Article by Danny
For those of you who have only experienced Nightwish on UK soil; go see them on the continent right now! Believe me when I say this - they do it bigger and better there.
The homely feel the UK concerts - particularly the earlier ones - is gone. Instead you have pyrotechnics, a more involved crowd, and Nightwish at full force. On the big stage they simply excel.
At this particular festival, each member played their part extremely well and drew in the crowd with every breath. Marco and Emppu - ever the comedians; Tuomas - gave his silent ‘thankyou's in his own special way; Tarja - as alive and beautiful as ever - lead the crowd in song; and the manic Jukka - shook the earth in style.
The set was similar to the one I had experienced at the Manchester Academy in February – with a few nice changes: Immediately after ‘Dark Chest of Wonders', the new single ‘The Siren' came in nice and early – as did the boys' superb cover of Pink Floyd's ‘High Hopes'.
As ‘Planet Hell' was unleashed – so were the pyrotechnics – balls of flame rising from behind the band – right on every beat too! This trend continued into ‘Wishmaster' at which point I worried for Jukka's safety – we could feel the fiery heat out in the audience (about 15m from the stage), yet he was sat directly infront of the flames!
Seemingly impervious to the hellish display going on behind them, Nightwish forged on into ‘Slaying the Dreamer' – a head banger's paradise – before calming us all down with the beautifully sang ‘ Kuolema Tekee Taiteilija' from the delightful Ms. Turunen. I still think the song could be better placed in the set list – there is too much of a change in emotion from ‘Slaying the Dreamer' to make it seem natural – but it still sounded gorgeous all the same.
‘Nemo' was up next – Tuomas clearly appreciating the cheese of his own devising with a sly grin as he played the opening riff. Despite being kicked in the head by a crowdsurfer at some point in this track, I regained my enjoyment almost immediately as the MiniDiscs whirred into action and Nightwish launched into ‘Ghost Love Score'.
As the band left the stage to rapturous appreciation, a thought did occur: Seeing the group so relaxed and so familiar with their set it often gave the impression that it was – for them – just another gig: Another festival. And a festival that wasn't Wacken – it wasn't 'the big one'.
But I know these guys have had a hell of a time touring this past (surely a record already) 15 months, so I gave them a break!
Returning for an encore of ‘Over the Hills and Far Away' and ‘Wish I Had An Angel', I forgot myself once more and jigged along happily to both songs.
As I walked away from Earthshaker I reflected that there were still a few out-of-the-ordinary elements to Nightwish's show. Emppu's nod to Iron Maiden at the end of Wishmaster was a nice touch, as was Marco having a sly dig at Tuomas' bass lines by letting Emppu play bass for a bit. And – overall – they all still seemed happy on stage, which is probably a bit of an effort nowadays.
This may be the turning-point tour for Nightwish, but - make no mistake - they are still the best at what they do: Putting on one awesome show.
