Concert Reviews - Tarja Turunen (joulukonsertti)

Tarja Turunen's Christmas concert... what an experience.

I had no idea what to expect from this show. To be completely honest, I didn't actually know it was a joulukonsertti when I bought my ticket; I thought it was her solo band. I was a bit disappointed when I found out I spent quite a lot of money on that sort of thing, considering I am notorious for HATING Christmas music. But hei, I never do anything festive and I've never seen Tarja perform before (not even with Nightwish, to break my heart), so I figured it would be something interesting, and I was not let down.

Tarja was performing her Christmas show with a percussionist, a guitarist, and an organist (is that a word?). The music was ridiculously well done, and I was really pleased by the Finnish Christmas songs. Maybe it's because I didn't know any of them, but the music was brilliant, the songs didn't annoy me like every Christmas song in North America does, and Tarja was unreal.

Her voice is crisp and perfectly pitched and just, mind boggling. She sounds so completely unreal, and it was cool to see her without all the other stuff. I mean, I love Nightwish and they are one of my favorite bands ever, and as I said, I'm crushed that I never saw them with Tarja, but this show was focusing on just Tarja, not on a band as a whole, so it was great to see what she could do.

Her musicians were also really cool. The guitarist looked like he could be quite the rocker but was holding back for the sort of... sanctity of the event. He looked like he was having an absolute blast though and was so into the music, having fun, smiling, and being a bit silly even. The percussionist was in complete control of all of his instruments - from the drums to the chimes, and just looked so practiced and confident. And the organ guy was so Phantom of the Opera that it hurt. And I mean that in the most awesome sort of way. Epic loud phantom-music, totally excellent.

Tarja looked absolutely beautiful, in her lovely black/red dresses and still managed to look a bit metal even though she was doing a fancy show (I'm glad I had the good sense to dress nicely). What was really cool though was that she took a couple breaks and let her band play. I expected some sort of festive music, and I honestly don't know what you consider "festive" in Finland but this was like, dark, ambient music and it was weird as hell and totally brilliant. I was really shocked and absolutely thrilled about it.

Even cooler, she did a Finnish version of Silent Night as an encore, which was nice because, as I said, I hate North American Christmas music but with the Finnish lyrics it was so much better. And her last song was Walking in the Air, and they had "snow" come out to fall around her while she sang, it was beautiful and SO cool to hear with her random assortment of instruments, not a band. Magnificent.

So, while I found the show a bit short, and a lot expensive, it was totally worth the experience and I would probably even consider going again. It was great to hear her at her classical-style best and I would recommend seeing her to anyone. She really is amazing, regardless or not of what you think of her character.



Year: Dec 2009
Opening bands: n/a
Who I went with: me, myself, and I
Location: Sibeliustalo, Lahti, FI