What is your favorite POTF live performance and why? You can mention few performances (songs), if only one is too hard to choose.

I think it was the one where Marko was on the lead vocals, can't remember which one exactly...

Every perfomance is just like the very first time for me. I love how the guys work. I didn't know that gig can give me so much happiness. But there's always so much of positive nergy so it makes me to want to go on. I'll always be grateful for it.

Yes, only one is too difficult to choose. Every live performance it seems different, one is greater than another. What comes now into my mind...

Carnival of rust Live @ Lost in music 2008, because Marko is really living the song like never before and the intro makes it more special, a complete story written on music.

Then Late goodbye, Clevermind and Lift from the same Live@ Lost in music show are fantastic. Marko was really energetic that night.

I have also kept like being special, Lift at Live @ Emma Gaala 2006, it was the most perfect Lift performance in my opinion.

Dreaming wide awake and War - Live acoustic in studio at Swedish morning show, 2010
They have the beauty of velvet voice and magic guitar chords sound.

Fire Live @ Ankkarock, 2007. It's like a real fire, more powerful and explosive than the original.

This Carnival of rust Live @ Charity gala, don't know when or where...but great.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjtzSOMS_Kk

Shallow Live @ Rockperry 2005, it just have a different rhythm like a different song, a deeper one.

And I usually love almost all live acoustic performances, when I can lose myself in the most beautiful, clear and natural voice that I ever heard.

Every concerts are special ones, but these are my favorite ones.

Dreaming wide awake / War - Live acoustic in studio at Swedish morning show, 2010. The atmosphere, Marko's voice and Olli's guitar playing are perfect.

Fire - Live Ankkarock, 2007. It's better than the album version.

D4T in some finnish festival, with a great pro shot.. i don't remember the name but marko was wearing an 8 ball tshirt. great performance

I know you asked for songs, but for me it is always about the mood and atmosphere of a concert, not usually a specific song, so my list of best performances are full concerts.

These concerts I have attended in no particular order:
- Helsinki, Tavastia, November 12th 2008: We got the first bossa nova version of Sorry go round, we got You know my name and even sleep.
- Berlin, K17, May 23rd 2010: It was hot as hell and way too dark, but absolutely everything about the performance was spot on.
- Moscow, Pipl Club, April 9th 2011: a truly magical show where the whole was more than the sum of its parts.
- Kiev, Crystal Hall, March 25th 2012: after two performances in Russia with lots of distance to the audience, back at a smaller venue where the stage still was big enough to move, but the audience was a lot closer. This one as just pure fun.

These are my personal highlights as far as full concerts go. For als these there was just something special that cannot be explained. Others came close, but as of now, if I had to pick one every year, these are my choices.
Sorry, can't choose any specific songs right now, maybe I'll try that later.

edit: oh wait, now that I've started thinking about it I can:

- Illusion & Dream at Nosturi 2007 just because it is the song from that night that I most consciously remember. It was also the very last song played on that tour.
- Save me at the Virgin Oil 2008 because it held all the raw power and emotion that can be found in the lyrics.
- War at the Alan Wake release party 2010, because it was absolutely flawless and just bautifully sung.
- No End, No Beginning at Tavastia 2011 because it was so emotional.
- The Lie Eternal in Berlin in April 2012 because it was so surprising that this song worked as an acoustic version.

Yes. Concert in Kaivopuisto, 2009, I think.

^^ it was 08.06.2008 - I just checked. a friend of mine took pictures there so I rememberd the 8 ball T-shirt

And another great one, which has just came up now must be mentioned here, for sure.

Dreaming wide awake Live @ Provinssirock Festival 2012, Seinäjoki

It surprises me that so few people here mention performances at the concerts they have actually been too. For me the quality of a performance does not lie in the quality of a video I find on youTube. Sure, I enjoy watching high quality videos and that Provinssirock one is great, but for me part of the performance lies n the specific atmosphere of the gig and for me that is hard to capture in a video.
I'm not dissing anyone's favorites here, I'm just wondering why hardly anyone has posted in this thread. I'd be interested to hear more about performances people like and why to see if there is something common that everyone agrees on or if it's the individual experience that counts.

Ok, my favorites:

I absolutely loved Fire at the few 2006 and 2007 concerts I went to, whenever they played it.
I've always loved Lift as the number they end their gig with. It just seems like the perfect, uplifting, "squeeze the last energies out of the audience"-kind of last song. And of course the guitar solos at the end are magnificent.

At the end of last year (Dec 3rd) at Kooma, Turku I went absolutely nuts over The Ultimate Fling, which has never been one of my top favorite songs. It just totally rocked there for some reason. I just had to headbang!
Recently at Ilves, Tampere (July 13th) my two favorites were Temple of Thought and LUTS.

So, it does change quite a lot all the time, depending on the gig and set list and mood and who knows what other variables.

I will most certainly have incredible live experiences in the future too. POTF knows how to rock my socks.

Unfortunately for me, I haven’t been lucky enough to ever see POTF live, even if I love them so much for so long time. So, I hunted everything I could, what else...

Maybe that’s why youtube is the only source that can make me feel and dream the atmosphere that some of you, great people taked about in your reports.

But, new line at the horizon... I will see them this summer, I can’t wait and I guess my happiness in those live moments and my hunger for them will be fully satisfied.

I fully understand that not everyone can seen them live and I know how much the videos on yT tides me over until I could. It's totally fine to pick your favorites from there.
I was speaking to the many people on this board who have been to concerts yet have not said anything about the performances yet, hoping to hear from them too.

I have been lucky to see the guys maybe 10 times now...not that many, hopefully many more to come (Watch out redbossfan, I'm gonna get ya! )

I can't point out any specific moments during a certain gig. The acoustic gig at Voice's Fashion Week was amazing. I also very much enjoyed the gig at Pressa this year. Again, I can't tell you exactly why...these are just the ones I've enjoyed the most.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ajg9GNZIt0&feature=my_favorites&list=FLZjnqnS1raLil3t_We6sTsw

This acoustic show was one of the biggest nails on the coffin of my fandom for Poets... [NOTE there are 3 parts]

Though I was not present there......

t.s.i.b.s.b.o.y. indeed.........

This is great live performance:
Carnival of Rust (Acoustic different version - Soundcheck for VIP Guests)- Live @ Mannheim 2012

Oh this so hard to tell even I only saw them 10 times and each and every gig had something special.
But the most unexpected and beautiful, because I never thought it would happen in the near future, was the song in Finnish in Mannheim.
"Salaisuuksia"

When it comes to the songs from their albums for me it was "The Ballad of Jeremiah Peacekeeper" in Dortmund. It was great in Cologne and Mannheim too, but in Dortmund there was something I can't even explain, but "magical" describes it the most.

I can see the future and the best POTF live performance hasn't happened yet. It will happen in summer 2013, somewhere in Finland....when I'm there!! \O/
10th Anniversary tour, here we come!

wondering if someone remembers any particular misfortunate performances, where something broke down and felt really weird and pitiful. maybe some technical failures or some fool in the crowd ruined the song, that kind of thing.

Yeah, there are a couple of blooper vids on Youtube, some of it is stuff the guys have mentioned in their interviews too.
1) Olli's guitar amp is for some reason off, and when he starts playing, no sound comes out at first. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLzflIs-TqQ

2) They had planned a special deviation for Carnival or Rust, which was supposed to have a total silence after first verse + stage lights off. Olli forgot, tho, and kept playing. After the first chorus Marko says in Finnish that Olli isn't going to get paid for that gig.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzELjxnFtKc

3) Then there's of course the legendary "I forgot the lyrics" version of Diamonds for Tears:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VLvR_f6jd8

Plus I recall reading here on forum (a long time ago) about some chick who was quite a bit drunk and climbed onto the stage for a while.

Edit. Also from some interview: during one gig (Tammerfest 2006?) they couldn't get Olli's gear to work until close to the end of the show, so Jaska had his job carved out for him there, but he had been really happy to get all the solos.

And during one of their recent gigs, I think in Hamburg, Marko's microphone lost all sound. He just walked to the side of the stage quickly, got a new mic and continued on. I don't think it ruined the song one bit tho.

I recall that Marko's fallen off stage once, but didn't stop singing and just climbed back up. Glad nothing serious happened there.

And I'm sure there are many more. All kinds of things can happen.

thank you for that links, Dark Side of Light!
poor Ollie
and when Marko forgot the lyrics, he did very well with the new text

Thank you for sharing these,DSoL! It surprises me that I hadn't seen them(the first two) before