Nightwish!

Well, the 23rd came and went, and yes, I have finally seen Nightwish live. Not that you can tell from the crappy phone-camera picture on the right. I wish I’d known they were going to let cameras in, then I would have taken mine, but oh well.

It wasn’t a bad concert. I can’t say it was the best concert I’ve been to though, for a number of reasons:
For a start, the support act was Dungeon, who to me just aren’t very interesting. Too much generic power metal for my liking. Chalice would have been ideal, but the promoters decided against them for the bizarre reason that fans were telling them that’s who they’d like to see. Or at least thats the way it appeared from what I’d heard.
Failing Chalice, Vanishing Point, who supported the Melbourne shows would have at least had the fact that I hadn’t seen them before as a point of interest. That and they’re prog metal, which not only makes them more interesting to me, but is also a better fit with current Nightwish than Dungeon’s over the top, way too loud, way too fast power metal.
Secondly, there was no merchandise.
None.
Nothing.
Well, unless you count the Dungeon shirts they were selling. I overheard someone saying quite loudly as we filed past the table after the concert “Oooh, I’d better go buy my Dungeon T-Shirt. Then I’ll be able to show everyone how I went to see Dungeon“.
I’m hoping the scarcasm is obvious ;)
It seems they sold out of merchandise at the Melbourne shows. Which is good for the band I guess, but sucks for us. I’d bugeted for at least two long sleeved t-shirts, so it was rather disappointing to come away from the concert with nothing but a blury phone camera photo.

And finally – Nightwish themselves – Tarja seemed more than a little off at times. She was quite often out of time with the music, and generally didn’t seem to be enjoying herself very much for the first part of the show. I got the impression that she was having trouble hearing herself, or the music… She seemed to sort herself out by the end of the night though.
However, the audience – me included – were more than happy to overlook these minor things, and would probably have forgiven much, much more, if only for the simple fact that they actually came to Australia. I know I’m not the only Australian fan who had just assumed that they’d never make the trip, so being able to see them live under any circumstances was amazing.

High points of the night –

• They covered “High Hopes” by Pink Floyd. Ok, so it’s not my favourite Pink Floyd song, but they did an excellent job of it. The very concept of Nightwish covering Pink Floyd is the sort of thing that goes beyond my wildest musical fantasies – and to actually have seen them do it live, rather than hear it second hand just makes it all the better.
• Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan – This was Tarja’s chance to really shine whilst the guys all went back stage for a break. As one large, hairy, tattooed, aussie metal-head yelled out when she finished – “F’ing beautiful!!”
• Wishmaster – by far their strongest performance, it was absolutely flawless and the opening “Master! Apprentice!” line hit so hard it almost hurt – but in a good way of course ;)

All up it was a very enjoyable evening, and my neck is still recovering from head-banging excesses.

Hopefully the sold out shows will bring them back again next time they tour. I know I’ll be buying tickets if they do. Maybe next time I might even do the obsessive fan thing and see every show ;)