Blood, Sweat and Rock'n'Roll

The Date: 12.6.2011
The Place: Helsinki, Kalasatama

The Album: Alchemy

This time I was flying solo and I traveled to Helsinki by train all by myself. When I arrived at Helsinki metro station, I was a bit at loss, where to go and what to do. There I met S, who was also going to see Poets of the Fall and approached me asking for advise how to reach Kalasatama. We were both equally lost, so we decided to go all the way down to the platforms and figure things out together. As we descended, we witnessed an accident that happened on the escalator beside us. An older gentleman fell backwards and hit his head on the escalator. There was blood all over and S ran to help the man. She and a couple of guys carried him down to the platform, I also helped a bit with his legs. At first he was unconscious but soon regained consciousness. Someone had called an ambulance and we (and a few others that helped) stayed with the man until security guards appeared and took over for us. S went to wash her hands that were all bloodied as she had tended the man's injured head. She told me that she was studying to become a nurse.

After that we managed to find our way to the right metro cart but almost missed the Kalasatama stop and we ran out of the cart at the last minute. We followed the river of people and met S's friends near the gates. Then we proceeded near the stage as the gig was about to start at any minute. S and her friends decided to stay near the mixing booth but I wanted to get closer so we decided to meet again after the gig. I was able to get approximately to the tenth row where I had a really good view to the stage. I was wearing platform sandals and as the audience before me consisted mainly of young girls I had no trouble seeing. For once I can understand how my significant other feels while on gigs, as he is six foot five and most of the Poets of the Fall's audience is females.

The sun was shining without a cloud in the sky and it was almost 30 degrees Celsius out there. The gig started with Dreaming Wide Awake, followed by Given and Denied, Locking Up the Sun, Carnival of Rust and finally Lift. It was a great combination of fast rocking songs and slower ballads in between, perfect for a such a hot day. The slower songs gave the audience a breather and a chance to gather strength to jump up and down during the faster songs. Marko was on a funny mood, during the gig he laughed maniacally, knocked the microphone stand down, spread water all over, showed us his booty and conducted our yells and cheers like an orchestra. Before Carnival of Rust he asked the audience to show hands if they had come there with someone. Quite a lot raised their hands and Marko said that he was perversely disappointed, that there weren't more singles out there.

Other moments that stuck to my mind were during Locking up the sun when Captain waved his hand like a lasso, Marko did his clock winding thing and some point where Olli slided really coolly to the other side of the stage in front of Marko. Just before Lift was over, Marko urged us to shout: Finnish summer! Nice weather! Friends! And Poets of the Fall! That about sums that day up nicely. Captain had a really cool stetson on his head the whole gig and when the guys left the stage, he teased us by faking that he was going to throw that into the audience. But of course he didn't. What a shame, it was a really good looking hat =) The whole gig was over way sooner that I would have liked, it lasted about 25 minutes. It was great and all, but it was like an appetizer or a quick fix, I imagine. Just enough to keep the withdrawal at bay but not enough to leave me satisfied. But it was fun while it lasted.

After that I met with my newfound friends and we left the area since there wasn't anything that interested us anymore. We bought some ice-cream, sat in a park and enjoyed the sunny day until our trains departed. Mine was canceled because of an arson that took place the night before, so I had to pay some extra for a pendolino ride. I was happy nonetheless, since the day was an unexpected adventure, like all Poets of the Fall gigs are!

Money spent: 65 euros (train rides)
People helped: 1
New gig friends found: 3
Fun had: immeasurable