The Date: 18.10.2012
The Place: Tampere, Pakkahuone
The Album: Temple of Thought
The
night started on a positive note as the guy that hang my coat (leather
jacket with a hood) complemented it. I made my way to the stage and
practically just walked into the front row. I saw an opening and asked
if I could squeeze myself into it. Mikko had decided to stay at home
this time, since the tickets were a bit pricey.
So I spent my
time browsing Twitter. There were a couple of big screens at the both
sides of the stage that showed the gig that was going on at Klubi. I
have to say, this was one of the most smoothly ran events I have ever
participated. Just when Sturm und Drang finished, Poets of the Fall
started. My clock was 21.46 so they started only a minute late. The new
intro was wicked and Running out of Time is a really great start-up
song.
Marko had his feather boa, top hat and a make-up that
reminded me of the movie Crow. It is one of my favourites movies and the
black lipstick and eye-shadow really brought to mind Brandon Lee's
character. The third song was Cradled in love and Marko started the way
he has previously started Carnival of Rust: by asking a show of hands of
those who have come there with someone. Although I still have a
somewhat love-hate relationship with the song, it is right now the one
song from the new album that I really know the lyrics by heart. I should
listen the album more... During that song Jani grinned and nodded to me
and I returned the gesture.
There were a bit of stumbling during
the gig: when Marko and Jani were back to back, Jani pushed a bit too
forcefully and sent Marko scrambling forward. Later Marko bumped into
Jaska. Both mishaps were greeted with a lot of laughter. During the gig
Marko blew feathers several times to the audience. The first time it
happened the feather floated right in front of me. Me and a girl next to
me reached for it the same time. After a furious flurry of motion, I
finally lucked out and grabbed the feather and grinned like mad to Marko
who had watched the spectacle with a laugh. Later when he sent out more
feathers, I stayed back and let others get their share of the boa as
well. Now the feather is decorating one of my dragons.
The
audience was really really great, I actually felt the good vibes around
me while people sang along, clapped and cheered. Before the Carnival of
Rust Marko once again started to sing little bit of R.E.M:s The one I
love and it always throws people off a little bit. But when the song
transforms to the first chords of Carnival of Rust the audience catches
on. That moment when they realise it and a wave of applauds and cheers
rises up it sends such a rush through my body! I love it!
Marko
teased the audience by faking that he was going to throw his top hat to
the audience. As if he would ever do that! Someone from the audience
gave him a baseball cap though and he wore it like a minute and then
gave it back. This time I didn’t have a bottle or soda can with me, so I
toasted the guys with my phone during Illusion and Dream. The girl next
to me found that pretty amusing and so we laughed about it together.
It's really fun to have random encounters like that in gigs, where you
connect with someone you have never met over the shared experience.
It
was awesome to hear Signs of Life live for the first time! I had a
feeling that it might be played, so I bought it just before the gig from
the digistore and fell in love with it right away!
The overall
mood of the gig was giddy, the house and the band were rocking like
crazy and I was excited, jumping up and down and just furiously happy.
Even though the gig lasted only 45 minutes, it was a perfect gig for me,
after a couple of not so perfect. After the gig I was high on
adrenaline and just floated home to my love.
torstai 18. lokakuuta 2012
torstai 2. elokuuta 2012
No Geekgasm for Me
The Date: 2.8.2012
The Place: Helsinki, Assembly
The Album: Temple of Thought
I had really big expectations about this gig. Ridiculously big. Nerds and geeks are my people, I am one of them. And in Finland Assembly is one of the biggest gamer geek festivals. It has been orgnized since 1992 and it's audience has grown from 700 to about 5000. Just before the gig one of the organizers told the audience why Poets of the Fall was performing there. That in addition to liking Poets of the Fall's music there is also a demoscene connection. Captain has been involved with the demoscene for a long time and is known for such hits as Space Debris and Beyond Music. And of course Poets of the Fall has made music to several video games.
I have been to Assembly once before, in 2007. Then I had the privilege to hang out with some of the Byterapers and Energia crew. The former is one of the oldest demoscene groups in Finland and they were one of the organizers of the first Assembly. The latter is a production company behind Star Wreck and Iron Sky and I participated Star Wreck roleplaying game run by them in the middle of the night. Needless to say I had a blast!
This year I had to go to work on Friday but I took the day off from work on Thursday and came to Helsinki all by myself, since Mikko couldn't get a day off.
This was Assembly's 20th birthday and I was expecting non-stop geekgasms. I mean, this was the perfect opportunity to play songs that don't fit into normal tours, to really retrofit the show according to the audience. My dream set list would have consisted of Old Gods of Asgard songs, Late Goodbye, War, Dreaming Wide Awake, Grinders Blues, the Happy Song and Space Debris. But I would have been happy with just the Happy Song. I know, that it would have required rehearsing but it was Assembly's 20th birthday which is kind of a big thing. Wouldn't it have been worth it?
Now, I have to admit, that the special intro was übercool. I have been racking my brain over it, and the best I can come up with is that it is a remix of Beyond Music with a bit of Space Debris thrown into the mix. I might be completely wrong about that, but it was awesome nonetheless. Otherwise than that, the setlist was the same one with what they have been touring earlier this year. I have never ever been disappointed by a PotF-gig, until now.
But even a disappointing gig from PotfF is a great gig. It was a solid performance and I did have fun. At first it was difficult to get into the mood because of the mixing. I was in the first row where the view was perfect but the sound was anything but. I hardly could make out any of the words and the sounds were just porridge. I tried putting on earplugs, taking them off and putting only the other one on. Nothing worked. So about half way through the gig I abandoned the first row and moved several rows back where the sound was immensely better.
It was a rare and fun treat that the audience consisted mainly of guys that were sober to boot. It was fun to observe different type of an audience, for example during Carnival of Rust chorus there were a lot of fist pumping the air and I joined the crowd. There were no shoving or rude behaviour and there was plenty of room in front of the stage. My water bottle was on the floor in front of me and nobody came even close to knocking it over. At first the audience was a bit sluggish and most of the people just stood stoically and listened. But as the gig progressed, people started to participate more by clapping and fist pumping and whatnot. There was this group of 4-5 young blokes near me that were really stoked about the gig. I do hope they didn't think I was laughing at them, I was so happy that they had such a great time that I couldn't help but laugh. They moshed in a row and during Lift they danced and jumped around by locking their arms together from elbows.
After the gig I watched the game development compo with my friends, ate expensive vegetarian pizza and made my way to the nearby hotel where I spent my night before going back to Tampere and to work.
The Place: Helsinki, Assembly
The Album: Temple of Thought
I had really big expectations about this gig. Ridiculously big. Nerds and geeks are my people, I am one of them. And in Finland Assembly is one of the biggest gamer geek festivals. It has been orgnized since 1992 and it's audience has grown from 700 to about 5000. Just before the gig one of the organizers told the audience why Poets of the Fall was performing there. That in addition to liking Poets of the Fall's music there is also a demoscene connection. Captain has been involved with the demoscene for a long time and is known for such hits as Space Debris and Beyond Music. And of course Poets of the Fall has made music to several video games.
I have been to Assembly once before, in 2007. Then I had the privilege to hang out with some of the Byterapers and Energia crew. The former is one of the oldest demoscene groups in Finland and they were one of the organizers of the first Assembly. The latter is a production company behind Star Wreck and Iron Sky and I participated Star Wreck roleplaying game run by them in the middle of the night. Needless to say I had a blast!
This year I had to go to work on Friday but I took the day off from work on Thursday and came to Helsinki all by myself, since Mikko couldn't get a day off.
This was Assembly's 20th birthday and I was expecting non-stop geekgasms. I mean, this was the perfect opportunity to play songs that don't fit into normal tours, to really retrofit the show according to the audience. My dream set list would have consisted of Old Gods of Asgard songs, Late Goodbye, War, Dreaming Wide Awake, Grinders Blues, the Happy Song and Space Debris. But I would have been happy with just the Happy Song. I know, that it would have required rehearsing but it was Assembly's 20th birthday which is kind of a big thing. Wouldn't it have been worth it?
Now, I have to admit, that the special intro was übercool. I have been racking my brain over it, and the best I can come up with is that it is a remix of Beyond Music with a bit of Space Debris thrown into the mix. I might be completely wrong about that, but it was awesome nonetheless. Otherwise than that, the setlist was the same one with what they have been touring earlier this year. I have never ever been disappointed by a PotF-gig, until now.
But even a disappointing gig from PotfF is a great gig. It was a solid performance and I did have fun. At first it was difficult to get into the mood because of the mixing. I was in the first row where the view was perfect but the sound was anything but. I hardly could make out any of the words and the sounds were just porridge. I tried putting on earplugs, taking them off and putting only the other one on. Nothing worked. So about half way through the gig I abandoned the first row and moved several rows back where the sound was immensely better.
It was a rare and fun treat that the audience consisted mainly of guys that were sober to boot. It was fun to observe different type of an audience, for example during Carnival of Rust chorus there were a lot of fist pumping the air and I joined the crowd. There were no shoving or rude behaviour and there was plenty of room in front of the stage. My water bottle was on the floor in front of me and nobody came even close to knocking it over. At first the audience was a bit sluggish and most of the people just stood stoically and listened. But as the gig progressed, people started to participate more by clapping and fist pumping and whatnot. There was this group of 4-5 young blokes near me that were really stoked about the gig. I do hope they didn't think I was laughing at them, I was so happy that they had such a great time that I couldn't help but laugh. They moshed in a row and during Lift they danced and jumped around by locking their arms together from elbows.
After the gig I watched the game development compo with my friends, ate expensive vegetarian pizza and made my way to the nearby hotel where I spent my night before going back to Tampere and to work.
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