Roses and Hearts

The Date: 14.2.2007
The Place: Espoo, Sellosali
The Album: Carnival of Rust

When Toola and her husband came to get me from the station, I was already exited. First gig in a loong time and at Valentine's day. Only thing I was suspicious about, was the thing that the audience was suppose to sit on chairs the whole time. Luckily only two days away was a gig at Tavastia, so I wasn't that worried. The first thing we did when we entered the Sellosali, was go and hug Petri and Mako. I was especially happy to see Mako, as I have heard rumors that he won't be part of the team anymore on the gigs, besides maybe the Helsinki-area gigs. The place was crawling with little people and their parents and I felt out of place. Fortunately we didn't have to wait long before the doors of the hall were opened. I had a place at the third row, fairly middle and right behind Mika.

Thisisweirdthisisweirdthisisweird was everything I could think when the gig started and I had to sit on a chair. But soon enough the music swept me away despite of the weirdness. Mark himself said that this was the first time when they performed in a concert hall, but this could be nice variation to the audience; they could just kick back and enjoy the music. But for me it is just impossible to sit still in a gig, I can't do that. If I want to just listen the music or watch the performance, I can do that at home. I can listen the Cd's and watch the live concerts from PotFMedia. When I go to the gigs, I want to be immersed in the music, the atmosphere, the audience and just party. So I just took the most of the situation: I sat on the edge of the seat, clapped, shouted, sang along, moved my upper body and even moshed. All this while I was sitting on the third row, seat 13.

This time the opening song was Fire and the new intro sounded really cool. It had similar elements than the intro of Locking up the sun, but enough difference to be distinct. The stage was quite big but despite that, the mood was rather mellow than crazy. No jumping up and down or running amok on the stage. And it was quite fitting, after all it was a solemn concert hall and the audience was quieter than usual. The sounds were really great, clear and cool. The song list was quite standard and the gig lasted about an hour.

Then a few words about Mark's new look. I loved the look he had earlier, the spiky short hair and black rock clothes. But I have to say, I really love his new look too! A bit messy longer hair, striped shirt, black vest and a scarf made him look grunge and artsy and incredibly hot. That guy could wear a paper sack on his head and he still would look good.

The Cheerios provided a bit extra to the show, they threw a whole bush of pink roses to the stage, along with crocheted hearts. Mark immediately took those part of the show and he threw hearts and roses to the audience during the last part of the gig. He also picked up one long rose and during a one song he ripped all of it's leaves from it and then placed it on the buttonhole of his vest. During the last verse of Carnival of Rust he took it from the buttonhole and crushed the rosebud with his fist, releasing a sweet and strong scent of the rose that reached even the third row. After that he just grabbed another rose from the floor. Ollie also took a liking to the roses and pinned three roses to his guitar, one after another.

When the gig was almost over, Mark had disappeared from the stage and Ollie and Jaska had done their synchronized jump during the last chords of Illusion and Dream, something funny happened. The hall was surrounded with aisle of stairs from left and right and when the guys kept on playing, Jaska and Ollie left the stage still playing their guitars and climbed the aisle of stairs up and down. Ollie was on the left and Jaska on the right, playing like never before. Then they came back to the stage at the same time but Ollie still wanted to have some fun and climbed the stairs on the right. The gig ended with laughter and good mood.

After the gig had ended, me, Toola, her friend and the Cheerios still lingered there and watched how the boys handed autographs and talked to the fans. My throat was sore and it felt I was coming down with flu. It was a really great gig, but something was amiss. I was in a good mood, but I didn't had that huge grin on my face that I usually have after superb gigs. I think it was because of the damn chairs. But the Tavastia gig would be soon and I hoped that maybe Friday would be a better gig day.