Nightwish

Hammersmith Apollo 25th Sept 2005 

We were at the back of a very long line of black T-shirt clad rockers and Goths waiting to get into the gig at Hammersmith in London.  Quite a crowd, you'd have to admit.  Certainly seemed like a small army of dark desperados waiting to join the fray. 

A couple of young women walked past us towards the entrance to the Apollo, who certainly looked like they might fit into this motley crowd. Hell, after just one pint of Marston's Pedigree, I'll talk to anyone!  To save them the effort of having to walk all the way back, I ventured the wise thought that this was the end of the queue and they might as well save their legs by joining it here.  For what? they asked.  Nightwish, said I.  Oh, we don't like Nightwish, they said.  Without further ado, I bade them on their way!

Well, it's true.  Nightwish is not going to be everyone's cup of tea.  A Finnish heavy metal band, improbably fronted by a trained female opera singer, and occasionally influenced by Scandinavian folk music; it's probably not going to appeal to your mainstream music lover.  It sure as hell won't be music to the ears of your average opera fan!  But as unlikely as it might sound, this band is absolutely brilliant. 

That's got be be because there is a vein of melodic gold running through their music, largely provided by the creative genius of the band, the keyboard player Tuomas Holopainen.  Hey, welcome to the first Nightwish challenge: unpronouncable surnames abound!  But fear not, my Anglo-Saxon friends: to the most part their songs are written in English.  Which would make them really easy to sing along to, if you could only master the high operatic registers that their voluptuous-ish vocalist, Tarja Turunen, effortlessly explores.

The evening started off with Paradise Lost, of whom I have an early album.  My mate Pete, a bit of a Metal Muso, tells me that Paradise Lost went through a disappointing Depeche Mode-like period a couple of years back, before bouncing back with some solid rock 'n' roll.  They were a pretty static band on stage, except for the two head-banging guitarists.  The bald-headed one reminded me of army-based Metalhead squaddies in the U.S. who go to heavy gigs in black T-shirts and no hair, and mosh like nutters.  The thing that struck me about Paradise Lost was that for a supporting act their sound was really good. But the lighting was poor, mostly back-lit, presumably to create some kind of malevolent atmosphere.  The lighting contrasted strongly, then, with the lighting stage show employed by Nightwish which was, frankly, outstanding.

The crowd were pretty lively throughout.  My mates and I had seats up in the balcony, and could see some serious excitement down in the Circle.  I've since read some reports on the Nightwish forum that there was some trouble down there.  My friends had brought along their kids, and I almost brought my 8-year old before deciding against it at the last minute.  (Kids?  Yep, some of us old rockers are getting on a bit.  Last time I was at Hammersmith, the same gig was called the Odeon and I was seeing Motörhead.  That was in 1988.  And, yes, it was bloody loud).  So, I'm glad we didn't see any of the trouble, what there was of it.  Still, I kind of enjoy getting amongst an excitable crowd at a gig, and jumping about a bit.  Given that this was Nightwish's only gig in Britain this tour (besides the Download festival, which wasn't the smoothest gig for the band), it was unsurprising that a lot of their hardcore fans had shown up, intent on having a damn good time!  The seats seemed tame in comparison.

Anyhow, they worked through what appears to have been a fairly standard set, focussing, of course, on their newest, and most popular album, 'Once'. Which is the dog's bollocks, as we say here in Britain.  If I had a pound for every time I've listened to that album, blah, blah, blah.  Seriously, there are some excellent tracks on it.  Not a duff song in sight.  The use of an orchestra was incredibly effective on the album, and this required a backing track when the songs were played live.  Some people, including my brother-in-law John, aren't big fans of backing tracks used at live gigs.  But what were Nightwish to do, invite along a full orchestra and choir for the night?  Here's the set-list, as tentatively recalled by 'Riplash' on the Nightwish forum:

You'll notice, perhaps, the inclusion of a cover of the Pink Floyd song "High Hopes" from their 1994 'Division Bell' album.  This was most unexpected, and I'm not sure the majority of the audience were that struck by it (Tarja went off for a break, leaving lead vocals to Marco, whose voice has evidently improved over the last couple of albums).  However, I was really delighted with it, being a Pink Floyd fan.  Perhaps it indicates the direction the band are thinking of taking at the moment?  Or maybe they just like playing that tune.

I've heard it said that for a long time Nightwish weren't terribly comfortable about playing live.  Not quite as bad as 'Boston' perhaps, but nevertheless a bit wallflower-ish, possibly because Tarja hadn't the first clue about what was expected of a rock goddess.  Well, they've certainly put that behind them.  They seemed to thrive on stage, enjoying the evident adulation of the English throng before them.  Despite the complexities of much of their music, they managed to put on quite a show.  This reflects their creative and evident technical skills as musicians, I think, and made Paradise Lost seem positively morbid in comparison. It also reflected the amount of booze they were swinging back, particularly Tuomas!  They were really enjoying themselves.

I was particularly impressed with Nightwish's drummer, Jukka Nevalainen, who gave it his all.  There was no solo performance from any of the band members, save a solo rendition of "Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan" from Tarja, which was truly magical.  She has such an amazing voice, and hearing her sing in her native tongue was wonderful.  She seemed to be more relaxed and natural with this song, which is presumably closer to her own natural musical sound.

The bass player, Marco Hietala, has a charismatic presence on stage, and took on the role of band spokesman, cracking a few good jokes in the process.  As mentioned before, his vocals are greatly improved too. 

Tuomas was superb on keyboards, and Emppu was dancing around the stage all night.  I don't think either of them dropped a note throughout. This excellent performance was enhanced by a cracking light show, including flame jets, and the release of masses of confetti towards the end of the night.  They intended to impress us, and succeeded! Some filming was going on too, which should showcase Nightwish's potential to whatever media its released through. 

Can't wait for the next album, and tour.  Hopefully, this gig will persuade whoever controls these things to bring Nightwish to England a little more often in future.  Do it.

Written by Andy Lloyd, September 2005

With thanks to Tom Case & Angels Whisper