Just got back from the Key Club gig. The band is playing their first big gig at the Gibson Amphitheater this Saturday but played this "secret" gig under a fake name. This was my first time seeing them and I came away... disappointed.

The Good:
* The band played beautifully for a group that hasn't been on stage in 2.5 years. Everyone was on.

* Most improved is Jukka. He always played like he'd been attacked by an angry swarm of bees: flailing his arms wildly. He's much more controlled and smoother. Since he had to learn how to use brushes for "Slow, Love, Slow," I guess he spent some time at the woodshed with a teacher.

* A treat: the sixth member Troy Donockley playing uilleann pipes and a flute, plus singing backup. The band sounds great with two male backup singers. He was on stage for about 4-5 songs.

* Anette was dead on and sang beautifully. The band did a semi-acoustic arrangement for "Nemo" and she hit the high notes. In YouTube videos from the last tour, she usually dropped the high notes an octave.

* I was shocked at the crowd. After seeing the crowd in the live DVD, I was expecting an audience full teenage goth girls. Nope. They were much older. I'd put the average age in their 30s.

The Bad:
I'm gonna be shallow here.

* Anette's black dress with white skirt made her look like a waitress. And some woman can rock bare arms at age 40. She isn't one of them.

* Marco looked just plain bad. His hair has gone very gray and his face looked as craggy as Robert Plant. I really hope it was the angle and lighting, because if it wasn't, then his massive boozing is catching up with him.

The Disappointing:
* Look at this set list.

Storytime
Wish I Had an Angel
Amaranth
Scaretale
The Siren
I Want My Tears Back
The Crow, the Owl and the Dove
The Islander
Nemo
Last of the Wilds
Planet Hell
Song Of Myself
Last Ride of the Day

Encore:
The Poet and the Pendulum
Over the Hills and Far Away

Three songs from the Tarja era, all from "Once," and they weren't even the best songs from that album. As someone who never saw them before, I really, really wanted to hear "Wishmaster," "The Kinslayer," "Come Cover Me," or "Bless the Child." Those days are clearly gone. Tuomas has all but buried the Tarja era.

I was really surprised at 3 tracks. It was thought "Scaretale" would be too tough to pull off live but they did, beautifully. "Slow, Love, Slow" was also a question mark, but again, they did it wonderfully. And "Over the Hills..." was supposed to have been retired for good.

The band played incredibly well given how long they've been off the road. Anette was incredible. The woman needs no AutoTune. Just a fashion designer.

But the setlist is a major letdown for me. I have a ticket for the Gibson show on Saturday and doubt I will go now. It's a solid 90 minute drive for me both ways and the weather is going to be bad. I'm not excited for the show now.

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In terms of the setlist, I was hoping for:

Everdream
The Escapist
Rolltide

Overall, I was satisfied with the DDP/Imgainareum stuff.

As far as the outfits are concerned, I hoping they go with more elaborate costumes for the Gibson show, maybe some of the ones in the Storytime vid.

I think the BIGGEST disappointment for me was the lack of a "Rubber Band of Wolves" Tour Shirt.

The merchandise was fucking outrageous. $30 for a tee, $50 for a hoodie.

Again, they all played well and Jukka really impressed me with his improvements. I hope Modern Drummer or Drum! does an interview with him. You'd never know this band was off the road for 2.5 years. But the set list really bums me out.

Having read the band's biographical book, Tarja deserved to be fired and her husband is lucky he didn't get his ass kicked, because any other band would have done it. But man, to bury the songs of her era as well stinks.

$30 for a tee is pretty standard. I paid $35 for a Thin Lizzy tshirt last December. Cheaper to just order it online, but there's something cool about getting it *at* the show...

That's pretty standard for merchandise these days. Shirts run $25-$35 and I don't think I've ever seen a hoodie for under $40.

What's weird is that I can buy CDs really cheap from bands. Usually for around $10 and I can usually get them signed by at least a couple of the band members at smaller venues.

I got Anthrax's "Worship Music" signed by the whole band for $15 a couple of months ago.

You are cutting out the middle man.

I stopped buying band t shirts after they went above 20$.


As for the tour. Hope it stops near me. I'd rather not travel to chicago.

Well, word is they drew 4,000+ to the Gibson show at Universal, which is about 3/4 capacity. Not bad for an unknown band with zero airplay. Here's Storytime. They had a pretty nice stage.

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So, was this just a a straight up concert? I thought they were going to be doing some theatrics with it (a la Queenryche's Mindcrime). No?

Edit: I guess they had to scale it back for the US:

North American Imaginaerum tour dates for 2012

9/12/2012 Center Stage Atlanta, GA
9/13/2012 Center Stage Atlanta, GA
9/15/2012 Beacon Theatre New York, NY
9/16/2012 Electric Factory Philadelphia, PA
9/17/2012 The Palladium Worcester, MA
9/21/2012 Newport Music Hall Columbus, OH
9/23/2012 Royal Oak Music Theatre Royal Oak, MI
9/24/2012 Congress Theatre Chicago, IL
9/25/2012 Pop's Sauget, IL
9/27/2012 The Beaumont Kansas City, MO
9/28/2012 Ogden Theatre Denver, CO
9/29/2012 The Complex Salt Lake City, UT
10/1/2012 Showbox SoDo Seattle, WA
10/2/2012 Crystal Ballroom, The Portland, OR
10/3/2012 The Warfield San Francisco, CA
10/5/2012 The Grove Anaheim, CA
10/6/2012 House Of Blues San Diego, CA
10/7/2012 Marquee Theatre Tempe, AZ
10/9/2012 Diamond Ballroom Oklahoma City, OK
10/10/2012 Emo's Austin, TX
10/11/2012 House of Blues New Orleans, LA
10/13/2012 Revolution Ft. Lauderdale, FL
10/14/2012 House of Blues Lake Buena Vista, FL


I've got my tickets for NYC, Anaheim and Worcester. On the fence about going to San Diego.

WHy in the hell are they doing 2 dates in Atlanta?

They were talking about doing a 3rd.

We have VIP tix for the Columbus, OH date.

Prog Power show.

If this is true, then I'll have to write them off for the most part. Once was the major cd that turned me on to Nightwish. The heaviness of that cd really got to me and has not been matched since. Yeah, there might be a song here or there but that's about it. I noticed that they will be in Philadelphia in September and i was thinking about going. But if the band has truly buried the Tarja era and especially Once then it's about time that I bury them.

Anette is out....

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news.asp...sitemID=180161

Yeah but her replacement... holy crap what a step up. Floor Jansen is an AMAZING singer. She blows even Simone Simons away. This will be VERY interesting.

Here's Floor with After Forever covering old Nightwish. She sounds a lot like Tarja.

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Wow, thanks for posting that. We just saw Nightwish and met them a little over a week ago in Columbus. I don't know anything about Floor Jansen, I'll have to do some searching now.

Her main fame came with the band After Forever. Its leader Mark Jansen split to form Epica. She kept AF going a while, then dissolved it and formed her own band, ReVamp.

She has a monster of a voice. Much closer to Tarja.

The Nightwish servers are down. Can't imagine why.

Anette falls ill and goes into the hospital, the band does a show without her using singers from another band, Anette is out of the band, and they already have a replacement singer... all within a couple of days? Sounds like something has been happening behind the scenes.

She's been sick a couple of times. I wonder if she's pregnant again?

No but a CT scan found a cyst on her liver. That's some serious shit right there.

Best news ever (not that she's sick). Floor is a huge upgrade. I now want to go see them.