Nightwish

On a hot and breezy Tuesday night, I found myself at the gates of HQ in Adelaide, eagerly standing in line waiting for Nightwish. While I’d only been a Nightwish fan for a short duration, the people I hit the concert with were much more devoted, and had earnestly talked up the band to the point where I was sure I would be disappointed by the performance. Happily, I was quite wrong.

One of the better-acoustically-equipped venues in Adelaide, HQ was comfortably filled by the audience. While there were not many Nightwish support posters or banners in the décor, half the fans seemed to be wearing Nightwish’s tour shirt, so the name was everywhere in the hall. The atmosphere was decidedly relaxed for a concert, with plenty of beer being sold as people waited around.

The support band for the evening was a group called Eyefear. A 5-piece progressive metal band from Melbourne, by far the most awesome thing about Eyefear was the hair of the main singer, Danny Cecati. A flowing, shimmering brown wave, it hung to the floor when he stood still and fanned out behind him like a cloak with every stride across the stage. Wicked-sick. While sounding quite good, with impressive operatic vocals, Eyefear opened slowly and never really picked up. A lack of on-stage movement, bored facial expressions and a decidedly low-energy performance from the band unfortunately produced the same response from much of the audience. However, for all the people standing round drinking beer and talking about last night’s Dream Theater concert, it was good music as a warm-up to Nightwish.

When Nightwish finally came onstage, it was to thunderous applause. The Finnish 5-piece didn’t waste much time, quickly opening up into a song from the new album (which their extensive tour is supporting), late-2007’s “Dark Passion Play”. Blazing purple lights combined with a smoke-machine haze and flashing white pulse lights to create a corona around the band. When united with Nightwish’s pure, encompassing, melodic metal, the spectacle was truly awesome – almost like the band were divine beings showering soundwaves from the skies. After a couple of songs however Nightwish quickly came down to Earth, cracking jokes and even bantering with members of the crowd. My favourite part was when Nightwish’s new singer (Anette Olzon), resplendent in pink-and-black tights, somehow got the audience to do an “Aussie Aussie Aussie” chant. Good stuff.

Annette’s vocals, while less operatic than those of old singer Tarja Turunen, took old Nightwish songs to a new level due to their incredible purity and melodic reach. Favourite tracks such as “Amarynth” and “Nemo” sounded exquisite and were received with extreme appreciation by the crowd. The band played a good mix of their heavier tracks and softer, more melodic ones throughout the night. It was great to see them obviously having a good time on stage, dancing around and laughing with each other. Their last song of the night was the powerful “Wish I Had An Angel”, and the crowd ate up every second of it. A brilliant performance by Nightwish – they’ve certainly made a believer out of me.

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