Nightwish played their only gig in London on 5 November 2012 at O2 Academy Brixton and I was there. The last time saw Nightwish was back in
2005. I was very happy to see them again beacuase I decided to skip the Dark Passion Tour. And of
course I was looking forward to see Anette live. But as we all know by now Anette
is no longer member of the band and Floor Jansen (ReVamp, After Forever) joined Nightwish to help
them to finish the on-going Imaginaerum tour.
So there I was queuing since 4:30pm waiting for the doors to
open at 7pm. There was already a bigger crowd there. I actually felt a bit
strange, because I decided to go on my own but I don’t regret it. The first
surprise of the evening came before the concert itself. One guy started to
shout that O2 network costumers will have a priority line so therefore will get
inside sooner. Lucky me I am O2 costumer so basically I got inside the venue before the
poor people who were freezing there in the cold longer than I did. Might be not
fair but some witty people went to Poundland to buy O2 SIM cards. Easy
solution.
The doors opened at 6:55pm and when I got inside the venue I
could decide whether to go to 4th row or lean against a “bar’’ and
be safe or go and sit at the balcony. I decided to play it safe and lean
against the bar. It was also a practical solution in case I will need to take
off my coat I could safely put my coat on it. And here comes the second
surprise of the evening. It was rather cold in the venue. Air-condition was on almost all the time so I
wore my coat all evening. But I’m happy for that. I hate when venues are hot.
I managed to get a good spot. I was in the middle so I could
see the stage without big problem. Even people in front of me were shorter so
everything seemed perfect. But not for long.
Pain was the support act and the only one. They got on the
stage at 7:45pm and played for 45mins. I am not very familiar with Pain songs.
But I recognised two of them. “Dirty Woman” and my favourite “Shut Your Mouth”.
The last named was also the last song of their set. I think Pain was a good
support act. Maybe not everyone’s cup of tea but their performance heated up
the crowd bit. Peter is very funny guy and he did interact with the crowd well.
I might go and see them in February when they play in London again.
And now we had this, what seemed to be never-ending waiting,
for Nightwish. And now follows a little rant. Why the hell you 6 feet tall guy
push your ass through everybody just to get better spot ending up in 8th
row standing in front of 3 girls who are pretty short, who had stood there well before
you came and when they dare to tell you to move a bit because they can’t see
anything at all you start to swear at them?? And then standing there like a
bloody statue taking a couple of photos and making faces like what am I doing
here??? Thank God he didn't stand in front of me. But I was a bit unlucky as
well. There was a tiny little gap in front of me and guess what happened?
Another idiot came and squeezed there. This time it was girl who wasn't as tall
as that guy but she definitely ruined my perfect view. But there was no point
in saying anything. I just didn't want to end up with a black eye.
At about 9:10pm the lights went off and the intro ‘Roll Tide’
started to play. From then on I experienced something called ‘the shortest
90minutes of my life’.
After the intro ‘Storytime’ was on. Floor came on the stage
and a big roar echoed around the venue. I believe she just owned the
whole evening. The setlist was the same one as they played in Manchester night
before. Mostly, it was a mix of ‘Once’ and ‘Imaginaerum’ songs with a classic ‘Over
the Hills and Far Away’. To be honest I was a little bit glad that Anette wasn’t
there that night. Don’t get me wrong. I have always supported Anette and am
curious to hear her solo album, but most of her ‘oldies’ versions were simply
bad. She just lacks power. And power is a key point in most of the oldies. Floor
did an amazing job on oldies. She might struggle a little bit with ‘Ever Dream’
but she didn’t use her operatic voice. Actually, she used her operatic voice
only on ‘Dark Chest of Wonders’ and ‘Ghost Love Score’ but you could barely
hear that. She also pulled ‘Imaginaerum’ songs off very well, too. One song I couldn’t stand live was ‘Amaranth’.
Anette struggled with it a lot but Floor
managed to make this song listenable. She even added a little twist to the
song. The way she sings ‘the Never-Fading Rain in your heart’ sounds really
great. ‘Scaretale’ was the song I was really looking forward to hear live.
Anette sings this one incredibly. After watching YT’s videos of Floor singing
this song I was skeptical I didn’t expect Floor to be able to pull it off the ‘’theatrical’’
way as Anette did. But she did it. She even growled! The acoustic set was very
nice also. Many people complain about ‘Slow, Love, Slow’ and ‘Nemo’. I don’t
really mind that. Another surprise of the evening was ‘Last of the Wilds’. When
I listen to ‘Dark Passion Play’ I always skip this song. I find the studio
version very boring but man it is a great live song. Almost everyone was
jumping up and down. It’s really good song to add a bit of speed or even wake
up some people after the acoustic set. Definitely, the highlight of the night
was ‘Ghost Love Score’. Floor sounds really superb. Although, she doesn’t sing
this song operatically throughout, she does add some operatic vocals here and
there.
‘Last Ride of the Day’ was indeed the last song played by band. I find
this song to be a good one to close a successful night with. And Monday night
was successful without any doubt. The band was all smiles throughout the night.
Marco and also Floor were very talkative. Generally, they all seemed to be very
relaxed and happy. I believe they enjoyed the night as much as most of us did.
Truth to be said, I didn’t miss Anette much or better said
at all. As I said I have supported her right from the beginning but her live performance
was just bad. Although, people say she improved her live
performance a lot since 2007, most of her ‘oldies’ versions were bad. I think I
need only one hand to name the old songs I like with her vocals. With Floor on
the board now, the justice was done to them, finally. And she doesn’t even sing
them the ‘original’ way. I enjoyed Floor’s performance a lot. She is an
incredible singer and knows how to put the show on. The crowd loved her yesterday. And when I said
that I don’t want her in Nightwish that was probably the biggest nonsense I
have ever said. Being a witness to what happened yesterday I have to say I want
her to stay with Nightwish. I will be disappointed if she doesn’t but whoever
will be Nightwish’s new singer I feel sorry for her already. She won’t be
compared to Tarja and Anette only but even to Floor. And given the circumstances
Floor has had to face and how well she is handling it, whoever comes next will
have it very tough.
Setlist:
Intro: Crimson Tide
1. Storytime
2. Dark Chest of Wonders
3. Wish I Had an Angel
4. Amaranth
5. Scaretale
6. Slow, Love, Slow
7. I Want My Tears Back
8. The Islander
9. Nemo (acoustic)
10. Last of the Wilds
11. Planet Hell
12. Ghost River
13. Ever Dream
14. Over the Hills and Far Away
15. Ghost Love Score
16. Last Ride of the Day
Outro: Imaginaerum
FYI: These photos are mine and since I took them with my BlackBerry mobile phone, they are very bad quality.
