Mat 30th 2008 - Headliners - Louisville, KY
So far my only hopes of seeing Nightwish live included plane ticket to Europe, or maybe trip to some big US power metal festival, but My wife, I and six others actually went to see Nightwish May 30th 2008 at, out of all places, Headliners Louisville KY. They came. They played. They conquered. This is the full review of that bombastic show. I”ll try to take you with me trough the entire experience so lots of photos are included. Excuse the quality of the photos but professional cameras with objectives weren’t allowed.
6:30pm - We are waiting in a long line along with other 600 power-metal hungry Kentuckians. Sun is high and everyone is slowly cooking, but nobody cares. Excitement of seeing a symphonic power-metal band from far away lands is too much for anyone to be worried about getting a sunburn or even a skin cancer. I see everyone from age 7 to 57 in the crowd. That tells you about appeal and transcendence of this band. Standard “cool T-shirt dude” or “I’ve seen them rock the house last year” chat is started and you are immediately drawn into that familiar metal conversation that is common at every metal show. Especially while waiting in long lines. Here’s the photo (click on the photo to enlarge). Thats just a small section of the line which curves around and comes to the point where I took the photo from.
7:30pm - Doors opens and line starts moving fast but orderly. After few minutes, we’re inside and and are greeted with familiar scent of beer, ozone and view of pretty decent size stage for a small venue like Headliners (seats only about 600 people). Sonic Syndicate is opening act and their gear is already set up. Glimpse of a Nightwish’s massive drum kit could be seen under the covers at the back of the stage.
We knew that every last one of the tickets is sold out, and that the place will become a fricking oven later on, so we immediately got few beers each and gathered around mixer and sound board while my wife and our friend Lillie went to upper floor to get a better view, since she would be the one taking pictures. Not having camera, leaves me free to bang my head and do some standard neck damage. Here’s one of the first photos from inside.
8:15pm - Beer starts to work its charm, and most of us are already nicely buzzed from marathon drinking. Lights go down and Sonic Syndicate from Sweden takes the stage. Six piece band with two vocalists. They are labeled as melodic-death metal, but I thought they were more metalcore kind of band more than anything. In the same vain as Bullet For My Valentine maybe. However, they showed unbelievable energy and stage presence. Not a huge fan, but I though they delivered the goods and pumped us up real good for the main event. They’ve played 45-50 minutes set. Here’s a photo of them performing on the stage.
9:30pm - Anticipation of whats too come is very high now. You can actually taste the electricity and that familiar excitement in the air, right before the main act takes the stage. Place is truly packed now, and going to the bathroom or for another beer is becoming more of an adventure. At this point I am so hyped and ready to “let loose”, that I cannot think of things like..bladder. Even if by some miracle you got through to the bar and got beer, you would have to literary down it (which we actually did), since air is so hot and humid and leaving an alcoholic beverage open for more then two minutes would be considered sacreligious. Crowds chatter is broken up by kick drum. Just a sound check from Nightwish’s sound crew, but the audience is already going wild and laud. Fist are already in the air chanting: “Nightwish..Nighwish…Nighwsh!!! And that was just a crew member checking the sound! Rest of the sound check for bass, vocals and guitar is performed, and is followed by the crowds cheer every time the sound crew guy hits the string. Another photo.
9:45pm - Lights go down and screaming starts. Here we go… My favorite part of any metal show. Brilliantly melodic and powerful soundtrack from the movie Passion Of The Christ “Resurrection” fills the hall. Sound of the crowd becomes truly deafening. Imagine 700 fans in a small closed place screaming uncontrollably at the top of their lungs effectivley draining everyones ear canals. Awesome!!!
Jukka “Julius” Nevalainen takes a seat behind the drum kit and is followed by rest of the band members. Marco Hietala (bass and vocals) takes the stage getting the loudest greeting. At this point everyone in the crowd (including us) is risking of damaging something. Ears or vocal chords.
Few minutes after, at the height of all that ear genocide, riffs for “Bye Bye Beautiful” rips through the air and Nightwish explodes onto the stage. Crowd looks like a sea of big waves jumping up and down. For live video experience to see what this is like please follow this link. Video is from Paris but it’s very similar to this night.
10: 00pm Right after the opener, band goes into Gothic menace of “Dark Chest Of Wonders”. Everyone’s fists (and feet) are in the air at this point. I was truly surprised by the audience’s reaction to the band. Louisville welcomed Nightwish as no other band I’ve seen in this city. I’ve come to realize that music truly transcend geographical locations. You could not tell tonight’s audience from their European counterparts which are famous for headbaning in unison and singing along with the band (see also soccer games). Everyone had their fists in the air, jumping up and down and headbanging intensely while roaring along with the band trough such a emotion benders like: acoustic “Islander” sang by Marco, “Creek Mary’s Blood” and truly nostalgic “While Your Lips Are Still Red” (click link to the video). Marco Hietala’s voice on that one was spellbinding.
Gotta say that I was little disappointed with Annette’s vocals on handling older stuff. She ripped through newer stuff with ease, but I have to say that she struggled with older material originally sang by full blown opera singer Tarja Turunen. Sometimes singing full octave lower to accommodate for her range, Annette was backed up vocally by Marco’s steel pipes. Anyway, what Annette lacked in vocals she definitely delivered in stage presence and interaction with the crowd. She is all smiles and is way more animated than Tarja, engaging the crowd at every step. Highlights of the show so far were: opener “Bye Bye Beautiful” ( I am still not sure if this song is dedicated to their ex vocal legend Tarja), ballad “While Your Lips Are Still Red”, single “Amaranth”, “Sahara”, and brilliant 14 minute theatrical opus, that rivals seasoned classical composers “Poet and Pendulum”. Another photo.
11:15pm - Hour and a half into the show audience shows no signs of letting this band even thinking about leaving the stage. While Annette announced last song of the evening, we all knew that there was going to be more to come. And indeed there was. After only few minute break, band returned to do an encore. “Everdream” and skull crushing “Wish I Had An Angel” closed the show. I gotta tell you, “Wish I Had An Angel” sounded absolutely phenomenal live. So heavy but melodic. It has that militant beat ala Rammstein that really gets crowd going. I really thought my head is going to fly off of my shoulders on that one. For live version of the song (with legendary Tarja) click this link (listening at least 130db is highly recommended) Here’s a photo right before the encore.
Even though Nightwish is relatively young band (11 years), I have to say that I haven’t seen better rehearsed band in a long time. These guys play with seriousness and ease that rivals four decade old metal giants. And those song compositions… Oh boy. Hearing these almost film soundtrack metal pieces live was a truly inspiring and unforgettable experience. Every time you think music cannot take any higher, they switch the key and tempo and you’re transported to another place.
At the end of the show I could not help but think that even if they did not pick perfect replacement for Tarja, music itself was so powerful and theatrically emotional that overshadowed vocals completely. I was also pleasantly surprised by Marko “Marco”Hietala’s vocal abilities. I know he has amazing pipes, but hearing him live belting out some serious notes was something to hear. Every time he took the mic, crowd would go insane.
11:45pm - All members of the band take the stage to do greeting and say goodnight. Crowd cheers them on as they gracefully leave the stage. After almost two hours of theatrical metal , these boys and a girl from Finland leave the stage, but not after promising that they will come back to Louisville again. This time with Sonata Artica as opening act.
After midnight - All sweaty, dirty, physically drained and still having some adrenalin left in our bodies, we all gathered behind buses waiting to meet the band. Indeed they came out, signed autographs and we took pictures with Marco Hietala (bass and vocals) Tuomas Holopainen (keyboards, main composer), Jukka “Julius” Nevalainen (Drums) and with John Two-Hawks, the real Indian who was the chanter and flute player in “Creek Mary’s Blood”. My wife and I even got to talk with Marco Hietala for few minutes, about music and just general life stuff.
Having seen close to probably 300 shows in my lifetime, this was truly beyond my expectations and definitely ranks in my top 10 small venue shows.
Here’s some photos of us with some of the band members.
Myself with Marco Heitala
Myself, Tuomas Holopainen and my wife
Myself and Jukka
Ado and Tuomas
Mili and Jukka
Daniel and Marco
Ado and Marco screaming
Vesna and John Two-Hawk
Myself, Jukka, Vesna and Huso
August 7th, 2008 by 
220volt
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