Poets of the Fall – K-17, Berlin; May 23rd 2010
“*That* was bloody amazing!” were my first words to Marko after the gig in Berlin. And I wasn’t exaggerating either.
When they announced the gig a while ago I cursed my fate. Why oh why of all possible dates in one year did they have to pick my mom’s birthday? It took some sweet-talking and arranging and luck, but finally it was clear that we would have birthday lunch this year and I could leave straight for Berlin after that. Since my parents live in Wolfsburg it was only a 1,5 hour train ride. I am also lucky to have my friend C. living in Berlin, just down the road from the club so I had a place to stay as well.
Arrived to sunshine, met up with C. strolled over to the club to meet E. and her sister B. Then it was the usual hanging out, chatting, waiting. Some of us got to hear the soundcheck from outside, then the guys came out and said hello. More waiting, rain, being told to line up elsewhere. The guys came back and Jaska was giving out hugs. Nice.
The doorman of the club was pretty pissed off about someone not showing up and spent quite some time yelling angrily into his cellphone. He was still nice to us when they finally let us in. No barrier in front of the stage so I chose to step back from front row to be able to take pictures. It was frigging dark in there too –good thing my new camera can handle low light.
It was hot in the club before the first band even started. I was wearing a long sleeve shirt and knew I was not gonna last in that one. Until the first band came on stage there was still some confusion, because originally Popcorn Drama and Kärtsy had been anounced, but a day before the show it was down to Kärtsy. I had assumed, Poets would play before Kärtsy, because this was originally Kärtsy’a tour. Yet it was clear by the looks of it that most people were there to see Poets of the Fall so it was only fitting that Kärtsy played first.
At first I thought “Oh, they are actually better than I remember them from Aachen”, but after a while I knew again why I had not liked them very much. Just way too weird for my taste. The music was OK and I have seen worse bands, but it was nothing to write home about and I was glad when it was over. It had felt like hours anyway. Halfway through their show I undressed down to the tank top I was wearing – better.
I was in the upstairs bathroom when I heard people screaming downstairs and hurried back down because I thought the Poets might have come on stage already. I was wrong, only their banner had been revealed and the audience already was louder than during Kärtsy’s entire gig. I almost felt sorry for Kärtsy then.
It still took a while before the Poets started, but when they did the noise the audience made climbed to unbelievable levels. ‘Dreaming wide awake’ kicked off the show as usual. Marko remarked it was nice to have come all the way from Finland to be in the sauna in Berlin. Very true! That did not keep anyone from rocking though.
‘Smoke and Mirros’ followed and ‘Diamonds for Tears’ only slowed things down a little bit. The first time to catch our collective breath was ‘War’ – at least until the acoustic part was over. It started funny though, because Marko decided to annex Ollie’s chair. He sang the Muppet theme too.
With lots of power and the audience going wild they continued: ‘Given and denied’, ‘Dying to live’, ‘15 Min Flame’. Lots of contact with the audience and hand-shaking. Unfortunately many people chose to take pictures with a flash. Marko had to close his eyes several times because of the brightness. While lightning conditions were lousy, there is still no excuse for that.
My personal happy moment came during ‘Change’, when Marko looked at me while singing my favorite line “Do you ever dream of the world like I do?” ‘Locking up the sun’ picked up speed again and ‘Lift’ drove everything to one wild finish. I don’t think I’ve jumped that much during the gig in a long time (and holding on to my heavy camera did not make it easier). Smiles all around, on stage and off.
We yelled at the top of our lungs for more. Marko asked us what the word was and we tried to teach him “Zu-ga-be”. Alas, Finns cannot speak a Z (or soft S), thus “Suhgabe” is as close as he got 😀 ‘Carnival of Rust’ was the last song. Too short, of course too short, but all sorts of wonderful. Now where is that rewind button again?
All of us were exhausted, soaked and very red faced after the gig, but had they played for two more hours it still would not have been enough. They came out to thank us and said we were a great audience. I second that. Talked to Ollie briefly and spent a long time standing next to Marko (who was sitting on the edge of the stage), just enjoying it and listening to everyone else talk. At one point he asked me if I wanted a picture and I was like “Nah, I’m good.” Really, there is not much more I could ask for. I took a few pictures for friends and the A. came up with the idea of a group picture with the Prowlers banner, so we did that. Before they left, I got a hug from Marko too.
After the high of the show it took a long time to unwind. A group of us stayed at the bar for a few drinks and chatted the night away. As always, there wasn’t much sleep to be had and as always, it didn’t matter at all.
Setlist
Dreaming Wide Awake
Smoke And Mirrors
Diamonds for Tears
War
Given And Denied
Dying To Live
Illusion & Dream
15 Min Flame
Change
Locking up the sun
Lift
Suhgabe: 
Carnival of Rust