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For several months I have been looking forward to this concert. Nightwish is the number one band, currently reigning on the top of my playlist. The new album took the most-listened-to crown from Therion. After attending this concert, I have seen four of my top five bands live. Needless to say, I was quite excited.

The starter band, Paradise Lost, was very good. I wouldn’t hesitate to compare them, quality-wise, to Leaves’ Eyes and their foreplaying for Kamelot. It was decent metal with well written songs and a lot of power. Thumbs up, they just made the rather slim list of starter bands I wouldn’t hesitate to pay for, should they tour on their own.

Then the real treat of the evening came on the nice stage – I love the pendulum theme, it reminds me of Edgar Allan Poe’s Pit and the Pendulum. The intro was okay, but nothing special. The first surprise was Tuomas wearing a thick make-up and eyeliner. He looked like an emo kid, it was sort of pathetic. Jukka was, as usual, wearing a bandana headscarf. Marco looked cool, wearing The Beard. I expected him to be larger, maybe like the Leaves’ Eyes growler. But he’s just an ordinary guy, maybe a bit smaller than most. And Emppu looks exactly as you imagine him. :-)

Then Anette came on stage. I was disappointed. Unlike the aerie, impressive appearance of Sharon den Adel, she looked like the ugly stepsister. She was wearing a black corset that ended just above her breasts, exposing her skinny upper chest and shoulders. She has a rather nice G-clef (husľový kľúč) tattoo on her left shoulder. Unfortunately, she is very thin, and the corset didn’t look good on her, which is saying a lot, because corsets generally look good on anyone. Anyway, Anette is pushing forty, and it could be seen. I have no problem with an older singer, but she was trying to look like a schoolgirl, and didn’t quite manage to get it right. The skirt and little-girl hairstyle didn’t help much, either.

I could have forgiven her for the appearance easily. That’s not why I came to the show, after all. But she couldn’t sing well. It was especially painful in the older songs. It happens that singers can’t handle the complicated parts sometimes, and come out a bit flat. Anette, however, couldn’t handle the more demanding parts of Tarja’s songs at all. It was rather sad. The only older song she was doing quite okay in, was Nemo. Other songs… well, whenever I thought she was doing okay in some, she screwed up badly a few measures later. That includes Amaranth, which sounded nothing like I hoped it would sound. :-( The two songs that sounded more or less okay were Sahara, and Seven days to the wolves.

Just a quick note, I wasn’t biased against her. I like the new album and had very good will to accept her and appreciate her as a singer. I understand, that she is in a very tough position to appeal to the fans who loved Tarja, and that singing songs that weren’t written for her can get very difficult. But this wasn’t just below average. It was excruciatingly awful at times.

Worse yet, I couldn’t quite appreciate her voice. It sounded different to me, than on Dark Passion Play. And it wasn’t pleasant, not even when she was talking, which she did with a thick accent. The overall impression she gave, and that’s considering way more than just appearance, was that of a rat. Honestly, if I worked for casting and needed a were-rat, she would be the first one I would talk to. You’ll understand what I mean when (and if) you see her live. The event lost an unprecedented amount of goshu points because of her.

As if wanting to suppress her somehow, the sound was set to emphasise the guitars and drums, you couldn’t even hear her in some parts. While I have to be mean and say that this wasn’t a bad thing altogether, Nightwish music isn’t about making so much noise that you can’t hear the singer.

Our position was great, we ended up in the third row from the stage right in the center. I have no idea how that happened, because when we arrived, we were like ten rows from the stage at least, but eventually, we somehow got forward without much effort on our part. This doesn’t usually happen. :-)

The audience was better than on WT, but still… let me design an IQ test. We start at 150. Imagine following situation: Tuomas is playing a silent solo, Marcus and Emppu have their fingers across their lips, and motion for the crowd to be silent. For every second you keep yelling, you get -10 points. Hm, most people would end up somewhere below 60. Anyway, I had to laugh when, after the encore, a pretty large part of the crowd behind me started shouting “Ještě jeden! Ještě jeden!” :-D

Although several times I just had to smack my forehead after something (read: Anette) went wrong, there were some really bright moments in the show. Namely the Islander, with Marco and Emppu playing acoustics. Also, Jukka was doing awesomely at the drums. I never noticed how good he was in the studio albums, and it rarely happens that I notice drummers at all. But at times, it just struck me how well he played.

Emppu and Tuomas played their parts well, too, although at times you couldn’t really hear the keyboards because of the settings mentioned before. Marco was amazing, and although maybe Anette didn’t think so, he was the real frontman of the band. Not even his tries could save the show and interacting with the fans, though, because it was still lousy. Some instrumental parts were nice, even though I really missed the strings and brass. A lot of Poet and the Pendulum was just playback, and the difference between playback and live playing and especially singing was very unflattering.

Overall, I give Nightwish 55 goshu points. I can’t say if it is a világos. If you are a very forgiving person, mad about the band, and want to see them live at all costs, just do so, and it may be világos for you. The word forgiving being the keyword. I have seen some people around me who obviously enjoyed it. That made me think that it is very individual, and you won’t know if it is a világos, until you get in and see for yourself – hence the Schrödinger. Unfortunately, I am a more demanding person, and declare Nightwish a second band, after Kamelot, that screwed up at their live performance.

In a final attempt to redeem the band, it wasn’t really all bad. If I look at it the way that I spent fifteen bucks and just went out, it was a nice way to enjoy the evening. However, if I think of this as a concert of my number one band, it is really disappointing. There indeed was a huge gap between live performances of Nightwish and Within Temptation, and as much as it pains me to give my favourite band a negative review, I don’t feel like having much of a choice. Bottom line: Anette Olzon doesn’t have what it takes, and I don’t think the band will be doing well live, unless she is replaced. Feel sorry about that? Well, yeah. So do I.

PS: No pictures today. So what? :-P