Before that I was on the last class trip in Strasbourg, France and so I was very tired when I flew to Helsinki. I flew in the late night on Saturday. I think it was 2 o´clock in the middle of the night when I went to the airport. I had to check in of course and went through the control and then I ate something at the airport and waited for the airplane. Maybe on 5 o´clock I flew to Frankfurt´s airport and there I was in hurry! Our airplane had a delay of "only" 15 minutes but these 15 minutes were more than enough! I had to change the flight so as the airplane arrived in Frankfurt I had to run to the other flight hall! I arrived in hall A and I had to run to hall D in less than 10 minutes! Beside that, Frankfurt´s airport is one of the biggest in Germany and there are long ways to go from one to the other hall. And additionally there were so many people. Of course, it´s an airport and there are many people but since it was a Saturday, many business people flew back home etc and so there were so many people that you had troubles to run straight and take the shortest way.
At 11 o´clock I finally arrived in Helsinki and it was very warm and nice weather! :)
I searched a taxi and drove straight to the Hartwall Areena which is maybe 20 minutes from Helsinki airport away.
I thought I´ll be there too early but there were so many fans! It was almost unbelievable! Fans from all over the world! There were fans from Brazil, France, Italy, Spain, Australia, and of course from other scandinavien countries and Germany...but that is just that what I know! I believe there were fans from many many other countries too! ;)
I was a short time outside in front of the hall because I´ve met some friends there and wanted to see the ambience there while they were waiting. :) The fans sang almost the whole time songs as "Amaranth", "Wish I had an angel", "Wishmaster" and they also sang the finnish national anthem. :) Here is a little video of the fans singing "Amaranth":
As you probably know, APOCALYPTICA was the support band of Nightwish this evening. They played so many songs and I can´t remember anyone but I remember that they´ve played "Bittersweet", "Jesus", "I don´t care" and "Betrayer". They also had a very very good guest musician who supported them with his singing in "Jesus" and "I don´t care".
Here some photos of Apocalyptica:
After soundcheck for Nightwish and changing the stage decoration, the "official" concert began. :)
Here is the setlost of NIGHTWISH:
Intro Finlandia with Troy
7 days to the Wolves
Ever Dream
Wishmaster
Romanticide
Amaranth
The Siren with Pekka
While your Lips are still red with Pekka
Poet and the Pendulum
Nemo
Sahara
Dark Chest of Wonders
The Islander
Walking in the Air with Troy
Last of the Wilds with Troy
Meadows of Heaven
Ghost Love Score
Wish I had an Angel
Outro The heart asks pleasure first
The Intro Finlandia which they´ve played with Troy was absolutely amazing! Everybody had his hands in the air and it was a very emotional feeling with this intro, all the 13.000 people in the arena,...
With 7 days to the wolves they´ve opened the concert and Anette sprang on stage. :)
And there were also many pyro effect! Very hot when you were standing in front of the stage ;)
Usually Nightwish played all concerts before songs like "Dead to the world" or "The Siren",... directly after 7 days to the wolves, but this time they´ve continued with "Ever Dream". We didn´t expected that and so it was much nicer! :) It was a surprise for us to hear this song, because before we didn´t know exactly if they will play Ever dream or not. Anette sang this song so emotional and she has made again a little bit different version of this song, especially in the end.
I´ve only recorded the beginning, here we go:
Here is a photo of Emppu when he played the solo in Ever Dream:
Tuomas enjoyed it too, as you can see ;) :
Without any little break for talking, drinking or whatever, they´ve continued the show with "Wishmaster"!
You can imagine how much Pyro-Markku had to do there :D
Here´s a photo of Anette singing Wishmaster:
After the powerful Wishmaster they´ve played "Romanticide" and also there were a lot of pyro effects! And in the end of the song...how can I call it? In the "headbanging-time" of the song, the whole band have rocked as never before! It was a mixture between aggression and happiness. They banged their heads that you had to be afraid a bit for their healthy and at the same time, all of the band had a big big smile on their faces! :)
Of course the first official single which they´ve made with Anette had to be played! It´s "Amaranth" of course! You can´t imagine how the whole arena rocked! All people who had seats were standing and those, who had a standing place, jumped around, banged their heads,... :) Simply wonderful! And of course Anette did her "HEP, HEP"´s. :)
After Amaranth they had a little break for talking and then they´ve presented a guest musician, called Pekka. He has played the violin (I believe so) and it was just perfect for "The Siren" !
Here is Pekka playing The Siren:
After The Siren, Pekka stayed on the stage and then they´ve played together with him the beautiful song "While your lips are still red"! I´ve always liked this song but with Pekka´s violin there were much more emotions in the song and Marco gave his best with his voice as he always do of course ;) But there it was especially adorable! :)
Of course, they´ve also played "The Poet and the Pendulum"...Anette cried when she sang this song, also Marco was very sad to sing it and the rest of the band too.
I believe, Tuomas enjoyed playing this song, because he could feel free after it, you know... ;)
After this sad song, Nightwish played a classic one which they play on every concert :) (I hope on the next tour as well!)
Of course it was "Nemo"! :)
And as you can see...also Tuomas laughed ;)
The next song was "Sahara" and of course our dear Emppu and Marco did their little jokes there while playing ;)
Here is a very beautiful photo of Anette while singing Sahara and you can see her fantastic make-up really good!
Here a very sweet photo of Anette and Marco while singing:
They continued with the powerful and bombastic "Dark Chest of Wonders"
After that, they begged the audience to put out their mobile phones, or something which gives light and almost all people put it out. It was truly a sea of light, or better to say: an ocean of light!
In this ambience they´ve played "The Islander" and a little surprise: They´ve played "Walking in the Air"!
While playing Walking int the air, it was snowing in the whole arena! A very beautiful effect I have to say!
After this two emotional and more quiet songs, they played an instrumental song of "Dark Passion Play"-album and gave Anette a little break for her and her voice.
It was "Last of the wilds"
After the funny Last of the wilds, where we were already very tired because we´ve jumped all the time in Last of the wilds, Anette and Marco talked...
Anette said "Thank you!" to all fans, supporters, and to the band and she also spoke about the new album and the future of NW and then she said that now they´ll come to a premier...yes, "Meadows of Heaven"! :) Anette sang it so beautiful and it was really a premiere of this song! I´ve only heard it one time as Anette sang this song with an orchestra in Stockholm at "Suomi Safari", but of course it´s more beautiful and emotional when she sings it with Nightwish! :) The best thing was that in the end of Meadows of Heaven, it began to rain in the arena :) This was maybe the most beautiful effect in the whole concert!
Here are some photos which I have taken while it.
Of course, they´ve also played "Ghost Love Score" and these 10 minutes passed by so fast! :( And in the end there came confetti from above. :) I remembered the scene in Ghost Love Score from the End of an Era DVD and it was a very good feeling to be in the middle of this arena, watching Nightwish, being full of confetti and singing along :)
When it came to the last song, you could have seen all the tears and sad faces on the stage and in the faces of the audience.
Anette said in the end: "We wish you a good night, see you in 2011 again and we´ll give you a little angel!" :)
As an outro they used "The Heart asks Pleasure First" which they have recorded together with the Dark Passion Play album. The music is from Michael Nyman ("The Piano") and the lyrics from Tuomas of course. :)
Unfortunately Michael Nyman didn´t give Nightwish the permission to release this song...after the Hartwall Areena gig, I´ve written an e-mail to his manager and then I´ve gotten the answer that Michael Nyman thought again about it and now he gave Nightwish the permission to release it. But as I´ve written in the last blog, Tuomas doesn´t want to make extra money with it, so they´ll maybe release it with the next album. :) Hopefully...
Unfortunately I had to fly back to Germany on Sunday. :( That time I had to change the flight in Munich and I had to wait 4 hours for my flight! And this can be so bad if you are so tired as I was...
I arrived in Germany at maybe 1 o´clock in the midday. I departed in Helsinki in the morning and here is a photo which I have taken in the airplane.
So I hope you enjoyed this very long blog and you´ve gotten the chance to imagine how beautiful this concert was! And I´m sure no one who have been there will ever forget this day/evening/night! :)
If you want to watch some more videos of the concert or want to have some good quality audios of the concert, you can check this out:
Videos:
Ghost Love Score:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVzeimDvWk4
Meadows of Heaven:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRCJ-WVJGWE&feature=related
Ever dream::
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxAmK-foqbw&feature=related
While your lips are still red:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEcmyFutNKk
Audios:
On this channel you can find lots of good audios of the show:
http://www.youtube.com/user/DDRK91#p/u/2/PEof5IcEYFQ
