This was maybe one of the hardest shows for me. I have tried to keep it light not thinking about the afterwards, about the goodbyes, the tears I saw people sharing, and yet my heart was breaking.
After booking flights and hotels last minute I find myself walking towards the venue in Oulu, it's around 5am on a Saturday morning, no one is awake it feels like the city is mine, everything is covered in soft snow and we are at -13⁰, it's cold.
I don't have a vip ticket for this concert but I still want to be as close as possible to the stage, Blind Channel announced their hiatus was going to be after these final shows in Finland.
I got to second row, amazing, we have Rock Band From Hell to open the night.
Then Blind Channel gets on stage, the room fills with they're energy, something that feels familiar now.
Everyone is jumping to Flatline like our life depends on it, and maybe some how it does. We run through the first few songs, not time to breath, just jump and sing at the top of your lungs, the songs that you love. The adrenaline these guys bring on stage is absolutely unique.
We reach "Balboa" and I always wanted to be in the moshpit during this song but always too worried to lose my barricade or of getting hurt. But this was Oulu, their home town, the last show before resting, my last chance.
I walked back leaving the second row and I found myself in the middle of the pit trying to create the biggest circle I could around me and then people started running, I was jumping and singing, it was the last time I could do that.
It felt like a movie, some of my friends even recorded me gifting me some special memories.
Somehow I was able to go back to my second row spot and I was celebrating with my friends, pretty sure I saw some proud looks in my direction from the band too.
Toward the end of the show we got a little speech, unfortunately I don't know what they said exactly cause they were talking finnish and my knowledge stop after "Kiitos" and "Vittu".
I know, disappointing.
Must have been something like "we played in big arenas, from Nokia arena (Finland) and Wembley arena but nothing is like our home", fans were cheering.
We get to the intro of Dark Side, the song that put them under the European spotlight after Eurovision 2021, the last song of the set. And there it struck me, the last time I was gonna hear this song live, I thought of the first time I saw them in 2022, I knew two songs and barely their names.
That day I queued up for like two hours and ended up in second row, met some people who later on would have turned into friends, fell in love with their music and lost my voice singing.
Whenever it's gonna be, I'll be there to sign these songs again.
All these memories, all the laughter, tears, cities, tickets, the shows and the hotels, all the drama everything got back to me the moment they started singing "put your middle fingers up, take a shot, throw it up, don't stop"
And I smiled.
Hopefully I wasn't the only one smiling there, I don't like the idea that the last thing they saw was crying fans, I am happy for them, I'm proud. They had the courage to accept something wasn't working and before throwing everything away choose to step back for a moment.
The show ends, last few goodbyes, they get Santeri, the Tour Manager, on stage and few friends from the crew who have been working with the band for the past few years.
Then another goodbye, picks and drumsticks are flying in the crowd, and they're gone. For how long? We don't know, but they'll be back at the right time.
Niko, Joel, Olli, Joonas Tommi and Aleksi, thank you, until next time.
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