Carry me to the river of my fortune

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Phoenix Effect- On the Rocks, Helsinki; August 5th, 2009

Take a bunch of Poets of the Fall fans from all over Europe, mix with a handful of Phoenix Effect fans from Germany and Finland and a few more interested listeners, add a fairly new yet brilliant Finnnish band and an unkown but fun British support act,  move them all to a small club in Helsinki, stir and watch the results.

We were there early, sitting at tables outside, having drinks and sharing stories, before going downstairs into the club and taking up the front row. It was great to have so many friends around me and I was especially happy to see B. again who had come from Germany just to see Phoenix Effect. We had a lot of fun, especially pretending that my friend E. was really famous and we all wanted her autograph. It didn’t seem all that long before the concert started.

British band ‘The Two Timers’ were the support act. I have never heard of them, but they made some great music to grove to and thy sure knew how to get the audience going. I loved it and they were a great warm up for the Finnish guys we were waiting for.

Soon after Janne, Lauri, Pyry and anton walked on stage, all smiles, launching right into the first song. In addition to songs from their first album ‘Cyanide Skies’ they played a rocking new song ‘Into Flame’. I wish I could remember the setlist, but I really have no idea what they played, except fro ‘Broken Promises’, ‘King see no evil’ and my favorite ‘Carry me’. I do think thy played the full album though.

The singing along in the audience was so good that Lauri stared at us, probably wondering why we knew all the words. It was lovely and I just completely fell into the music and loved every minute of it. It’s a shame they don’t have more songs they could play.

After the gig the guys were walking around in the club and I had a nice chat with both Janne and Anton. We were all laughing when E. walked up to Janne, announcing “I’m very famous, would you like to have my autograph” and he played along, letting her sign his wristband.

Once the guys were gone, it was time for us to change loaction. The long night ended with me walking home into the sunrise around 5 a.m. 🙂

 

When the rain comes…

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Poets of the Fall – Viinijuhlat, Kuopio;  July 4th 2009

Travelling over 12 hours one way, just to attend a concert? “Crazy!” you say? It may well but, but it was so worth it.

Friday was my travel day. Started out in Dortmund at 6:45 a.m., train – plane – waiting – another train, and arrived in Kuopio at 7:30 p.m. I was lucky enough to have a place to stay with friends and they took great care of me all weekend. 🙂 Before we went to the Winefest the following we took a cruise on the lake – fun, despite the cold.

When we arrived, coverband Osmos Kosmos were playing. They were quite entertaining and helped passing the time. As soon as they left the stage, I and the other “usual suspects” took over front row. We didn’t move either, even when it started raining. I met a few more people, chatted, put up the Prowlers banner and tried to keep warm. Considering it was early July, the weather was rather cold.

Shortly before the show started the rain ceased – for a while at least – and when the master of ceremonies announced the Poets, everyone clapped and screamed. Looking at the guys made me freeze even more, because they were wearing T-shirts, while I stood there in my jacket. It didn’t take long to get warm though, jumping around to their songs. The rain started up again soon, but that didn’t matter to anyone.

‘Diamonds for Tears’ was the opener again, ‘Sorry go round’ and ‘Fire’ followed. After that Marko’s mic stopped working and had to be exchanged. He decided to walk over to Jaska and play guitar – only that said guitar was still strapped to Jaska. Very funny. Captain, once again, was busy filming us with his mobile phone, playing the keyboards one-handed.

They played ‘The ultimate Fling’, ‘Clevermind’, ‘Carnival of Rust’, ‘Locking up the Sun’, and ‘Stay’, had fun getting us to clap and sing along and moved about a lot. Ollie and Jaska kept posing for pictures; Marko ripped flowers from the decoration and threw them into the audience. He also talked a lot, but as usual I didn’t understand much.

At one point, people from the back started pushing to the front and it got rather uncomfortable. Luckily the security people took care of it and it didn’t spoil our enjoyment of the gig. It ended with ‘Lift’, ‘Illusion & Dream’ and ‘Late Goodbye’ as the last encore. In the end, Marko jumped off stage and shook people hands. Compared to my cold hands, his were nice and warm. For a moment, I didn’t want to let him go, but of course I did.

All in all a short, but great gig. Once again I talked to Marko and Ollie afterwards. Marko pointed out to me that somebody had had an even longer trip than I did: C., who came all the way from Switzerland. Ollie asked me if I was going to come to Lohja (their last gig this year), but I cannot make it. I still thought it was cute that he almost expected me to be there.

The following day it was time for me to go home. During the long trip, I had time to look at the pictures I took and reminisce about the concert. It made me a bit sad, knowing that I would not see them play again in 2009, but as Ollie said “there’s always next year”.