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author MS date 09/02/05 venue Vega, Copenhagen, DEN

For those of you who don't know Nightwish, they are a finnish metal band, with a female lead singer, whose vocals are all from opera to soothingly soft. They play power/goth metal, and have recently released the album "Once". This was the first time Nightwish ever played in Denmark, and the gig was sold out months before the concert. They could easily have played a bigger venue, since Vega is one of the smaller venues in Copenhagen, housing less than 1500 people when sold out.

The doors were opened at 19:00, and we when we arrived at Vega at about 19:15, there was a huge queue, which is not common in Vega. We queued for about half and hour before entering the building. At 20:00, we expected a warmup band to enter the stage, but none appeared. We waited until about 20:45, when Nightwish entered the stage. So no warmup act.

Nightwish

They opened with the first track of the new album; "Dark Chest of Wonders". Tarja entered the stage wearing a red kimono or the likes of it, and carrying a matching red microphone. She looked great as always, and her voice is even more astonishing live than on the albums. From the start, the crowd was hyped up, jumping around and horns in the air. "Planet Hell", also from "Once" followed, which has bassist Tuomas Holopainen singing some of the verses. He actually has a pretty cool voice, and on some songs he screamed his lungs out.

The next track was "Come Cover Me" from "Wishmaster", which is one of my personal favourites, since it has a really cool intro riff. Other than that, the song is mellow, with Tarja singing deep down. Next up was "The Kinslayer", which is probably their most known track. The crowd immediately exploded, and everyone was jumping around like maniacs. Awesome atmosphere. It was the same when they played "Wishmaster", and during "Phantom of the Opera".

At one point Tarja exited the stage, and the rest of the band played a cover of Pink Floyd's "High Hopes", from "The Division Bell", with Hietala singing. They did a very good job on that. On other occasions they have also covered Megadeth's "Symphony of Destruction".

For "Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan", which is a finnish ballad from "Once", the lights were turned down, spotlight on Tarja, and there were lighters all over the place, on the balcony and the floor. Very cool atmosphere. After this they played two tracks I didn't recognize, probably from "Once", and then they ended with "Nemo" before the encore. "Sleeping Sun" from "Ocean Born" was the first song of the encore. Great song. They then played another "Once" track, and finished off with the new single "Wish I Had An Angel". I don't really like the album version, but it was great live. The crowd went nuts, screaming along on the chorus and almost moshing it up. Great finish from Nightwish.

They were great at talking to the crowd between songs, though their english was not the best. For instance, Bassist Hietala gave a lecture on Smirnoff, drinking directly from a bottle on stage. That was hilarious. "Probably the only good thing that comes out of the US".

All in all it was a good concert, but unfortunately it was a bit too short, especially since there was no warmup gig. Also, the setlist was a bit disappointing. They made the common mistake of playing too much new material, and too little of the old classics, which are the ones the crowd wants to hear, and know the words to. I missed tracks like "Stargazers", "She Is My Sin", "Wanderlust" and "Crownless". In total they only played 1 track from "Oceanborn", 3 tracks from "Wishmaster" and 2 from "Century Child". The rest was from "Once".

Setlist:

• Dark Chest Of Wonders
• Planet Hell
• Come Cover Me
• The Kinslayer
• The Siren
• Phantom Of The Opera
• Cover of Pink Floyd's High Hopes
• Bless The Child
• Wishmaster
• Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan
• 2 unknown tracks
• Nemo
• --Encore--
• Sleeping Sun
• Dead Gardens
• Wish I Had An Angel