Nightwish
11 March 2009
Brixton Academy, London
The first thing of note about this gig was the queue. Passing the Brixton Academy on route to our meet up pub, I was amazed to see that the queue snaked all the way round the venue and into the distance down Brixton Road. Heading back after a couple of drinks to catch Pain we were shocked to see the queue was no smaller and as a result gave up on catching the Swedes. Johan possessing a press/photopass was able to get in hence we do have photos.
There appears to have been a major split in reaction to Nightwish’s performance. Reading the gushing praise on various forums had me wondering whether I was at the same gig, though I was relieved to discover I wasn’t the only one left underwhelmed by tonight’s show. It shouldn’t be surprising that this gig was loved by many. If the queue wasn’t evidence enough of Nightwish’s pulling power, watching the central section of the crowd responding on mass to every direction from the stage was impressive.
Following second song Dead To The World, Anette Olzon announced that “Three months of vacation is over”, and maybe Nightwish were still easing out of that as there seemed less urgency about their performance than previous encounters and at times they seemed on autopilot, though that’s still high quality by most bands’ standards. Noticeably Bye Bye Beautiful was absent and perhaps now Nightwish are comfortable without Tarja they have dropped the song and there was certainly a relaxed feeling emanating from the stage.
Tuomas Holopainen fascination with Pirates Of The Caribbean seemed to have taken full hold of the presentation for this tour with a huge anchor plonked on one side of the stage and Holopainen himself behind the front end of a boat. The real anchor of the band tonight was however Marco Hietala, with a strong vocal performance and commanding presence holding things together.
With more dips into the Tarja era, although mostly that was from her last album Once, the die-hards were treated to some surprises such as Romanticide and Ghost Love Score. For the recent fans Amaranth and The Poet And The Pendulum raised the loudest response.
Not a bad performance but whilst the fireworks exploded on stage tonight Nightwish didn’t for me.
Nightwish set list:
Seven Days To The Wolves / Dead To The World / The Siren / Amaranth / Romanticide / Dead Boy’s Poem / The Poet And The Pendulum / Nemo / Sahara / The Islander / The Escapist / Dark Chest Of Wonders / Ghost Love Score / Wish I Had An Angel
LINKS:
Nightwish
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