A folkie among the metalheads
May. 15th, 2008 09:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lenora_rose(I so need an MP3 player with more than 512 mb of space... alas, it's somewhere behind needing a pottery wheel, a new set of bookshelves, and a filing cabinet. And possibly even behind a new pair of jeans, though the lack of rush there has been mainly that I just don't wear them much. It would be behind a bicycle, except I think the in-laws have that one covered.)
The Nightwish concert went pretty well. I did feel a bit alien to the audience style, which definitely has different protocols from even the rock concerts I've been at, and certainly from the folk ones, even the heavy insane folk ones like Horace X. I think the last place I saw that many hands upraised towards the stage with such fervour was in a Mennonite church service. ;P
Of course, the gesture was a little different, and they never head-bang in a Mennonite church.
(We were kind of wanting to see what might happen if Brannie tried to head-bang, but I think she would have taken out three or four people. In front and in back. And given herself whiplash form the momentum.)
So I got to meet up with the classmate, C, I was hoping to see there., along with a group of her friends who seemed pretty nice. And Brannie and Dan tried to goth up a bit; while she looked good, I think he made a better goth.
We stuck to the standing section, for those of us inclined to rock out and/or dance. This has an added disadvantage in a converted movie theatre, as the floor was aslant, so any heels were automatically a couple of inches steeper than anticipated.
The opening act, Sonic Syndicate, might have been decent; it was hard to tell. Their sound "guy" was definitely crap. The Garrick does not have the best acoustics ever, but it's better than THAT. The guitars were a wall of noise, not even as clear as thrash guitars ought to be. It didn't help that many of their lyrics were not in English but in Holler, but even when the one singer was singing (And he seemed to have a pretty good voice) it was fuzzy as all hell. It certainly added to the impression that their songs weren't nearly as distinct one from the next as they should be. The crowd responded, but not ethusiastically, and there was room to dance a bit.
Nightwish's sound "guy" was better. It was obvious even during the sound set up, as they went through the drum kit (Which Jeff described as only the third most ostentatious he's seen; it's certainly well up there for me.) You could hear each drum get crisper as it was tapped. And as they did the sound check, people kept drifting in and drifting in to pack it much tighter. C. and the friends she'd brought still had room to let down their hair and headbang, and I managed some dance steps without elbowing people too often (Sorry Jeff).
They still made a mistake in the volume of the mix; Tuomas' keyboards were too far back, and so were Anette's vocals (Marco came through with a lot more force). Not inaudible by any means, but not given their full place in the band. So it could have been better that way.
Still, the band knew what they were doing, music wise, and crowd-wise. They didn't overact too much, considering the sheer melodrama of the music; a couple of times someone on stage was smiling during one of the most sad or strange bits, but far less than the audience was doing. Anette was occasionally tweaking melodies to better fit her own vocal range and comfort zone - sicne, as Jeff remarked, she did it to songs she sings on the album, and did hit some of the highs, she wasn't doing to because she hasn't the range to handle it; I got the impression though that she's still trying out what the changes do to the songs, if that makes sense.
At the start, I found myself thinking that while Anette was not a blonde, as Jeff said her voice made him think she should be, she still wasn't as goth as the others. She grinned and bounced and vamped around the stage rather more like an adorable bouncy thing, skull shirt or not. Then i noticed that the guitarist, Emppu, who *is* blond, was at least as non-goth; inclined to grin and share jokes. I got the impression he might be the most fun to talk to. Even the uber-goth Tuomas turned out to have an adorable grin where appropriate (In this case, adorable is Brannie's word, not mine).
The music was good, though I do have a hard time understanding why people in live concerts shout and roar and cheer in the middle of songs, whenever the tempo speeds up, whenever it slows down, whenever they feel like it. It does seem kind of a bad idea to drown out the music that's putting you into your mood. Sheer at the start or end, yes, sing along, hell YES!, pump your fists and head-bang, well, sure. (Suddenly realise you can do the Hay Bransle steps to Seven Days to the Wolves... I'm sure I've done worse.) But I kind of thought they'd want to hear the music.
The sheer roar they managed to try and call the band back for the encore started to overwhelm even me, though; it was considerably harder to bear than the volume of the concert itself, for whatever reason. Ouch.
There's a lot to be said of the mood of a live show, too, even when the studio versions of the music are officially crisper and lack a roaring audience. And they did pull off the Poet and the Pendulum, all 13-some minutes and several moods, very well. Ditto Sahara; I think Jeff might be right that that was one of the ones that really kicked ass live. The Siren, while distinctly different with the different vocal style, also really got me.
The set was, perhaps not oddly, virtually all from either Dark Passion Play (the new album and the one Anette sings on from the start) and Once (Generally considered their Best) They did only three songs from elsewhere; one of those something they did for a movie soundtrack or the like, and not on any of their albums. I can't complain too hard as it did mean they did mainly work I know, but it seemed an odd choice.
The set list, according to Jeff (And based on the set-lists they tossed at us, which were only mostly accurate) was:
Bye Bye Beautiful (Dark Passion Play)
Dark Chest of Wonders (Once)
Whoever Brings the Night (DPP)
The Siren (Once)
Amaranth (DPP)
The Islander (DPP)
The Poet and the Pendulum (DPP)
Come Cover Me (Wishmaster)
While Your Lips are Still Red (Unknown - movie soundtrack?)
Sahara (DPP)
Nemo (Once)
======
Seven Days to the Wolves (DPP)
Dead to the World (Century Child)
Wish I Had An Angel (Once)
Songs I'd have liked them to try:
Ghost Love Score (I guess two epic lengths would have been a bit much)
Sleeping Sun
The Nightwish concert went pretty well. I did feel a bit alien to the audience style, which definitely has different protocols from even the rock concerts I've been at, and certainly from the folk ones, even the heavy insane folk ones like Horace X. I think the last place I saw that many hands upraised towards the stage with such fervour was in a Mennonite church service. ;P
Of course, the gesture was a little different, and they never head-bang in a Mennonite church.
(We were kind of wanting to see what might happen if Brannie tried to head-bang, but I think she would have taken out three or four people. In front and in back. And given herself whiplash form the momentum.)
So I got to meet up with the classmate, C, I was hoping to see there., along with a group of her friends who seemed pretty nice. And Brannie and Dan tried to goth up a bit; while she looked good, I think he made a better goth.
We stuck to the standing section, for those of us inclined to rock out and/or dance. This has an added disadvantage in a converted movie theatre, as the floor was aslant, so any heels were automatically a couple of inches steeper than anticipated.
The opening act, Sonic Syndicate, might have been decent; it was hard to tell. Their sound "guy" was definitely crap. The Garrick does not have the best acoustics ever, but it's better than THAT. The guitars were a wall of noise, not even as clear as thrash guitars ought to be. It didn't help that many of their lyrics were not in English but in Holler, but even when the one singer was singing (And he seemed to have a pretty good voice) it was fuzzy as all hell. It certainly added to the impression that their songs weren't nearly as distinct one from the next as they should be. The crowd responded, but not ethusiastically, and there was room to dance a bit.
Nightwish's sound "guy" was better. It was obvious even during the sound set up, as they went through the drum kit (Which Jeff described as only the third most ostentatious he's seen; it's certainly well up there for me.) You could hear each drum get crisper as it was tapped. And as they did the sound check, people kept drifting in and drifting in to pack it much tighter. C. and the friends she'd brought still had room to let down their hair and headbang, and I managed some dance steps without elbowing people too often (Sorry Jeff).
They still made a mistake in the volume of the mix; Tuomas' keyboards were too far back, and so were Anette's vocals (Marco came through with a lot more force). Not inaudible by any means, but not given their full place in the band. So it could have been better that way.
Still, the band knew what they were doing, music wise, and crowd-wise. They didn't overact too much, considering the sheer melodrama of the music; a couple of times someone on stage was smiling during one of the most sad or strange bits, but far less than the audience was doing. Anette was occasionally tweaking melodies to better fit her own vocal range and comfort zone - sicne, as Jeff remarked, she did it to songs she sings on the album, and did hit some of the highs, she wasn't doing to because she hasn't the range to handle it; I got the impression though that she's still trying out what the changes do to the songs, if that makes sense.
At the start, I found myself thinking that while Anette was not a blonde, as Jeff said her voice made him think she should be, she still wasn't as goth as the others. She grinned and bounced and vamped around the stage rather more like an adorable bouncy thing, skull shirt or not. Then i noticed that the guitarist, Emppu, who *is* blond, was at least as non-goth; inclined to grin and share jokes. I got the impression he might be the most fun to talk to. Even the uber-goth Tuomas turned out to have an adorable grin where appropriate (In this case, adorable is Brannie's word, not mine).
The music was good, though I do have a hard time understanding why people in live concerts shout and roar and cheer in the middle of songs, whenever the tempo speeds up, whenever it slows down, whenever they feel like it. It does seem kind of a bad idea to drown out the music that's putting you into your mood. Sheer at the start or end, yes, sing along, hell YES!, pump your fists and head-bang, well, sure. (Suddenly realise you can do the Hay Bransle steps to Seven Days to the Wolves... I'm sure I've done worse.) But I kind of thought they'd want to hear the music.
The sheer roar they managed to try and call the band back for the encore started to overwhelm even me, though; it was considerably harder to bear than the volume of the concert itself, for whatever reason. Ouch.
There's a lot to be said of the mood of a live show, too, even when the studio versions of the music are officially crisper and lack a roaring audience. And they did pull off the Poet and the Pendulum, all 13-some minutes and several moods, very well. Ditto Sahara; I think Jeff might be right that that was one of the ones that really kicked ass live. The Siren, while distinctly different with the different vocal style, also really got me.
The set was, perhaps not oddly, virtually all from either Dark Passion Play (the new album and the one Anette sings on from the start) and Once (Generally considered their Best) They did only three songs from elsewhere; one of those something they did for a movie soundtrack or the like, and not on any of their albums. I can't complain too hard as it did mean they did mainly work I know, but it seemed an odd choice.
The set list, according to Jeff (And based on the set-lists they tossed at us, which were only mostly accurate) was:
Bye Bye Beautiful (Dark Passion Play)
Dark Chest of Wonders (Once)
Whoever Brings the Night (DPP)
The Siren (Once)
Amaranth (DPP)
The Islander (DPP)
The Poet and the Pendulum (DPP)
Come Cover Me (Wishmaster)
While Your Lips are Still Red (Unknown - movie soundtrack?)
Sahara (DPP)
Nemo (Once)
======
Seven Days to the Wolves (DPP)
Dead to the World (Century Child)
Wish I Had An Angel (Once)
Songs I'd have liked them to try:
Ghost Love Score (I guess two epic lengths would have been a bit much)
Sleeping Sun
