Resurrect emotions from our past

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Poets of the Fall – Meetfactory, Prague; September 1st, 2023

The show in Prague was the first one of Poets of the Fall’s 20th Anniversary tour outside of Finnland and after they had announced and intermission to be able to “play an overall longer show” we all wondered what that meant. It was a different venue too plus the first gig with the new Priority passes. I went in with no expectations and therefore had a really fun night. I enjoyed the show, I sang and jumped and sweat my butt off and once it was over I was smiling – they still can make me happy. 🙂

Traveling to Prague was exhausting because i had to take a night train to get there. When I finally arrived, all I really wanted was a nap. However, food was needed as well and after checking in to or hotel with A. and meeting up with E. we went to a nice Brazilian restaurant. Good food = good spirits. Got my nap after all and we headed for the venue around 5 pm.

When we arrived, there were surprisingly few people in line – most of the priority pass holders were not there yet. We had benches to sit on and there even were drinks we could buy. It was nice and relaxed. About 1 hour before the doors opened, we separated into two lines, but moste people didn’t arrive until about the last half hour. I had expected chaos when they opened the doors, but it actually went smoothly. When the regular ticket holders got in I checked my watch: It was 19:37. They did wait a moment after the last person with a priority pass was inside, before they opened for the rest of us.

The venue wasn’t great. Low stage and pillars on the sides blocking our view, with big speakers on them that didn’t help either. We considered going to the gallery, but the view was partly blocked from there as well, so we settled for 2nd/3rd row on the right. We were ready.

It was 20 minutes past 8 when the spoken word tape started. It was better understandable than it had been in Helsinki and I liked the idea, but the execution still wasn’t great. It’s nice to ask questions about how we got there and which songs we were thinking of to put us in the mood, but most people were not listening and it felt way too long overall. 5 minutes would have been enough. E. kept commenting that some of the questions were weird. They felt a bit like meditation to me, not sure if that’s really fitting. Either way, some people kept clapping and shouting “Poets! Poets!” and I#m sure that was not the desired effect.

We cheered when the tape said “The show will start i one minute” and even more so, when the guys finally stepped on stage. Especially Jaska looked really happy – he was grinning ear to ear. Jari was back too after Tuomas had played for the summer gigs. ‘Revelations’ was first and the sound was terrible. Granted, we were too close to the speakers, but it really felt muddy overall. 🙁 The lights weren’t great either, yet somehow I still had fun.

With ‘Locking up the sun’ I was moving along and of course turning back time – it was great to have some room to move. Olli, Marko and Jani had already spotted us and by the time ‘Illusion & Dream’ came around the sound had gotten better too. I was really enjoying this. ‘Temple of Thought’ was beautiful as always and they were back to playing ‘Rogue’ right after. I loved watching the guys show off their skills.

Marko returned and they powered through ‘Requiem for my Harlequin’, ‘Dreaming wide awake’ and ‘My Dark Disquiet’. By now it was almost unbearably hot and not only my T-shirt, but also my pants were soaked with sweat. In-between jumping and dancing I grabbed the front of my shirt and pulled it to get some air. Marko noticed and repeated the gesture. I can only imagine how warm it might be with the added heat of stage lights. It didn’t spoil the fun. When they ended the first set after ‘My Dark Disquiet’, I was glad to get a break though.

The side door was open so at least we got some air. The people to my left went away and never returned so we got a little more space as well. During the Intermission there was a Marko tape too, but I didn’t hear any of that. so far, no surprises and with only 45 minutes in the first set, it didn’t feel like this was going to be a “longer show”. Getting a breather wasn’t bad, but it felt too long and I was happy to hear the words “the show will continue in one minute” – yes!

Only Marko, Olli and Jani returned to the stage and Marko started chatting about a song they had not played in a long time. I was fully expecting ‘Late Goodbye’ and exchanged looks with E., both thinking “last week is a long time?” Then Olli started playing and I knew it was a different song. “I worry that I can’t give you what you need,” Marko sang. It made me instantly happy and I sang along right away, but it took me more than one verse before I could remember the name of the song – ‘King of Fools’. And old favorite of mine that I really had not heard in a log time. <3 So this was a different setlist after all.

Marko talked for a bit, asking the crowd about the Czech word for thank you after someone had yelled “kiitos!” – he practiced a few times, failing at first and joking that he was making a fool of himself as usual. It was funny. The rest of the band joined them and we got ‘Sleep’. People loved it. It was a nice gesture to bring that one back. I’ve never understood the obsession with it though. There are songs I love a lot more.

After that it was back to the regular setlist with ‘Diamonds for Tears’ and ‘Daze’. More jumping on our part and more sweating. At one point Marko said “I know how you feel – hot!” Indeed. I loved watching Olli visiting Captain, Jani leaning on to Jaska and them all posing for Glen, who as on picture taking duty. Only Jari I could barely see at all. The second set ended with ‘Late Goodbye’ and a pretty good sing-along. 😀

The encores started with ‘War’ and after it ended I kept hoping they’d play ‘Maybe tomorrow is a better day’ anyway, but they didn’t. 🙁 Now I was really glad I had gone on that cruise back in April and at least heard it once. We had already reached the usual finale with an awesome version of ‘Lift’ and a last chance to jump and sing along, following Marko’s lead. I love this part of the show, always. The last song was of course ‘Carnival of Rust’, because they never can let us go without it. After all these years it still makes me happy. 🙂

They thanked us, posed for a picture with the crowd, there was some hugging going on, Jani kissed Marko on the cheek and  just before they left Marko told us to “take care of yourselves so you can better care for others”. Then it was over. I checked my watch and it was 22:23 so the second set had lasted 48 minutes. well, guys, 93 minutes is not really a “longer show” – we have had shows of around 90 minutes on several tours, just without intermission. So the great announcement did amount to nothing much, but hey, 2 more songs is good.

We all agreed that it had been a fun show and we also agreed that ‘King of Fools’ was a great addition. Maybe that’s a spot in the show to play different acoustic songs? That would be even better. We will see. Soon. Onwards to Budapest!

pictures of his concert

Setlist

Revelations
Locking Up the Sun
Illusion & Dream
Temple of Thought
Rogue
Requiem for My Harlequin
Dreaming Wide Awake
My Dark Disquiet

King of Fools
Sleep
Diamonds for Tears
Daze
Late Goodbye

Encore:
War
Lift
Carnival of Rust

And more than ever, I hope to never fall, where enough is not the same it was before

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Poets of the Fall – Allas sea Pool, Helsinki; August 25th, 2023

Poets of the Fall played a bunch of summer open airs this year as part of their 20th anniversary tour, but the show in Helsinki was the only one I could make it to. It wasn’t the greatest gig I’ve ever see, but it sure was a fun one with a good audience and friends by my side. An enjoyable evening for sure.

My trip started with a delayed flight, but since I arrived the night before the show, it didn’t really matter. On show day, I met up with C., C. and A. for a relaxed lunch and even returned to my hostel before getting in line around 3 pm, where some people had already been standing since 10:30 – whatever floats your boat! There were a lot of familiar faces among those waiting and some new ones, one being a woman who’d traveled from the US and was wearing a red copy of Marko’s distinctive jacket with the shoulder spikes. It looked cool and must have taken a ton of work. She brought a fan letter and thus got to meet the band (in this case Marko) before the gig to hand it to them. Lovely gesture to talk to her for a bit. 🙂

When the doors opened it was at the same time more and less chaotic than I expected. I ran and scored a front row spot on Olli’s side with enough space to bring a few more people in. Good company – check! There wasn’t all that long to wait and we passed the time chatting.

At about 5 to 8 the show started with some spoken words by Marko. Unfortunately this was completely lost on most of the crowd and people kept talking right through it. It was something about arriving and thinking about how you feel, and how long it was to show start… but so hard to understand that I gave up on even trying to listen. I thought it was too long for an open air venue, because it was barely audible at times. Might have worked at an inside venue, with less background noise, but here it fell completely flat. I’m assuming the idea was getting people ready for the show, so I liked the sentiment, but shorter and more volume would have done the job much better in my opinion.

Finally the real intro started, the guys walked on stage and kicked it off with ‘Revelations’. I immediately realized that I should have spent some time listening to the Ghostlight album – I did not remember the lyrics at all. Many people around me did and sang along, while I was watching the band and had the feeling they were in a good mood. Nice! Luckily the second song was ‘Locking up the sun’ and I do know that one in my sleep. 😉 Olli had smiled at me right away and now Marko was pointing to K. and me because we were “turning back time”. This was the show I had been hoping for.

Singing along was easy for ‘Illusion & Dream’ – it was my first favorite and is still a song that makes me happy. I did not have a bottle to toast them with so I just raised my hand. ‘Temple of Thought’ was beautiful and had us all wave our hands. Instead of ‘Rogue’, ‘Requiem for my Harlequin’ followed and I remembered some of those lyrics. 😉 That was a fun one. By now I was into it and enjoyed watching the guys work.

With ‘Rogue’ the usual shenanigans started like Jani refusing to play until there was sufficient cheering. So many little gestured during the show, so many moments that happen repeatedly and that I had missed dearly since April. They were al smiling a lot and playing off of each other, teasing each other. Marko made rabbit ears for Olli at one point and motioned for people to take pictures. He was also dancing goofily across stage later on.

For the first time ever ‘Dreaming wide awake’ felt weird. usually, I always feel the “cause I can’t let you go” line, no matter what. It is a line that rings true in my heart. That night, however, I was feeling indifferent about it. I knew why, I was still upset because with the new “priority passes” they want to make the fans pay for nothing and everything about it felt wrong to me, especially the way they communicated the idea. Usually, being upset with them doesn’t matter that much. It has happened before and they always get me to a point where I forgive everything, because they are still one of my favorite bands and they are still one of the best live bands I know. Yet, it felt like the magic had worn off and it made me sad.

Despite all that, ‘My Dark Disquiet’ had me dancing along and I even enjoyed ‘Diamonds for Tear’, a song I had been so tired of a few tours ago. In singing along, jumping and moving with the music, I tricked myself into enjoying the concert, screamed the cal and response for ‘Daze’ and did my best to sing “It’s a late goodbye” not totally off key. That already ended the main set, it had felt so short.

They came back with ‘War’ and it made me really happy. I love that song and it has always had a special place in my heart. “You were there by my side on the front line” – but were you really? When ‘Lift’ started right after, I waited for the “on and on and on” line, did my part and of course Marko looked my way. He never fails me there. <3 Jumping along to the chorus felt great. The song never gets old. Then, of course, the perfect finale with ‘Carnival of Rust’. I watched Olli closely, his fingers dancing across the guitar. <3 “And more then ever I hope to never fall, where enough is not the same it was before!” – we will have to see about that.

I somewhat felt disappointed, because back in April they had played ‘Maybe tomorrow is a better day’ and I could not believe they had retired the song already. It was so special to have it on the setlist. It was a fun show overall, and I didn’t regret going, but there was a bitter aftertaste still lingering. Luckily, I had friends around me, who always make the experience so much better. With drinks and some yummy bar food, we chatted into the night. All is well that ends well.

Setlist

Revelations
Locking Up the Sun
Illusion & Dream
Temple of Thought
Requiem for My Harlequin
Rogue
Dreaming Wide Awake
My Dark Disquiet
Diamonds for Tears
Daze
Late Goodbye

Encore:
War
Lift
Carnival of Rust