[SAMPLE GIG REVIEW] Nightwish @ Brixton Academy, London - March 11, 2009

[Corki]

Please find one of my reviews (Nightwish) as an example of what Gig reviews should look like.

 

Who: Nightwish (part of their Dark Passion Play tour)

Where: Brixton Academy, London, UK

When: 11th March 2009

Guest artists: Indica, Pain

 

Set List

 

- Intro (Resurrection from The Passion of the Christ)

- 7 Days to the Wolves

- Dead to the World

- The Siren

- Amaranth

- Romanticide

- Dead Boy's Poem

- The Poet and The Pendulum

- Nemo

- Sahara

- The Islander

- Escapist

- Dark Chest of Wonders

 

ENCORE

 

- Ghost Love Score

- Wish I Had An Angel

 

 

The Review

 

As some of you, I booked tickets for my first ever gig back in January - and it was to see Nightwish at the Brixton Academy. I was pretty excited then, and I was really looking forward to it yesterday! And I wasn't disappointed! What a fantastic night!

 

To be on the safe side, I had made sure I collected my tickets from the box office. What a mistake! Once you collected them, you had to join the massive queue that did a massive loop around 2 sets of buildings in the area! It was huge - the place was sold out. What got me was the mix of ages of those turning up, for example, the guy in front Northie and I (yes, I dragged her along as well - and she enjoyed it, despite the music not being her usual cup of tea) was about 50, at a guess.

 

Doors opened sometime around 7ish, and we got in just before 8ish, and the queue was moving all the time. And the queue was still snacking when we got in. As I said, the place was sold out. The queuing time meant we missed Indica, the first support act. We did get in to see Pain performing. I did enjoy their performace. As they neared the end of their set, they got the crowd's juices flowing my asking if we were ready for Nightwish. Of course we were!

 

And if I thought the queuing was bad, my word, the waiting for the roadies to test everything before Nightwish got on stage was agonising! It went on and on and on...but it was definitely worth it - even the anchor that was on stage! The crowd screamed every time a bit of equipment was revealed - and the biggest scream went to Tuomas' keyboards, which were set in a boat called 'Ocean Soul'. Sadly, I wasn’t able to see this as we were seated in the circle area at the top and had a huge rotating spot light blocking the view

 

Finally, the lights went down! Finally! I know I wasn’t showing visible, but inside I was so excited! Resurrection from The Passion of the Christ was the intro piece, and the crowd went crazy when Jukka came on stage and 7 Days to the Wolves started. All I will say it was awesome and fantastic to see a group I love so much live! Words won’t be able to describe – it was just pure awesomeness!

 

We got a few special treats. Romanticide was played on tour for the first time! And the special effects! The amount of pyrotechnics was incredible – they were used often, but used in appropriate places. And there was snow and confetti. And the encore – what a long encore! Ghost Love Score was 10+ minutes, and Wish I Had An Angel was a great finale! However, for me, the best bit was the acoustic version of The Islander. I really like the song so it was great hearing it live.

 

I know the big Nightwish debate is Tarja (the ex-singer) vs. Anette Olsson, the current singer. I’ve never seen Tarja live (but I would like to), but I thought Anette did a fantastic performance. It was great to see her handle Tarja songs, and do them well. There seemed to be great camaraderie on the stage between them all.  She got the crowd going as well, and she seemed to win them over – she got a standing ovation at the end. Maybe, finally, that debate can be put to bed for once. I am glad they didn’t do Bye Bye Beautiful – I am sure that could have rubbed fans up the wrong way, considering the conspiracy theories behind it.

 

For the ticket price, I thought it was fantastic! Will Michael Jackson do such a good show for 3 times the price? I doubt it. What it has done is wetted my appetite to see more groups live – I am making a list now. Northie, you’ve been warned! :P  And for my next gig, I am definitely being as close to the front as possible to get the best experience possible! If it makes me deaf for days on end, I don’t care!

 

I have downloaded the pictures from my camera – I just need to have a look at them and see which ones I can put up here. I will put some up on Facebook as well. And for those interested, you can find some videos from the gig on Youtube – just type in Nightwish and make sure you have “most recent” as the uploaded status.

 

Overall Verdict

Bloody awesome! I am glad I went – and looking forward to a future gig. The only downside was all the waiting, but I suspect that is the norm for these sorts of things. Therefore, I am giving this gig a 9/10.