Nightwish @ Brussels & Rotterdam

BogFires had the honour and pleasure to appear as guests in two Nightwish gigs in their recently started European tour with Pain and Indica: Forest National in Brussels (14/3) and A’hoy in Rotterdam (15/3).

The shows were the second and third on this leg after the sold out kick-off for over 4000 people in London (Carling Academy Brixton, 11/3). The size of the audience was reportedly around 5000 in Brussels and over 6000 in Rotterdam and comprised, as generally in the case of Nightwish, a mixture of young and old, women and men, metal heads and other Nightwish fans. Our small sample of interviews and general observations (as well as various YouTube comments) suggested that many of them regarded the concert as a great experience. Brussels crowd seemed to include many Finnish visitors, and a couple of white n’ blue flags were also spotted in the audience.

The audience was surprisingly loud, especially in Brussels where we watched the show mainly from the arena floor. Indica and Pain both already got people active, and Nightwish really exploded the place. The venue with the downward floor and wide profile is excellent for this purpose – despite the large size, the arena incorporates a certain feeling of closeness. A’hoy in Rotterdam is more of a normal kind of a sport arena, but also a pretty good one for concerts like this. AC/DC played there two days before Nightwish and the venue can be checked e.g. from various concert recordings like “Live & Off the Record” By Shakira and the DVD concert in “The Katie Melua Collection” set.

Finnish Indica filled well their opening slot, and the girls were seemingly enjoying their time on the stage. Their happy mood was transmitted to the audience as well, and the band probably got a number of new friends in both countries. The sets ended with Kate Bush cover “Wuthering heights”, an apparently risky choice, but which was carried out beautifully by the band.

Swedish Pain then took the sound and visuals to the next level, using basically the same stage setting as in their recent European headline tour. Despite small technical problems in Brussels, the set was intense, ending with the catchy “Shut your mouth”.

Nightwish performed a determinate, good sounding and fancy looking set on both days. The visual appearance of the show was particularly staggering with beautiful lights, grand and precise pyros, sneaking smoke, and other eye candy. The new sea theme with the majestic anchor and the wooden boat around the keyboards of Tuomas worked as a perfect background for the story line of the set. In particular, the transition from the intro with the secretively blue-lighted cross to the blasting “7 days to the wolves” was something one can only comment with great admiration.

Two days after the Rotterdam show, we spotted a short gig review in the Rotterdams Dagblad newspaper. Quite contrary to our experience, the reviewer gave 3/5 stars for the show and seemed to complain about the empty chairs at the venue and problems with sound quality. It is also quite strange that in such a short story, more space was used for the (seemingly eternal) comparisons between Tarja and Anette, and between (yes, in Holland, of course) Nightwish and Within Temptation than for actual concert reflections.

During the trip, we also checked the local rock magazines. Nightwish appeared in the cover of Belgian/Dutch Rock Tribune with a 4 pages long article. The French edition of RockHard also included a 4 pages long interview of Tuomas.

In addition to amazing concert experience, it was also interesting to follow how smoothly the organization of such a big enterprise functions behind the coulisse before, during, and after the gig. It really comes out that this caravan has toured the globe for a long period of time. Everything was managed with high professionalism, and the atmosphere backstage was remarkably friendly and relaxed.

BogFires really look forward to the next chance to see Nightwish live, which is not a very long away. We would like to express our warm thanks to Tuomas, Ewo, Toni, Adam, Peter, and the rest of Nightwish, Pain and Indica members and crew for their hospitality and such a nice time in Brussels and Rotterdam.

TMK & LL







Nightwish setlist (both days)
1. Intro
2. 7 days to the wolves
3. Dead to the world
4. The siren
5. Amaranth
6. Romanticide
7. Dead boy’s poem / walking n the air
8. The poet and the pendulum
9. Sahara
10. Nemo (Nemo played before Sahara in Rotterdam)
11. The islander
12. Escapist
13. Dark chest of wonders
Encores:
14. Ghost love score
15. Wish I had an angel

Scroll down to the bottom of the page to find gig videos in YouTube.