Nightwish - Once World Tour 2005,
Glasgow Carling Academy, Scotland, 16/2/05,
With Tristania.

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Opera-metal titans Nightwish stormed the UK on tour this month, promoting their chart-bothering 2004 album 'Once'. Not the charts in the UK sadly, but that doesn't seem to matter: tonight's venue is packed with fans anxious to see the Scandanavian wonders.

Second only to the Glasgow SECC (and perhaps Hampden Stadium), the Carling Academy is probably the best venue for bands, and it suits Nightwish to a T. First, Nightwish-esque metallers Tristania warm up the audience as best they can, but there is only one band everyone is here to see tonight. Tristania play their 'hits' from their latest album 'Ashes', then retreat to the wings. "Nightwish, Nightwish, Nightwish!".

After the usual waiting between support acts and headlining bands, the lights go dim and smoke erupts from the stage. Frontwoman Tarja Turunen's voice is heard, and Marco Hietala (bass/vocals), Tuomas Holopainen (keyboards), Emmpu Vuorinen (guitar) and Jukka Nevalainen (drums) appear from the mist and begin opening song 'Dark Chest Of Wonders', greeted with tremendous applause. Moments later, Tarja herself appears from the side of the stage in a swaying red duster and begins to sing. She has an amazing singing voice which is combined perfectly with both classical and heavy metal music, and the sound from the band is phenomenal, every note is perfect.

Nightwish continue through a set consisting of new and old songs, including 'Planet Hell', 'The Siren', 'Phantom Of The Opera', 'Bless The Child', and the definite highlight, 'Nemo'. Between songs, the band talk to the audience in a friendly manner, with Marco making many a joke and drinking quite a lot of vodka.

The band then say goodbye and that they hope to see us again soon. Then after blasting through 'Nemo', they retreat off-stage. After a few minutes chant of "Nightwish! Nightwish!", Marco re-appears with the rest of the band and announces he's changed his mind. And so they encore with a final three songs: 'Sleeping Sun', 'Ghost Love Score' and the final song of the night, 'Wish I Had An Angel', which got everybody singing, clapping and pogoing, regardless of whether they knew the words to the song, or what it even was.

And so, the band take a theatrical bow, and walk off-stage, Tarja waving all the way. Nightwish have music that the UK needs to hear, and since they are as big in Scandanavia and Germany as The Darkness are in Britain, there is a good chance we'll be seeing a lot more of them after this tour. And tonight's performance proves that can only be a good thing.