The weather yesterday was not good at all in Minneapolis. It rained pretty much all day and stayed at a relatively cold temperature, which is very uncommon for this time of year. I just hope that the bands didn’t get a bad impression of this state and or city because of it! I got to the show, early as usual at least two hours before hand. And to my surprise, three people beat me there. No big deal. To be honest, I did not know what to expect. Nightwish is not heavily marketed here and this is there first tour in North America so I didn’t know if there was going to be a lot of people here, or not. I was hoping there would be a nice mixture. I noticed standing in line and looking out to the cars driving in the street, cars of fans that were coming from out of state and country to see this show. I saw three different cars pull up that were from Manitoba. I also ran into people there that came from North and South Dakota. This to me shows the dedication these fans have for Nightwish or Lullacry or whatever. On with my synopsis! 

Aesma Daeva

            I have reviewed this bands live performance once before and THEY HAVE CORRECTED MY BIGGEST PET PEEV! THEY GOT A BASS PLAYER! YAY! I know it sounds bad that it would bother me, but as a bass player myself…you know what I am going to say next so I wont bother typing it out. AD came out with some horn intro that they could have done without, but the band still, if anything, shocked everyone with their sound. They didn’t sound like a typical metal band and they weren’t the Nightwish clone I thought the band was originally.  The band played more dramatically then they had previously. It’s almost hard to describe because it was so original. If anything, they had this progressive feel to it, but it was heavier and more, well, dramatic! The band didn’t move much on stage however; the singer did all of the work though. In case you didn’t read my first review, the singer of AD is a female Opera singer. Not just someone who can add vibrato well into her vocals, but a genuine opera singer. And she was good, really good. So good it was scary. She was wearing a belly dance outfit that showed a ton of midriff, dancing exotically on stage; I could see the faces on some kids that were just mesmerized by her. It’s too bad I didn’t get a picture! AD also had a violin player, play with them on stage and it’s sound too bad either, a bit strange to see though, but her and one of the guitar players would be mimicking each others parts and then she would switch and play along with what the singer was doing. My favorite song of there’s was when they did a rendition of “The Magic Flute” a Mozart Opera. The singer hit every note dead on. I’m seeing these guys tomorrow night. Gotta love local bands. I recommend these guys.  

Lullacry

            There isn’t much I can say about they’re set. Lullacry had a very rock feel to there music and how they portrayed it on stage. The singer looked like a bad ass. She looked great, although you could barley hear her though. Now this band was jumping and running all over the stage inciting people to get into the music. Lullacry was in the same boat as Nightwish, although Lullacry did play one show in North America before they had not toured here before. So I had no idea what to expect. The crowd got into them somewhat but they weren’t concrete though. They did play WASP’s “Love Machine” but the problem is that the majority of the crowd was made up of fans 16-24, and has never even heard of WASP let alone expects us to sing the choruses. I could tell the band was a bit pissed that the crowd wasn’t singing right a way. The songs they performed that I knew from “Crucify My Heart” they played well but I could tell they didn’t have the same drive as other bands have when they play. It almost felt to me that they just wanted to play and then get out. They did put on a good show though. 

 Nightwish  

            Nightwish opened up with “Dark Chest of Wonders” and the crowd went nuts. They had some intro music, which added something to it, but when the band struck that first chord, the crowd knew exactly what they were getting and it sounded great! Bad part is, they had major sound problems in my opinion. You couldn’t hear Tarja very well (which was corrected later) and the guitar sounded like crap. To put it so eloquently, I know what his guitar is supposed to sound like and from where I was standing, and I have a pretty good idea this was everywhere, sounded like hell! It wasn’t loud enough first of all, and it didn’t have the chugging distortion that it did on the album. The keys came in great, the drums sounded mint, and the bass you could hear clear as day! It’s just the guitar was a huge let down. Another thing I was looking for in their set was how they were going to play the new material. On “Once” they used the “London Session Orchestra” on the whole CD. My question was how they were going to integrate that sound live. It was half and half. Tuomas played half the stuff on keys and the other half was sampled. It didn’t sound bad at all either and I thought it was acceptable. One other highlight was when Tarja went to take a break and the whole band played “Symphony of Destruction” by Megadeth with Marco doing the singing! It sounded weird with keys! I’ve heard this song a thousand times and I had no idea what it was going to sound like with one guitar. It would have been better if the guitar didn’t sound like hell! From what I could tell was Emppu didn’t play the solo exactly, but I could be wrong too since I COULD BARELY HEAR IT! I would say ¾ of the crowd got into it but I could tell because of the age group, the other ¼ had no idea the song existed.

         Overall I would have to say that Nightwish put on a great show despite one of the worst guitar sounds I have ever heard live no thanks to Mr. Murphy (from murphy’s law) on sound. Marco’s vocals were great too. No, I have not forgotten Tarja, they fixed her vocals finally and she sounds every bit as good live as she does on the CD. Nighwish put on a great show hands down.

         Nightwish 8/10

         Lullacry 7.5/10

         Aesma Daeva 8/10