Festival report: Sauna, Tuska, and Ilosaarirock
NIGHTWISHING NOTES ON SAUNA, PAIN, AND JOY ISLAND
by Toni-Matti KarjalainenThe Imaginaerum World Tour of Nightwish is getting to the end. The journey that kicked off in January 2012 has not been as long and extensive as the preceding Dark Passion Play Tour in 2007-2009, but anyhow includes over one hundred performances (106 if counted right) and has reached out numerous countries in all continents. In the summer of 2013, the band had scheduled eleven festival shows, four of which played in Finland. Such many appearances in Finnish fests is something that our world class artists do quite rarely. And it is even much less typical is to see a Finnish band appearing as main act on the bill of major festivals. But Nightwish is appealing enough to ensure a good audience. This was what the promoters believed in the Sauna Open Air (Tampere, June 8-9), Tuska Open Air (Helsinki, June 29-30), Ilosaarirock (Joensuu, July 13-14), and Sotkamon Syke (Sotkamo, July 19-20). And they got it right.
I was checking the three first ones; Sauna, Tuska, and Ilosaari. The first one in Tampere followed the brief tour of the band in Japan, which was smaller in scale than the European shows but very successful whatsoever. The three club gigs (Osaka, Nagoya, and Tokyo Ebisu) were concluded with the headliner spot at the Finland Fest at the Studio Coast for the audience of 1’500 enthusiastic eye pairs. I was present at the Osaka and both Tokyo shows, actually being my first time to witness the band in a smaller club setting. And it worked well, I have to say! Along with some co-organisation duties at the Finland Fest seminar (my FF report here) and the lucky coincidence of flying to and back from Japan on the same flight with the band and the crew, I also had a nice chance to have a good chat with many of them. One of the remarkable notes was the particularly good atmosphere that floats around these people wherever they go. One of the obvious reasons for this, and surely not the smallest one, is the great success the band has experienced with the current vocalist Floor Jansen (still officially with a guest status in the band) since the sudden divorce with Anette Olzon in October 2012. Floor seems to fit the band perfectly, onstage and offstage.
At Sauna
The happy mood had seemingly travelled westward with the band; I met with lots of smiling faces as I bumped into the guys and the gal at the lobby of our Tampere hotel before their show at Sauna Open Air.
Sauna, the traditional heavy metal and hard rock orientated, festival took place in a slightly smaller format than before. But it was anyhow nice to see this excellent event back on its feet after the hiatus of 2012. Instead of the traditional surroundings in the Eteläpuisto (South Park), the Ratina Stadium served as the venue for the total of 13’000 visitors during the weekend. Saturday was somewhat busier that Sunday as reportedly 8’000 (not confirmed) music lovers had come to see Nightwish and other bands in pleasant sunshine.
The recent Nightwish set has been rather different from the earlier parts of the Imaginaerum tour that consisted of a higher number of new songs. In these three festival gigs, for instance, there were three to five pieces played from Imaginaerum. The set consisted of a number of earlier songs that not only give some variation to the NW experience but also sound fresh and powerful, thanks to the talent of Floor to deliver a wide arrange of styles and notes from low to high. Ghost Love Score, She is My Sin, Bless the Child, and Ever Dream sound powerful and beautiful. The sets of the summer shows overall were rather identical, the only difference being the number of Imaginaerum songs in the set.
Finnish summer festivals are tricky for bands with lots of visual stuff in their stage set. Already in early June, the sun doesn’t really set properly. In Sauna, despite the last slot of the Saturday, Nightwish also played in full sunlight the whole set. This of course gives a very different atmosphere for the show than in dark surroundings, as the arsenal of pyros and colourful videos cannot reach the full effect. But the sun also brought along an extra cheerful mood that was clearly delivered from the stage to the audience that was seemingly excited all the way from the Start with the Crimson Tide intro tape, followed by the dynamic kick-off by Dark Chest of Wonders, to the ending theme of Imaginaerum instrumental medley. Oh yes, there were quite impressive fireworks after the last song, Last Ride of the Day. As typically in the recent shows, the band did not come back for encore, which was highly expected for in the audience before. The tape just stopped and the end of the day was announced. This choice may be well understood from stylistic point of view, but I have sensed some feelings of disappointment among the crowd in the shows this habit has been used.
Sauna setlist: 1. Dark Chest of Wonders 2. Wish I Had an Angel 3. She Is My Sin 4. Ghost River 5. Storytime 6. I Want My Tears Back 7. Nemo 8. Last of the Wilds 9. Bless the Child 10. Romanticide 11. Amaranth 12. Over the Hills and Far Away 13. Ghost Love Score 14. Song of Myself 15. Last Ride of the Day
Besides Nightwish, Sauna had not employed big crowd magnets this year. The lineup was almost fully consisting of Finnish and Swedish band, with the exception of Danish Volbeat that headlined the second day. My personal highlight, in addition to the Kitee gang, was Opeth that also performed on the first day. The Stockholm gang was, however, slightly lame experience in the open air and full light, and able to provide only a short set (in Opeth terms). Before them, Children of Bodom put out an energetic performance, but I found them more interesting and even slightly more enthusiastic on the previous day when they played at the Kivenlahti Rock in Espoo. It was namely a rare occasion for the band to play in their home city, literally on the yard of the former school of some band members.
On the second day of Sauna, Stam1na had the honour of opening up the main stage. As always, the band is one of the most pleasurable ones to watch, thanks for the high energy, funny talks and, most importantly, really cool playing. And the boys always come up with some funny surprises. This time they had dressed up in a cheap “beach” style with lots of appropriate junk onstage. This theme was carried on in other festival performances of the band.
Stam1na at Sauna 2013, photo by TMK.
Overall, Sauna was hot and pleasant as before. Nevertheless, much of the traditional good mood was somehow missing due to the venue. There is nothing wrong as such in Ratina Stadium; it just appears as quite a clinical and impersonal surrounding as such stadiums often do. The “picnic” vibes that are many times a substantive part of summer rock festivals cannot just happen there.
At Tuska
The picnic feeling has been somewhat missing in Tuska Open Air (Tuska translates to "Pain" in English) as well since the festival moved to the Suvilahti site a couple of years ago. The area is very functional, however, and the event again succeeded to allure a large crowd of metal fans to spend three days with a variety of interesting acts. There were some doubts about the size of the audience, due to the Rock the Beach festival, a partly overlapping event by Live Nation, also taking place in Helsinki and having big names like Rammstein, Green Day, and 30 Seconds to Mars on the bill. But the loyal metal tribe directed their steps towards Suvilahti. Tuska Open Air had in total 25’000 visitors this year.
Nightwish was booked as the closing act of the festival on the Sunday evening, June 30th, and again thousands of people had found their way to the sunny field. The offering on Sunday was more focused on melodic metal and rock than the previous heavier days. Nightwish was preceded by many women led groups such as Amaranthe, Battle Beast, and Barbe-Q-Barbies.
After its appearance in Sauna, Nightwish had made one show in Switzerland and was back to Finland in an even tighter form, if possible. Again was the set provided in bright conditions, and the choreography, visual stuff, and most of the other stuff happening on the stage. It was the longest set of the three, as also Song of Myself and Ghost River were also played from Imaginaerum. Good choice, if you ask me. Both of the tunes are the work of a genius. And yes, Floor was impressive, of course. Some extra excitement to the show was given by the fact that, for the Helsinki audience, this was in fact the last time to see the band for a couple of years. Which was celebrated by the fireworks which was even bigger than in Tampere, at least it felt so.
Tuska setlist: 1. Dark Chest of Wonders 2. Wish I Had an Angel 3. She Is My Sin 4. Ever Dream 5. Storytime 6. I Want My Tears Back 7. Nemo 8. Last of the Wilds 9. Bless the Child 10. Romanticide 11. Amaranth 12. Ghost River 13. Over the Hills and Far Away 14. Ghost Love Score 15. Song of Myself 16. Last Ride of the Day
As in Sauna too, the performance was preceded by a signing session on Sunday afternoon. And indeed, there was a long line of fans lining up to meet the band, too long to have everyone included. Present were fans of all ages, genders, and nationalities, and many of them seemingly happy and moved by the opportunity to meet their heroes. Lots of smiling faces, and the band in a very good humour, a typical Nightwish meet & greet.
Tuska in general provided guaranteed good time; lots of good bands, nice weather, and happy people. Friday was concluded by the visually interesting King Diamond, and Saturday highlighs were offered by Soilwork and Stam1na, as well as the thrash dudes of Kreator and Testament.
At Ilosaari
Before honouring the Joensuu audience with their presence, the Nightwish Caravan had performed in Lebanon and Norway, both of which having reportedly been quite specific experiences for the band. Lebanon by the sheer fact that it is not the most typical place to play in, and Norway by the rainy weather that even made Tuomas quite frightened to operate his electric arsenal onstage. But everybody seemed to have survived these adventures and were now fit and happy to make their thing at the front of the home audience. Well, almost home, as it is less than 70km from Kitee to Joensuu.Ilosaarirock (“Joy island rock” if directly translated) is one of the most appraised rock festivals of the country that has grown from a small local event to a large happening that this year had its record attendance number, in total 55’000 visitors. Which was of course quite visible in the city that has only some 73’000 inhabitants. Saturday (July 13) was the Nightwish day and also the busiest one with 24’000 persons packed in the Laulurinne site.
As in the previous gigs, the Nightwish show itself was built up by the same elements and songs. After the already familias introduction by the host Kaarle Viikate, that this is the last change to see the band in this region for a long time, the intro tape kicked in. And again the band delivered the older and newer songs in a flawless and enthusiastic manner. And again the show ended with a massive fireworks, that now was surely more beautiful and longer that in Helsinki or Tampere, and the Imaginaerum outro.
But what was remarkably different this time was that it was much darker than during the previous two shows. The playing time was really late, starting at 23:15, when the Finnish summer night already starts to grow somewhat dusky in mid-July. The surprisingly small stage that barely managed to accommodate the band, their gear, pyros, and the large background screen made another differentiating aspect and in fact gave the otherwise large show an exquisitely intimate feeling. Which was further reinforced by the loud and highly please audience. It was the best crowd of the three shows I witnessed. As is to be expected in Eastern Finland ;) Ilosaari had also managed to reinforce the specific atmosphere by beautiful fire decorations at the both sides of the stage. This was one of the highly memorable shows of the Imaginaerum tour.
Ilosaari setlist: 1. Dark Chest of Wonders 2. Wish I Had an Angel 3. She Is My Sin 4. Ever Dream 5. Storytime 6. I Want My Tears Back 7. Nemo 8. Last of the Wilds 9. Bless the Child 10. Romanticide 11. Amaranth 12. Over the Hills and Far Away 13. Ghost Love Score 14. Last Ride of the Day
Ilosaari in general was a truly nice atmosphere. This was my first time in the festival and I totally agree that the atmosphere is quite a special one. It was created by the varied selection of music styles and artists, good services, and especially by 4’200 employees who relentlessly kept up smiling faces and made everything work fluently. Despite the large crowd, everything from food to toilet seemed to work without major problems, or not even any notable lines. And yes, there were so many tasty veggie alternatives provided by the numerous food booths! And the weather worked; it even hot at times, especially on Sunday.
In addition to Nightwish, my favourite gigs at the fest were provided by Mokoma and Wintersun – yes, I need to wave the metal flag – that both seemed to have particularly lots of fun onstage. But the absolut highlight of the event was provided at the Star Tent by Sigur Rós. The eleven-piece assembly provided a mind-blowing sonic and visual experience at the Ilosaarirock. The sound was amazingly rich and precise – dramatically shifting from ethereal to overwhelming and back – singing and playing flawless and graceful. This was supported by exquisite videos and graphics at the full-size screen and very elegant lights. No wonder the applause was deafening. Ecstatic!
In the Nightwish camp, the last Finnish appearance was made in Sotkamo on July 20th on a smaller festival called “Sotkamon Syke”. As Sotkamo is the current home city of the manager Ewo, this gig was also special for sure. And then there were only four shows left, including one in Wacken.
Yep, these three occasions were the last opportunities to see Nightwish live in the Imaginaerum World Tour. As foreseen, the band will come back touring in 2015, after the release of the following album. In this tour, I witnessed in total twelve shows in six countries: Five in the first round with Anette on vocals, and seven in the second leg with Floor on the microphone. It is really hard to pick up the favourites among these. But if I have to choose, the three top ones might be the spring 2012 show in Amsterdam, the May gig 2013 in Liquid Room Tokyo, and the above one in Ilosaari.
To be continued…
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