Return to Forever in Pori, Finland 17.7.

[Lellu]

Finally the eve of the long waited day has come!

I and three friends of mine are attending RTF’s gig in Finland. Only about 4000 tickets have been sold so far for Thursday at Kirjurinluoto which is a lot less than I expected. (30000 tickets have been sold for Saturday (Santana etc.) It’s RETURN TO FOREVER!!! What’s wrong with all the people...!? There are some advantages of course, for example umbrellas are forbidden on Saturday and getting to the front row should be relatively easy.

I promised Ted to write some impressions of the conccert and this will be the thread for them. I also thought sharing some pictures would be cool. Could someone recommend a free imagesharing website?

Here is the homesite of the festival
http://www.porijazz.fi/
Also available in English from the link in the upper right corner.

Other artists on Thursday at Kirjurinluoto Arena (the day and place where we have tickets)

Ann Hampton Callaway & Novosibirsk Big Band
Metro Special Edition feat. Randy Brecker & Dave Weckl
Bob Geldof

If anyone is interested about their performance feel free to ask...

I'll post here again on Sunday when we get back to Helsinki.
Have a good weekend!

Hi Lellu.

I'm going to see RTF next Monday 21st July in London....can't wait.

Originally Posted by Lellu

Could someone recommend a free imagesharing website?

One I use is flickr. It's free and easy to use. You can get to it here.

http://www.flickr.com/

Enjoy the gig.

[Lellu]

Four days have been passed after RTF's gig in Pori and I am still feeling great!

RTF was the second performer of the day and definitely the most expected. Altogether 6500 people attended the concert. RTF opened the set with Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy. It was quite a warm-up - It definitely missed some emotion. Next songs according to local newspaper (they were unknown to me) were Vulcan Worlds and Song to the Pharoah Kings. The band was definitely getting hotter now! Solos became better and better and you just couldn't avoid banging your head.

Short break took place here when RTF changed to acoustic gear. Everyone probably knew what was coming up when White announced that they are going to play Romantic Warrior next. Romantic Warrior was truly a great one that day though Clarke seemed to struggle a bit with his bass. After the last notes started fading away the audience started applauding standing! The band took again a short break but the applauding did not stop until the first notes of Duel of the Jester and the Tyrant started. Duel was the BOMB! Unfortunately it was also the final song... Once again huge applauses but the band members shook hands with each other, thanked the audience and left the stage never coming back.

Overall a great performance with largest drawback being the shortness. (five songs altogether). I enjoyed hugely and all the things I had hoped for came true:

1. No last minute cancel of the show
2. No rain
3. Minimoog and
4. They played the Duel

Some not so decent pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28826977@N06/
(thank you KeithieW. I hope you enjoy too!)

[TheFish]

I'm glad RTF put on a good show somewhere. I saw them in San Fran. and while what they played was excellent, it was also the shortest concert I've ever saw. Maybe 65 minutes. 5 songs and solos, that was it. To say it was dissapointing was an understatement. $95 too boot! I bet they laughed all the way to the bank. Oh well. I'll never go see any of them again.