Written by:	Demonisch
Published:	August 28, 2008
Event:	Nightwish: European Passion Play Tour
Location:	Academy 2, Manchester, United Kingdom

Quick background. I got into metal when I heard Nightwish's "Wishmaster." I loved their concert DVD "End of an Era" and was determined I wanted to see them live. Unfortunately, Tarja had now been fired. Nevertheless, after listening to "Dark Passion Play" I still wanted to go to a concert. I got very excited when I saw that Nightwish would be performing in Manchester and instantly booked tickets. That was back in September 2007. However, since then I have seen user videos of concerts on YouTube and became concerned about Anette's voice and style but I put it down to bad video quality. She was okay in "Dark Passion Play," I was sure she would be great.

Skip forward to the evening. Wow! Despite Nightwish getting nearly no publicity in the UK the queue for the show was huge. It felt great going to a local convenience store and hearing people talking about Nightwish as they bought supplies for the concert. The queue was populated by various people, mostly gothic and metal dressed but also daughters and sons with mothers, an elderly lady with a walking stick, and even children under 15. Inside people were standing downstairs and seating upstairs. Before long it was nearly impossible to move, the building was packed.

After a while some figures appeared on the stage and the audience got excited. But it was not Nightwish. Nightwish were hosting a supporting band called Pain, industrial style metal. I will not review their performance as it would be biased due to me only liking power and symphonic metal. I heard some people in front of me discussing them, and they liked them. I thought they would only do 1 or 2 songs but it was more like 8 songs. At the end of each song I was praying that it would be their last. Finally they left the stage stating that we are now "warmed up for Nightwish." Well, if that was true then we were left to go cold.

It must have been over half an hour before Nightwish appeared. We saw technicians changing the instruments but then nothing happened. It seemed like an age and I could hear people around me getting fed up. Finally Nightwish appeared. After an instrumental intro they launched into "Bye Bye Beautiful."

My excitement, already waned from the long wait, kept dropping every time I heard Anette sing. For the record, I am on Nightwish's side for firing Tarja, I have read the biography, which could be biased but I believe it, and I agree that she could not carry on. However, Anette was a bad decision because she cannot sing live. Her talent seems restrained to yodelling at the end of each sentence. Whereas a trained singer can hold notes, and pop singers mostly do the "youuuu-ohhh--oooo---youuuu" to cover the fact that they cannot, Anette does her yodelling. Moreover, she competed against Marko, her voice drowned out his whenever they sang.

However, the rest of the band was amazing. Emppu deserves special credit for his funny behaviour. He kept jumping around the stage. Anette put her arm around him during "Wishmaster" and he put his thumb to his nose and did a childish but amusing "nah, nah" to the crowd. Between some songs Marko talked to the crowd but unfortunately, being near the back, I could not make out what he said. However, he got a great response.

The songs they played, as I can remember, were "Bye Bye Beautiful," "Dark Chest of Wonders," "The Siren," "Whoever Brings the Night," "Wishmaster," "The Islander," "Last of the Wilds" (both of which were performed with a guest playing the clarinet, which was beautiful), "Nemo," "Dead to the World" and "Amaranth." The songs were all played with enthusiasm that made me love their concert DVD; every drum beat felt like a shock wave, you could feel it. However, following Pain playing 8 songs and the very long wait, the Nightwish concert felt relatively short.

To conclude, unless they fire Anette and get someone who can actually sing, I am unlikely to see Nightwish live again. In my opinion Nightwish are past their prime now.