Nightwish have had another hugely successful run in Australia and the Friday night show in Fremantle was the final date on the tour. The band’s symphonic melodies drew the crowd in big numbers into the port city as it did last time too so the reputation of the band for their live shows was obviously a good one. We witnessed the Finnish band put on a stellar show.
Opening for the show was Voyager who as expected were the perfect fit as support for Nightwish. It doesn’t seem to matter which band they perform with, they always seem to be the band that is right to open the show. Their supporting sets are not much different than their headlining shows, the only difference being the crowds who obviously are there for the headliners. But whichever kind of show it is, Voyager make it work and despite the somewhat duller sound at the Metropolis venue this time around, the band did a great job as openers.
Symphonic, grand, epic, gothic but most of all, brilliant. I never hugely got into Nightwish to be honest but always thought they were one of the better bands in the genre of melodic metal. Floor Jansen is a great singer and I think is the best that Nightwish have had yet. She fits in perfectly and her voice is not lost in the mix behind the band’s sound which sometimes happens if your voice isn’t strong enough at a live show. She also headbangs as much as Corpsegrinder Fisher from Cannibal Corpse so that wins points just for that! The rest of the band are just as great as well with guitarist Emppu Vuorinen leading the charge with a bag full of riffs that leave your jaw dropped the entire show. When he riffs out at the beginning of “Yours Is An Empty Hope”, it’s just a beautiful thing to hear.
And speaking of beautiful, their latest album “Endless Forms Most Beautiful” which came out last year, was the main focus at the show, at least in the first half of the set where tracks like “My Walden”, the catchy “While Your Lips Are Still Red” and the moving “Elan” took up residence on the night. It’s a testament to the band who still prove they can write just as strong material as their earlier work which is not something too common in a lot of veteran bands.
The rest of the set was filled with later material, “I Want My Tears Back” was a definite highlight as was the grooving “Storytime” where the crowd really got into it. Bass player Marco Hietala also did a great job helping out on vocals, hitting those high notes just as well as Floor Jansen was, whose operatic voice was truly a sight to see. Troy Donockley made an appearance on this tour providing some uilleann pipes which gave the show a very folksy sound which showed a different side to the Nightwish sound, much to my surprise.
The epic “The Greatest Show on Earth” ended the 2 hour long show which meant every fan there really got their money’s worth for sure. All in all it was a much better show than I had anticipated and every band member on stage just did a tremendous job putting on one hell of a show. With a contrasting heavy to melodic sound, Nightwish are still one of the best in the business and with Floor Jansen on vocals, I think it’s made the band that much better.
PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by The Buffman
