I haven't really felt wildly compelled to do this in a while. I also haven't been to a show in a really big venue since I moved to Finland either though. Not sure if it's related.
Either way, a few months ago, very shortly after I moved to Hel, my first host family's grandparents brought over a newspaper clipping for me. It is quite a well known fact (probably because I posted it on my Au Pair profile) that I love Finnish metal and hoped to see as many shows as humanly possible while I was in Europe, and they were eager to help me out. I debated it for some time. It was an expensive show, and I didn't know anyone in town so I wasn't really keen on going. Adversely, I have never seen Apocalyptica play live before and I like them a lot, and I also was interested to see the grande finale after 2 years and 193 other shows. So I opted to go.
Apocalyptica came out relatively quickly after I arrived, to my great pleasure. I've never been good at remembering their song names, unfortunately, but it was of no consequence. I recognised their cover of Fade to Black by Metallica, as well as an instrumental version of Bittersweet, which was quite lovely, and they brought in a guest singer (you may know him as Antti Hyyrynen of Stam1na) to do I'm Not Jesus and I Don't Care from the Worlds Collide album. They also finished with Hall of the Mountain King, which is one of those songs that I had really hoped to hear live, and I was not disappointed.
Visually, Eicca Toppinen and Perttu Kivilaakso were both incredibly brilliant to watch. The long hair and headbanging while playing, Perttu playing with the cello tilted to the side (which I imagine takes some talent because you are holding up your cello at an unusual angle while playing), and some rocking on the ground, waving cellos around, that sort of business; they both were quite amazing to watch. Paavo Lötjönen impressed me far less. Maybe it was his inital lack of hair that made me lose interest in him but his stange presence was to me less metal and more show-off. Plus, without the hair he made the band lose symmetry. Nothing against his playing though. I also thought it was interesting to see them with a drummer. He didn't overpower the other three like I might have thought. I was pleased to see this, though it might've been nice to see them when they were just four cellists.
As for Nightwish, they opened with a soft instrumental with a guest musician who was playing an instrument that I couldn't quite recognise. It seemed like a bagpipe but not exactly. After that they went into 7 Days to the Wolves, Everdream, Wishmaster, Sahara, Amaranth, Nemo, Last of the Wilds, and many more. They brought out a guest violinist, Pekka something, to play The Siren, and he was incredible. After that, they kept him around for one more song, which totally made my entire night worth it - While Your Lips Are Still Red (which you may recall was my song of the day a while ago and is one of my alltime favorites of theirs). It is a song written for a movie and was on a single, so it wasn't something I ever expected to hear live and I was very pleased. Near the end they did the accoustic versions of The Islander and Walking in the Air featuring the guest musician on the strange instrument and flutes from the intro, and finished with a never-before-played version of Meadows of Heaven, which I admit I enjoyed live much more than I did on the album (definitely my least favorite song). It was good, but I could've done without the extensive vocal soloing at the end that sort of brought it down a bit.
Encore really made me happy. Another one of my alltime favorite ever Nightwish songs is off the Once album - Ghost Love Score. It's another one of those songs I thought I'd never hear... especially when Tarja Turunen isn't in the band anymore. The best part was that Anette actually did a decent job of singing it. She was, of course, no Tarja, but she didn't do a bad job. Then they finished with the 194th time doing I Wish I Had An Angel.
Overall impression? It was a really good show. My initial irritation with Anette was removed after a couple songs and the fire/lights/waterfalls (I think they were waterfalls after Meadows of Heaven, which struck me as odd, but kind of cool) were spectacular. Tuomas was playing inside a big boat and there was an anchor on the stage too, a couple high platforms, so the setup was really great in a sort of "The Islander" way. My biggest complaint really and honestly had to be Anette's blonde hair. I don't know what on earth made her think she would look better as a blonde but it's terrible. Really terrible.
Marco and Emppu are always really fun to watch on stage. And I am always really impressed with how much better Marco's singing is than it used to be. He totally outshines Anette every time he sings these days and unlike when he sings in Northern Kings, Tuomas writes songs that really help his vocals, rather than strain them. Unfortunately for me, I don't understand enough Finnish to understand anything he said at the end between Ghost Love Score and I Wish I Had An Angel, and I sort of appreciated Anette because she's Swedish and doesn't really speak any Finnish, so she was always talking in English.
All-in-all, it was a fantastic show, a great finale, and I'm really glad I went. I remain cautiously optimistic for the next album in hopes that Tuomas writes music more appropriate for Anette's style (though I'd be lying if I said I disliked Dark Passion Play - I actually do like it) the way he did for Tarja.
Track list (Nightwish)
01. Intro - Finlandia (w/ U.K. multi-instrumentalist Troy Donockley)
02. 7 Days To The Wolves
03. Ever Dream
04. Wishmaster
05. Romanticide
06. Amaranth
07. The Siren (w/ Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto)
08. While Your Lips Are Still Red (w/ Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto)
09. Poet And The Pendulum
10. Nemo
11. Sahara
12. Dark Chest Of Wonders
13. The Islander
14. Walking In The Air (w/ U.K. multi-instrumentalist Troy Donockley)
15. Last Of The Wilds (w/ U.K. multi-instrumentalist Troy Donockley)
16. Meadows Of Heaven
17. Ghost Love Score
18. I Wish I Had An Angel
Year: Sept 2009
Opening bands: Apocalyptica was opening for Nightwish
Who I went with: me, myself, and I
Location: Helsinki - Hartwall Areena
Either way, a few months ago, very shortly after I moved to Hel, my first host family's grandparents brought over a newspaper clipping for me. It is quite a well known fact (probably because I posted it on my Au Pair profile) that I love Finnish metal and hoped to see as many shows as humanly possible while I was in Europe, and they were eager to help me out. I debated it for some time. It was an expensive show, and I didn't know anyone in town so I wasn't really keen on going. Adversely, I have never seen Apocalyptica play live before and I like them a lot, and I also was interested to see the grande finale after 2 years and 193 other shows. So I opted to go.
Apocalyptica came out relatively quickly after I arrived, to my great pleasure. I've never been good at remembering their song names, unfortunately, but it was of no consequence. I recognised their cover of Fade to Black by Metallica, as well as an instrumental version of Bittersweet, which was quite lovely, and they brought in a guest singer (you may know him as Antti Hyyrynen of Stam1na) to do I'm Not Jesus and I Don't Care from the Worlds Collide album. They also finished with Hall of the Mountain King, which is one of those songs that I had really hoped to hear live, and I was not disappointed.
Visually, Eicca Toppinen and Perttu Kivilaakso were both incredibly brilliant to watch. The long hair and headbanging while playing, Perttu playing with the cello tilted to the side (which I imagine takes some talent because you are holding up your cello at an unusual angle while playing), and some rocking on the ground, waving cellos around, that sort of business; they both were quite amazing to watch. Paavo Lötjönen impressed me far less. Maybe it was his inital lack of hair that made me lose interest in him but his stange presence was to me less metal and more show-off. Plus, without the hair he made the band lose symmetry. Nothing against his playing though. I also thought it was interesting to see them with a drummer. He didn't overpower the other three like I might have thought. I was pleased to see this, though it might've been nice to see them when they were just four cellists.
As for Nightwish, they opened with a soft instrumental with a guest musician who was playing an instrument that I couldn't quite recognise. It seemed like a bagpipe but not exactly. After that they went into 7 Days to the Wolves, Everdream, Wishmaster, Sahara, Amaranth, Nemo, Last of the Wilds, and many more. They brought out a guest violinist, Pekka something, to play The Siren, and he was incredible. After that, they kept him around for one more song, which totally made my entire night worth it - While Your Lips Are Still Red (which you may recall was my song of the day a while ago and is one of my alltime favorites of theirs). It is a song written for a movie and was on a single, so it wasn't something I ever expected to hear live and I was very pleased. Near the end they did the accoustic versions of The Islander and Walking in the Air featuring the guest musician on the strange instrument and flutes from the intro, and finished with a never-before-played version of Meadows of Heaven, which I admit I enjoyed live much more than I did on the album (definitely my least favorite song). It was good, but I could've done without the extensive vocal soloing at the end that sort of brought it down a bit.
Encore really made me happy. Another one of my alltime favorite ever Nightwish songs is off the Once album - Ghost Love Score. It's another one of those songs I thought I'd never hear... especially when Tarja Turunen isn't in the band anymore. The best part was that Anette actually did a decent job of singing it. She was, of course, no Tarja, but she didn't do a bad job. Then they finished with the 194th time doing I Wish I Had An Angel.
Overall impression? It was a really good show. My initial irritation with Anette was removed after a couple songs and the fire/lights/waterfalls (I think they were waterfalls after Meadows of Heaven, which struck me as odd, but kind of cool) were spectacular. Tuomas was playing inside a big boat and there was an anchor on the stage too, a couple high platforms, so the setup was really great in a sort of "The Islander" way. My biggest complaint really and honestly had to be Anette's blonde hair. I don't know what on earth made her think she would look better as a blonde but it's terrible. Really terrible.
Marco and Emppu are always really fun to watch on stage. And I am always really impressed with how much better Marco's singing is than it used to be. He totally outshines Anette every time he sings these days and unlike when he sings in Northern Kings, Tuomas writes songs that really help his vocals, rather than strain them. Unfortunately for me, I don't understand enough Finnish to understand anything he said at the end between Ghost Love Score and I Wish I Had An Angel, and I sort of appreciated Anette because she's Swedish and doesn't really speak any Finnish, so she was always talking in English.
All-in-all, it was a fantastic show, a great finale, and I'm really glad I went. I remain cautiously optimistic for the next album in hopes that Tuomas writes music more appropriate for Anette's style (though I'd be lying if I said I disliked Dark Passion Play - I actually do like it) the way he did for Tarja.
Track list (Nightwish)
01. Intro - Finlandia (w/ U.K. multi-instrumentalist Troy Donockley)
02. 7 Days To The Wolves
03. Ever Dream
04. Wishmaster
05. Romanticide
06. Amaranth
07. The Siren (w/ Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto)
08. While Your Lips Are Still Red (w/ Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto)
09. Poet And The Pendulum
10. Nemo
11. Sahara
12. Dark Chest Of Wonders
13. The Islander
14. Walking In The Air (w/ U.K. multi-instrumentalist Troy Donockley)
15. Last Of The Wilds (w/ U.K. multi-instrumentalist Troy Donockley)
16. Meadows Of Heaven
17. Ghost Love Score
18. I Wish I Had An Angel
Year: Sept 2009
Opening bands: Apocalyptica was opening for Nightwish
Who I went with: me, myself, and I
Location: Helsinki - Hartwall Areena
No comments:
Post a Comment