Article by James Cann
A copy of this review can also be found on the Metal Monk site along with other reviews from Download Festival.
What a shame it was that Nightwish only had time for a 4 song set. After about 5 minutes before they were due to come on stage a Download official came out to announce that unfortunately due to a bomb scare at the airport they had flown in from ,the band were currently stuck on the motorway so everything would be pushed back by thirty minutes.
After a while (it was looking inevitable at this point that they wouldn't be on after the additional 30 mins were up) long term roadie Tero came on stage and started setting up. A noticeably angry Jukka arrived a short while later to set up his own drum kit, taking the occasional swig out of the bottle of grog he was carrying. It appeared from where I was standing that the Nightwish Crew seemed to be having a few arguments with the Download officials who obviously wanted them to just give up and make way for the next band. Thankfully the Nightwish guys were having none of this and carried on what they were doing.
After what seemed like an eternity everything was finally set up, the stage was cleared and the familiar intro tape started. The band rattled off ‘Dark Chest Of Wonders' ‘Planet Hell' (With Jukka pounding away at his drums even more fiercely than normal!) and ‘Nemo' before Marco announced to the audience they only had time for one more number sharing with us the anger himself and the rest of the band had for the idiot who caused the bomb scare. After closing number ‘I Wish I Had An Angel' the band walked off stage somewhat forlornly.
What makes the shortened set time even more of a shame was how good they actually sounded despite the short space of time they had to set up. It really was perfection and they had the sound that some bands can only dream of at an outdoor event such as this.
I'm left in no doubt that despite all the problems they had, Nightwish will have made a fair few new fans with this performance. Even the idiots in front of me who kept chanting ‘Slayer Slayer Slayer!' from the minute I got there were nodding their heads in approval.
It is also a relief to know that despite the current state of the music industry, some bands really do hold a degree of respect for their fans and Nightwish proved this today. Despite all the adversities they faced, they struggled on to play for us where many bands would have just given up and not bothered. For that I salute them.
Setlist :
Intro
Dark Chest Of Wonders
Planet Hell
Nemo
I Wish I Had An Angel
