Poets of the Fall – SuomiPOP Festivaali,Jyväskylä; July 24th 2010
After 4 months of touring and especially after traveling back and forth between Germany and Finland every weekend in July this was going to be my last Poets of the Fall gig in the summer of 2010. The guys had kept me good company since March and I was a bit sad to see them go. What would I do for the coming weekends? Touring with a band I love is great fun, but when it ends its always a bit difficult to get back to real life. Yet I had collected wonderful memories and felt very grateful for the great time I’ve had and the amazing concerts I was lucky enough to attend.
On the evening of July 23rd I took a plane to Helsinki, arriving after midnight. The bus for Jyväskylä left at 2 a.m. – it was a long ride into the night and I slept a little. When I arrived at 5:30 it was already bright daylight outside. I checked into my hotel to get a few more hours of sleep. I woke up and checked out the venue, then bumped into my friend K. on my way back. We had spent most of the summer together, traveling from one gig to the next and I was so happy to see her once again. We hung out and spent the time chatting until it was time to go to the venue.
We were practically the first people there and had time for some food and drinks before more people arrived. Met a few friends and moved to front row soon, even though there were other bands on before the Poets. Frederik, who was on right before the guys looked like a bad copy of David Hasselhoff and sang cover versions of the infamous German 80ies band Dschinghis Khan– in Finnish. It was so bad it was actually very funny – on several levels.
The wait was not long after that. I had come prepared and brought a large banner saying: “Kiitoksia paljon musiikista, muistoista ja huvista! 4 kuukautta, 17 keikkaa, 35 000 kilometriä – ei katumusta. Minä en milloinkaan unohda näitä päiviä. Nähdään. Pian?” (Thanks a lot for the music, the memories and the fun! 4 months, 17 gigs, 35 000 kilometers – no regrets. I will never forget these days. See you. Soon?). Now it was time to put it up.
I thought I was going to feel melancholia this being the last gig for a while, but instead I felt a huge smile spreading on my face as soon as the guys walked on stage. I cannot remember which song they started with, just that it was the short setlist, reserved for festivals without ‘Change’, ‘Given and Denied’, ‘You’re still here’ or ‘Rewind’. I missed these songs, but it was still an amazing gig.
They had so much fun on stage. Ollie was smiling all the time and there were so many reasons to laugh, on stage and in front. Marko had fun with the long mic chord. First he got tangled up in it, then he used it to spank Jaska (who was laughing the entire time) and finally did some rope skipping with it. And I had been wondering why he had exchanged the chordless mic for this. XD
Jani had the best outfit that day. Apparently he had come from a gig with another band, wearing a dress shirt and tie. And he wore it with style too. Jari was going nuts behind the drums, everyone played brilliantly. The exchanged smiles and odd looks all the time, laughing, enjoying their time on stage.
Marko was in front of us a lot, took my hand and sang to me at one point too. 🙂 During ‘Lift’ he picked up the “Huh! Hah!” shouts from one of the songs Frederick had covered. So very funny. Once again everything was over too soon, but I loved every second.
We stayed for a bit after and met Ollie who gave me a hug. What a nice way of saying goodbye for the summer. 🙂 K. and I left, got some food and called it an early night. The next morning we said goodbye. On the long trip home I had a lot of time to relive the memories of the past summer.