Nightwish @ Barclays Arena Hamburg

2022-12-152022-12-19 Carina Ullmann

12.12.2022, Barclays Arena Hamburg (Germany)

Once in a while there´s been a bitter cold winter day – on which fans in Hamburg waited for doors open with hot tea, blankets and sleeping backs in front of the Barclays Arena – all in for getting to the front row! Yet every behind those mentioned and famous first rows was loosely crowded, so even those coming in late had quite good chances to still get a good spot. The standing area was maybe half full, but luckily the lower seated areas were nicely filled – and the upper seated area wasn´´t even made available. This has left me speechless as I had expected it to be all full and crwoded with a band like Nightwish who brought along two great bands – Turmion Kätilöt and Beast in Black – as support.

It´s been clearly visible on the people´s faces how much they had been looking forward to this show – and therefore the mood of the crowd was quite good right from the start, despite not everyone being capable of speaking Finnish and thus the sing-along with Turmion Kätilöt has proven to be a rather tough thing. The band themselves had a lot of energy and good-time-feeling to present to the audience, and this mixed with a really good musical mix lightened up the mood of the audience quite well. The performance has been entertaining, the crowd started moving a bit and more than the following is not left to be said: I´d be happy to see them again, with a longer set – it´s been fun times!

It continued with quite some contrast in regards of the music – Beast in Black were next on stage. The band was flying around on stage with a laugh and a lot of visible fun, and I think beating them in regards of fun of playing and the will to move is near impossible. That´s also been what led to the fact that the audience became more and more enthusiastic with time, and that despite the rather cold temperature in the Barclays Arena. The more you move, the warmer it gets!Singer Anton Kabanen, who might be known to some of you from the band Battle Beast, has a voice that can only cause fascination: the range he covers is incredible. At times you wonder where the band has been hiding the female guest singer that accompanies him until you figure out: it´s just him. Hats off for such a performance!

The last change over of the night felt forever for the fans, the excitement was easily felt within the crowd, more and more people started checking their watched frequently for the time that didn´t want to pass until Nightwish finally entered the stage. Was singer Floor Jansen gonna be all fit and giving full power or taking slow after her breast cancer surgery? Clear answer: she chose full power and seemed to be fit and cheerful, revealed her charming knowledge of German language and won the audience hearts with this and her amazing vocal performance.

With the band you saw that theywere just doing what they wanted to be doing right in that moment – and that was rocking the Hamburg audience and presenting them a nicely moxed setlist, where pretty much everyone was able to pick their favourite. The highlight of the evening was no well-known song though, instead it was the live premiere of „Our Decades In The Sun“ – acoustic, accompanied by thoughtful silence in the audience and hundreds of phone lights. And just as sudden and unexpected as this moment came, it was gone again and you were thrown into one of the most well known classics of the band, „Nemo“. Clearly it´s been the second highlight of the audience, everyone seemed to know the words, and that´s why it´s also on the setlist.

With all the praise and little criticism on thewir well thought through show with pyro and effect screens, there is one big drop of bitterness: Marco Hietala is being missed badly. Songs like „7 Days To The Wolves“ are not just the same anymore without his vocals, on top of the lack of his stage presence on its own. No matter how good the job is that Troy´s doing vocal wise, a voice like the one of Marco is not simple to replace.

Nevertheless it´s been a show that´s totally worth attending and also managed t find a perfect ending with their last song of the evening: „The Greatest Show On Earth“. The outro also did its best to slowly but gently prepare the audience for the end of this evening. And then, bit by bit, the lights went on and the people were returning to reality and flew out into the dark and cold to get home and hopefully remember the evening as a positive event.

Setlist Nightwish: