It's been three years since Nightwish last visited Australia when they were promoting their album "Once". Since that time they have released another album, 2007's "Dark Passion Play", and have had a change of lead singer.
I was curious to see how the band would sound live with newcomer Anette Olson on vocals after the gorgeous Tarja Turunen left the group.
With a fantastic backdrop of the Nightwish "Dark Passion Play" album cover which glowed under the UV lights, the band opened their set with part of the first track from their album "The Poet And The Pendulum" which immediately had the packed room of Brisbane's The Tivoli Theatre joining in on the chorus, punching their fists into the air to the chorus.
Following this were the popular "Bye Bye Beautiful" (rumoured to be about Tarja) and "Amaranth" which also had the entire room singing along to the choruses.
It was obvious that this night was going to be about their latest CD with a couple of previous favourites thrown into the two hour performance.
As with their last show, the entire band still sounds and looks amazing.
Tuomas Holopainen, founder of Nightwish, looked simply sexy with long brown wavy hair, dark goatee, dark eyes and a huge loop earring, reminiscent of a mysterious pirate, thrashing away at keyboards all evening, with the occassional sneaked swig out of a bottle of red wine.
Marco Hietala on bass still sported his dwarven-like plaited goatee and theatrically played around with blonde lead guitarist Emppu Vuorinen as they belted out heavy rocking tracks from the albums "Dark Passion Play", "Once" and "Wishmaster".
Jukka Nevalainen on drums wasn't going to be left out and sat smiling as he pounded out the heavy beats, occassionally smiling and pointing to members of the audience with his drum sticks.
Finally, Anette Olson, standing centre stage for the majority of the performance proved that the photographs with their CD did not do her any justice. This young lady is as cute as a button in a dark, gothy kind of way, remeninscent of Amy Lee (Evanescence). Dressed in a short black dress with wide black belt, and her hair in two plaited piggy-tails, she constantly wore a smile for the Nightwish fans and won us all over very quickly.
Involving some audience participation by a invoking the famous "Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! OI! OI! OI!" and shaking hands with the first few rows of the mosh pit, Anette fitted the bill.
Although fans loved Tarja, her style was very different to Anette's, and having this slight change - rather than trying to copy Tarja to the letter - was probably the thing that made it work for her. Anette has her own personality and her own singing voice. Although never quite reaching the notes that Tarja could, Anette certainly did not disappoint with her performance in any way.
The band, as a whole, are just magic to hear and see. This was their last Australian show for this tour, and they were obviously making the most of it tonight and having a great time.
Tuomas' passion upon the keyboards is just fabulous to watch as he controls not one but two sets of synths.
The set ended with the fabulous song "Nemo" again inspiring the audience to join in on the chorus and then scream with approval and applause at the conclusion of the song. Emppu and Marco threw their guitar picks into the crowd and as I watched Emppu's sail through the air, the audience members obviously were not, as it landed between punters still screaming and clapping.
After a few minutes, the band reemerged onto the Tivoli's stage and rounded up the evening with three more songs as the encore: "Seven Days To The Wolves", "Wishmaster" and ending on the hit "Wish I Had An Angel" which hand the ecstatic throng screaming once again with appreciation.
Nightwish then threw picks and drumsticks into the audience before joining hands on stage and bowing before departing.
AS the crowd began to disburse, I glanced down to the floor a few feet away and sighted Emppu's pick which had landed unnoticed upon the ground. It did not stay there very long as I fought my way through the slow moving crowd and snatched it from the floor in delight.
A little bonus from the night to preserve with my "Dark Passion Play" CD as a great reminder of a wonderful evening.
http://www.myspace.com/nightwish