Nightwish w/Delain and Sabaton at Concord Music Hall 04.18.15

This past weekend I was down in Chicago, Illinois to go to see Nightwish on their Endless Forms Most Beautiful tour with Delain and Sabaton at the Concord Music Hall. I had booked my trip way back in September when I found out about the tour. The show was totally sold out. I got to the venue around 4pm, should have arrived earlier because there was a pretty lengthy line already when I got there. By then I knew my chances of getting a good view was next to none. On the up side, I wasn't like a block down from the venue like a lot of people were. My experience at Concord and the shitty view I had because I'm short made me appreciate my concert experiences here in Minneapolis all the more so.

Dutch symphonic metal band started off the show with a 30 minute set which I thoroughly enjoyed. I really need to get some of their music. I have heard quite a bit and have liked what I had heard from them, just never got around to buying their music. Saturday night's show proved to me that I really need to buy their music.

I really hope that the band returns to the US and to Minneapolis in the near future. The band has a lot of energy and obviously enjoys performing live.

Swedish power metal band Sabaton followed after Delain. They played about an hour's worth of music (give or take several minutes). After I learned that they were joining the Nightwish tour last year (or maybe earlier this year, I forget), I quickly checked out their latest album Heroes and was immediately hooked on their sound. Today I bought their album because I did not feel like dealing with the crowds at the show. As for their live set, the Swedish band was absolutely amazing. They sound incredible live. The band really enjoyed interacting with the audience through out the show which I found quite endearing. I hope one day soon they will go headline their own tour. They clearly have a huge following in the metal scene.


Finally the reason I traveled 9 hours from the Twin Cities hit the stage. Despite my difficulty seeing through out the show, seeing and hearing Floor Jansen live was so worth the damn travel delays I was experiencing no thanks to the trains in ND carrying oil. I thought I died and gone to heaven when Floor and the band performed "She's My Sin" from the first Nightwish album I have ever heard Wishmaster. Floor has quite an impressive vocal range in my opinion. Her voice straddles between Anette Olzon and Tarja Turunen. She is more than a capable singer to me and the band was very wise to offer her the job as singer full time. Nightwish performed a well balanced mix of old and new songs which was very smart. Every time I have listened to Endless Forms Most BeautifuL the music keeps getting better and better with me. I absolutely loved it when the band busted into two songs from Oceanborn, "Stargazers"and "Sleeping Sun". Floor truly shined on those two songs. She showed the audience what she was truly capable of as a singer which was that she had an impressive vocal range. She totally sounded like Tarja on those two songs. To all the naysayers who put down Floor as a singer, put a sock in it. Tarja and Anette is gone and not coming back. Floor has proven herself as well as others that she is the band's singer and she is talented and able to perform the older Nightwish songs.




Despite the fact that I was stuck around a lot of tall people, Saturday night's concert made the long ass journey so worth it (not to mention the amount of money I spent to get to Chicago). I think a larger venue would have been better because everyone was packed in like a can of sardines. I suppose the promoter wanted a sell out show (which they got) but from my personal experience, being stuffed into a venue like Concord for a hugely popular band like Nightwish is a bit much. I do hope the next time the band tours America, they don't bypass Minnneapolis/Saint Paul again. Jeebus? Chicago then Iowa? WTF is in Iowa that the Twin Cities doesn't have?! Just saying.

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