Band:
Nightwish Venue:
The Academy, Manchester, UK Date: 18
February 2005
After seeing the mighty Nightwish just a few months previous at Bradford
Rio's, and being totally blown away by them, I was really looking
forward to seeing them tonight, and after such a short period between each occasion.
But first on stage are Norwegian Symphonic Goth Metallers Tristania, who
have unique three-pronged attack on the vocal front. With the sound being
quite atrocious for the band, they pressed on like real troopers, and put
together a show that wasn’t to everyone's taste, but the few fans of the
band in the audience did like what they heard. Playing tracks from their
latest album Ashes they mixed the heavy tracks with the more symphonic
tracks well and I think managed to win a few more fans on tonight's
performance.
Now on to Nightwish, a band whose popularity has simply grown and grown.
Although they are totally massive in Europe, they are gradually getting
the recognition that they deserve in this country. Mostly due to the
success of their latest album ‘Once’, which has taken the band to newer
and greater heights.
Opening up tonight's show with ‘Dark Chest of Wonders’ and ‘Planet Hell’
from said album, both tracks simply blew me and the rest of the crowd
away. I thought the Bradford show was immense but tonight was something
special. The band were feeding off all the positive energy that the crowd
were producing and in turn gave them a performance at their very best.
Vocalist Tarja Turunens was on top form and seemed more at ease than she
did the time before when I'd seem them perform.
The pace slowed down a little with ‘Cover Me Over’ then into ‘The
Kingslayer’ with keyboard maestro Tuomas Holopainen showing us what he is
truly capable of.
Then it was time for Tara to rest, as manic bassist Marco Heitala took
over the vocal duties and the band ripped into ‘The Siren’. The differing
vocal styles of Tarja and Marco have been the key factor to the success of
the band and this has given the band a greater depth and an even greater
variety of avenues to explore song writing wise.
This differing vocal styles was put to great effect on ‘Phantom of the
Opera’, which if Mr. Lloyd Webber had heard he would have given it is nod
of approval. Even a brief pause as they covered a Pink Floyd track, then
it was back to business with ‘Bless the Child’ and one of my own
favourite’s ‘Wishmaster’.
Then it was time for the rest of the band to leave the stage as Tarja
performed the moving ‘Kuelema Tekee Taiteilijan’. Then the band returned
to the stage and rocked us all with ‘Sleepwalker’ and ‘Slaying the
Dreamer’.
With this the band left the stage and the place simply erupted as the
crowd became one voice and demanded more, and more what they got with the
bombastic ‘I Wish I Had An Angel’.
This is a band that have grown from strength to strength and with a high
profile album like ‘Once’ behind them, and the prospect of playing some
European festivals later this year, I'm sure 2005 is going to be
Nightwish's year. The next time they visit these shores I’m confident
they will be appearing in the larger Arena's and giving us fans a display
of the full stage show that their many fans in Europe have had the
opportunity to witness.
