Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Nina Grad
Venue: Kino Šiška, Ljubljana
Concert date: January 21, 2012
Attendance: 600
Ticket price: €25.00
The great Finnish singer Tarja Turunen, best known to most as the original voice of Finnish symphonic power metallers Nightwish, is diligently building a solo career. In the middle of summer 2010 she released a new studio album called “What Lies Beneath”, her third overall, promoted by three singles: Falling Awake, I Feel Immortal and Until My Last Breath.
With this visit, Tarja has made it to our neck of the woods for the third time. She first played in Slovenia on September 18, 2005, with Nightwish at Križanke, and the second time on January 14, 2009, also at Križanke, but already as a solo artist.
Ever since Tarja started roaming the planet as a solo artist, Nightwish fans have been forced to go to her shows as well as to Nightwish ones. Plain and simple. Even if Tarja doesn’t play at least one Nightwish cover at her gigs, her voice, that one-of-a-kind mezzo-soprano, angelically caressing, is the allure that stirs a core of nostalgia in Nightwish lovers, since Anette Olsson with her “dolly” approach doesn’t come up to Tarja’s ankles in charisma. Not in stature, let alone in voice. That fact matters a great deal to Tarja, even though Nightwish are the past for her, but it’s a fact that helps her survive in the cruel world of show business.
The support acts, though, were barely known this time! Sylpheed are a sextet, a kind of modern-day mix of gothic, death and power elements: two guitarists, a drummer, a bassist, a violinist and a tall, slender singer who handles both the growling and the clean melodic singing. Sadly, the overall sound was horribly crunchy and muffled, with the bass in particular punching through the mix in a terrible way, and that got in the way of properly enjoying the set. The band is young and needs gigs. They still haven’t released a studio debut and have only a few recorded demos in their pocket. Maybe next time we’ll get a more authentic experience from them. Even though the impression they left was pale, they’re clearly no slouches. In 2010 they played Sweden Rock Festival, the first Italian band to do so.
The next ones left a bit more energy in the room! Scala Mercalli. Also from Italy. Generic power metal with a hyperactive pint-sized vocalist “on helium”, who barked at the hall from one end to the other with his frenzied, tearing-around stage presence. The sound problems stayed the same, though. There was very little clarity, so you could barely tell what the band was actually doing on stage. The sound was again totally muffled. Still, solid musicians. The two guitarists especially proved it with some daredevil acrobatics up and down the fretboard. Music strictly for those of you who devour every power metal band going and aren’t thrown off the rails by meowing vocals.
It’s 10 p.m. A translucent veil of cute girlishness blocks the view of the stage. Darkness wraps the hall as the members of Tarja Turunen’s backing band file onto the stage one after another through a taped intro. Let’s count them off right away. First name is without a doubt one of the best metal drummers in the world, the American Mike Terrana (Axel Rudi Pell, ex-Rage, also worked with Y.J. Malmsteen, Masterplan, Gamma Ray, Steve Lukather,…), followed by former Apocaliptycin cellist Max Lilja (a big buddy of Doug Wimbish from Living Colour, who also used to play for Tarja), the Germans Alex Scholpp (SInner) on guitar and Christian Kretschmar on keyboards, and the American bassist Kevin Chown, who played on Mike Terrana’s solo album “Man In Machine” (1998). So, all aces. The intro almost flipped over when it ended in the hall. What’s more, salvos of totally unbridled screams of euphoria erupt, as if The Beatles themselves were walking onto the stage. And of course Tarja is with us. Looking like she’d escaped from a carnival ball. Wearing a mask.
Contrary to expectations, the opening Anteroom Of Death didn’t flow into Until My Last Breath, the way it does on the new album, but into Lost Northern Star from the previous album “My Winter Storm” (2007). The opening stretch was pure “fusion” of opera and metal. The first five numbers, peaking with the “folk-turned” hit I Walk Alone, kept raising the temperature in the hall. The sound wasn’t exactly ideal at the start, and the guitars in particular still weren’t clearly audible, but later it was fixed to a satisfactory level.
Tarja enchanted the crowd instantly from the very start. Her gestures of addressing the audience, at key moments even in Slovenian, quickly got the crowd literally eating out of her hand for the entire show. Of course, her energetic, masterfully crafted vocal stage presence counts too, with a unique interpretation that gives you goosebumps as she conquers untamed heights. Tarja has of course kept that “metal-rock” stamp in her performance that also graced her shows with Nightwish. She still loves to raise her hand high in the air and flash the “malocchio” (“evil eye”) in the style of Ronnie James Dio, and her flirting with the audience is typical, grabbing her skirt and flapping it to the rhythm, etc…
One of the highlights is of course Mike Terrana’s solo spot. Let the party begin! “The Troll”, as he’s nicknamed, a man who knows no rest and is constantly overloaded with work on various music projects, isn’t placed on the right side, in front of the audience and right at the edge of the stage, for nothing. Mohawk hairdo, bestial pounding, sweat spraying in all directions around Mike! A distinctive drum setup, with cymbals raised high and even some of the tom toms hoisted in unusual ways. Mike literally climbs all over them. Drum solos are usually slotted in the middle so the band can rest, often as a waste of time with no real substance. But not in the case of Mike Terrana’s drumming. Even if you’re not a Tarja Turunen fan, it’s worth coming to her show just for this drum solo. You simply go speechless, staring! Perfection to the nth degree. Extreme explosiveness and ultrasonic speed. Cannon-like accuracy that hits every target, no matter how well hidden or hard to reach.
Next comes an instrumental warm-up by the whole band in Little Lies, which Tarja joins on stage again in the second half. After the brand-new song Underneath, which we can expect on Tarja’s new studio album, announced for 2013, comes the cover The Phantom Of The Opera (orig. Andrew Lloyd Webber), which Kratschmer opens with Bach’s “Tokata in Fuga v D molu”. As the song unfolds, a familiar figure bounds onto the stage. Who the heck could that be?! None other than Requiem vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and highly talented musician Sergej Škofljanec. Head, beard and all. In rocker gear, with a Requiem shirt. For a moment, looking at Tarja dressed up in her Sunday best, you might have dared to think: “Hey Sergej! Haven’t you seen how Andrea Bocelli dresses for the stage?”, but never mind. It’s best to be honest with your rocker heart! Sergej shared the vocal lines with Tarja, and of course the “crescendo” came with the chorus, when the two vocalists joined in a duet blend. Škofljanec, who before the show was visibly “wound up” in anticipation, running around the Kino Šiška premises, played his part brilliantly, and even Tarja herself didn’t hide her fascination with the great interpretation by “Sergio”. Almost a dream combination. It might not be a bad idea to consider recording something together as a vocal duet in the future.
An acoustic set follows, conjuring up a completely different atmosphere in a dreamy Kino Šiška, and Tarja’s voice sparkles again in exceptional singing form. The closing part of the regular set unfolds in a similar manner to the opening. Symphonic power metal. Rock and operetta! You have to bring the thing to a climax. An hour and twenty minutes tick by before the band says goodbye to the audience.
The encore surprises with a medley of covers, opened by a rework of the hit Where Were You Last Night by Swedish pop singer Ankie Bagger, with snippets of two more unforgettable hits jumping in, namely Heaven Is A Place On Earth (orig. Belinda Carlisle) and Living On A Prayer (orig. Bon Jovi). The real peak follows when someone from the audience hands Tarja a Slovenian flag and she wraps herself in it. Wrapped like that, Tarja stormily and with tremendous energy dives into the sea of her emotions and sensitivity one last time, as the closing Die Alive and Until My Last Breath merge into one.
An hour and forty minutes of fascination, which instantly answers with a yes the question of whether Tarja’s solo path was the right decision. A mini symphony orchestra in a metal disguise, fueled by excellent stage interpretation that knows no stage unknowns, no pitfalls. Most of all the magic created belongs of course to Tarja, who bewitched the hall and led it into the singer’s one-of-a-kind musical world. After this concert it’s clear once again that Nightwish lost more than Tarja did after they split up. They still remain bigger, precisely thanks to the era of classic releases with Tarja on vocals, since their fans are always feverishly waiting for live performances of those. Tarja, on the other hand, proves with her splendor that she left Nightwish far behind long ago. On her solo path she’s maturing and growing and works more confidently than ever.
photos: Nina Grad
Setlist
1.Anteroom of Death 2.Lost Northern Star 3.Naiad 4.I Walk Alone 5.Dark Star 6.Drum Solo (Mike Terrana) 7.Little Lies (band) 8.Little Lies 9.Underneath 10. The Phantom Of The Opera (orig. Andrew Lloyd Webber) 11.Rivers of Lust / Minor Heaven / Montañas de Silencio / Sing for Me 12.I Feel Immortal 13.Never Enough 14.In for a Kill —encore— 15.Where Were You Last Night (orig. Ankie Bagger, plus Heaven is A Place On Earth (Belinda Carlisle), Living On A Prayer (orig. Bon Jovi)) 16.Die Alive 17.Until My Last Breath
Photo Gallery
