NIGHTWISH + DIVINITY INTERRUPTED

Fecha: 7 de septiembre de 2003

Hace escasamente unas semanas, los fineses NIGHTWISH efectuaron su primerísima aparición en New York, en el famoso club L’amours de Brooklyn. El club ha sido uno de los mas importantes del mundo del Heavy Metal desde hace mas de dos decadas.

Solo hace poco mas de un año que soy fan de NIGHTWISH, y tristemente no demasiados de mis amigos y fans de la música han escuchado jamás ha esta gran banda de power-metal. Me parece divertido, ya que me gusta considerarme un poco mas allá del resto en cuanto al metal mas o menos progresivo. De todas maneras, ésta se la debo a alguien. Gracias E.B!!! Asistí al show con un reducido numero de fans metálicos y nos esperabamos cualquier cosa del club menos que estuviera vacío.

Así que, en una noche habitualmente tranquila, un Domingo, NIGHTWISH se marcaron una visita a mi ciudad. Teníamos algunos tickets de mas, ya que algunos amigos decidieron no ir a última hora, y nos fuimos hacia el lugar con la idea de que nos ibamos a comer esos tickets y su debido precio. Cuando llegamos al club, vimos que no iba a ser el caso. La gente estaba buscando tickets como loca fuera del recinto.

Mis amigos vendieron sus tickets en poco más de 20 segundos. Cuando entramos al recinto pudimos ver rapidamente como no te podías mover mas que 50 centímetros hacia cualquier dirección. Este iba a ser claramente un show para recordar. Nos perdimos a los teloneros, y solo vimos unos cuantos minutos de una banda llamada DIVINITY INTERRUPTED. La banda sonaba compacta, pero tuvieron montones de problemas con el sonido. A la gente parecieron gustarles. De todas formas, mi objetivo era encontrar un buen sitio para ver a NIGHTWISH tal como saltaran al escenario.

El club se oscureció, y NIGHTWISH salieron a por todas, con el atronador sonido de sus temas solo unos decibelios por encima del clamor de los fans. Cuando el primer tema finalizó, un rugido del publico impresionó a los miembros de la banda. Estaba claro, por sus caras, que estaban sorprendidos por la respuesta tan positiva que estaban teniendo en un nuevo territorio. Lo mostraron en sus comentarios (basicamente siempre hablaba el bajista Marco).

A menudo expresaron su aprecio por los fans mientras tocaban temas como “Kinslayer”, “Beauty Of The Beast”, “Elvenpath”, “Wishmaster”, “She Is My Sin” y un par de temas de su nuevo disco, recién editado en Estados Unidos, “Century Child”. El único tema del cual pude reconocer el título fue “Dead To The World”. Tocaron un par de temas mas del nuevo, pero no conozco los títulos. Creo que solo me dejo uno o dos temas en el tintero para ser honesto.

Uno de los puntos álgidos de la noche fue cuando Marco anunció que Tarja necesitaba un breve descanso y que tocarían algo de OZZY OSBOURNE para nosotros, ya que sabían que esas cosas nos gustaban por aquí. En ese momento, Jens Johanssen (ex –teclista de YNGWIE MALMSTEEN) se unió al grupo en el escenario e interpretaron una increíble versión de “Crazy Train”.

Tarja es enormemente bella en persona y salió a escena vestida con un traje blanco y negro. Me supo mal no poder acercarme mas al escenario o coger fotos del evento ya que no habia posibilidad de moverse en el club esa tarde. Todo el mundo parecía estar buscando una mejor vista. Al final de la noche, Tarja anunció que debían finalizar el concierto pero que seguro que lo iban a recordar como un lugar al que debían volver. Justo entonces, la banda tocó “Over The Hills And Far Away” y con ella acabaron el concierto.

En resumen, una satisfactoria noche de gran música. Mi unica queja es la falta de merchandise de NIGHTWISH. Me habría gustado comprar una de sus camisetas o alguno de los Cd’s. No se exactamente la razón. Me imagino que no trajeron nada a USA.

Ken Pierce ([email protected])

Trad. y fotos: Sergi Ramos

A few short weeks ago Finland’s own Nightwish made their very first New York appearance at the famous L’Amour’s in Brooklyn. This club has been a staple of existence in the Metal World for more than two decades.

I have only been a Nightwish fan for a little over a year, and sadly not many of my inner circle of music fans has ever even heard of this fine power-metal group. This is funny to me as I like to consider myself often "ahead of the game" when it comes to progressive style metal music. Alas, this is one that I owe to someone else. Thanks E.B.!!! This left me attending the show with a small crew of metal supporters and having us pretty much expect the club to be all but empty.

So on a normally quiet night, a Sunday, Nightwish payed my town a visit. We had extra tickets, as some friends had bailed at a late time and we walked towards the place with the thoughts that we would be eating the cost of our these same tickets. As we approached the club this was clearly not to be the case. There were people milling about outside all looking for tickets.

My Friends sold their unfortunate extras in 20 seconds. When we made our way inside you could see instantly that one could not move more than a couple of feet in any direction. This was clearly going to be a show to remember. We had missed The opening bands on the bill and only saw a few minutes of a group called Divinity Interrupted. Their sound was tight but the set seemed plagued by PA Issues. The crowd did seem to enjoy them. My focus was getting a good place to stand and observe Nightwish when they hit the stage.

The club darkened and Nightwish was up and running, the thunderous sound of their music was only a few decibels louder than the throng of ardent supporters. When the first tune had ended a roar from the crowd clearly surprised the members of Nightwish. It was apparent by their faces they were as surprised by this most positive response from this new location to them. It showed both in their comments (mostly bassist Marco spoke). They frequently expressed their appreciation to the fans as they played such greats as "Kinslayer", "Beauty And The Beast", "Elvenpath", "Wishmaster", "She Is My Sin", and a couple of songs from their newest release in the States "Century Child". The only track who’s name I could make out from this was "Dead To The World". There were a couple of other tunes but I was not aware of those titles either, I do think I am only missing one or two to be quite honest.

One of the nights highlights was when Marco announced that Tarja was needing to take a brief rest and that they would be playing some Ozzy Osbourne for us since we liked that stuff here. At that point Anders Johanssen (formerly the keyboardist of Yngwie Malmsteen) joined the group on the stage and they did a rip-roaring rendition of "Crazy Train".

Tarja is stunningly beautiful in person and was dressed in some sort of White and black outfit, I was sad that I was not able to get closer or take any pictures as there was no moving about in the club that evening. Everyone seemed to be fussing for best position of view. At the end of the evening, she announced that they must go but would surely remember that this is a place they have to return to once again. At that point the band started "Over The Hills And Far AWay" and they were done.

All in all a satisfying evening of great music. My only complaint was the lack of Nightwish merchandise. I would have liked to purchase a shirt or one of the CD’s. I have been unable to find out why that was the case. My simple guess is that the band did not bring anything with them.

Ken Pierce ([email protected])

Pics: Sergi Ramos