a monkey” – yep, that’s me on too little sleep.

At the nightclub we sat down on the boxes in front row and waited, watching people. I had picked a pretty bad spot, right where the fog from the fog machine came out to the dance floor. (And let me tell you, they used that thing a lot!) Time went by slowly and I contemplated crawling up on stage and lieing down behind the drums to sleep for a bit. 😉 Met a few Cheerios by the bar and had a nice chat before returning to the front row.

Finally, somewhere around midnight, last gig preparations took place and it looked as if it was ging to start soon. We got up, ready to go. The DJ played Queen’s ‘We will rock you’ and we started banging out hands on the railing and clapping in unison and in rhythm. That was quite fun, everyone was smiling.

As the intro to ‘Dreaming wide awake’ started, I felt my mind and body waking up. This was what I had been waiting for and all the weariness of the previous hour fell away from me. I never get tired of hearing these first notes and seeing them walk on stage one by one, picking up their instruments, getting ready and then launching into the song together. The smiles when they walk out and look at their audience for the first time, the glance of recognition when they see familiar faces in the crowd, the moment of concentration when they get ready to play and then all the energy explodes into music.

While rocking out to ‘The ultimate Fling’ I looked at my friends by my side and noticed that A. was headbanging with flying hair. It made me smile to see her getting so much into it. Everyone else was having fun too. I cannot remember much else of the gig other than everyone having fun and Marko trying (and failing) to stand on the railing in front of us. The thing was round so he could not keep his balance up there.

They guys had fun and gave out a lot of handshakes that night. As they finally left the stage after the encore, Jari gave me a pair of drumsticks – that absolutely made my night. I decided I didn’t need two though and gave one to my friend C..

We hung out for a while, some of us had a drink and we even saw the guys again. I had not expected them to come out and they didn’t do so for long, but I had a chance for saying goodbye. Not much more would hae been possible anyway, as the music that had been turned on immediately after their gig was much too loud. We could only shout at each other. I spotted a few guys from India (at least that’s where I assume they were from) who talked to Ollie for a while. I didn’t get a chance to speak with them though. G. went and collected autographs for a friend, then we left.

Walked back to G.’s hotel to get my luggage, chatted for a while, then met A. at the train station and with her drove off into the night. The rest of the weekend I spent at her place and I really enjoyed my stay, with great food and even better company. On Monday morning it was time for me to leave. On to the next city and the next gig.

Setlist

Dreaming wide awake
The ultimate Fling
Can you hear me
No End, no Beginning
Stay
Sleep
Locking up the Sun
Diamonds for Tears
Roses
Given and Denied
War
Illusion & Dream

Encore:
Late goodbye
Carnival of Rust
Lift

pictures of this concert