Nightwish - Part 3

Okay! It's official! We are Nightwish groupies!! This is the third concert in a year that we have seen them. (We actually debated about going to the San Francisco show the night before, but we really thought that would be excessive!)

We drove down to LA on Saturday morning and we got to the Wiltern at about 4:20pm. There was already a line forming on the north side of the theater. Since we had seen told that the box office would open at 5:00pm, and there were only six people ahead of us, we figured we would just stay there to pick up our will call tickets. 5:00pm came and went, and the will call line got longer and longer. 5:30pm. Someone comes out and tapes a sign above my head that says this line is for LiveNation.com ticket holders. (We bought our tickets from Enter the Vault.com) 5:45pm. A few people in Wiltern shirts came out and everyone would try to get information out of them, but each time and with each person there would be different and conflicting information. We were told at one point that if we had enterthevault.com will call tickets we were to definitely stay in the line we were in. Ten minutes later, at 6:00pm, the same lady who said that walked by us saying that the enterthevault.com ticket holders were to follow her to the back of the building. Since she was walking from the front of the line to the back, the line kind of reversed itself and we ended up being much farther back in line. Arg! Now we waited at the back of the building for another 45 minutes before they started giving us our tickets. (We got a kick out of the fact that there were signs that made three lines, A-G, I-Q and R-Z. Those of us in line speculated as to what would happen if your last name started with H. Would they not let you in? Was there a separate line behind the dumpsters just for the H's? Too funny and very indicative of the chaos and disorganization we experienced.)

I should say though that we had a great time talking to several of the people that we were standing next to. The two guys who had driven from SLO were the best! It was also fun to people watch all the cars and pedestrians going by. When the cars would pull up to the light we would watch the passenger crane their necks to see the marquee and then you could see them mouth, Nightwish?! Their reactions to the lines around the building were varied and often comical. Most of the people in line were dressed in black and looking very goth (in fact one of the Wiltern staff actually stopped twice and jokingly told Kevin, who was dressed in jeans and a red plaid button-down shirt, that he still had time to go home and change) and one mother and several small children walked by looking a bit fearful. Kevin said he caught the eye of the smallest child and smiled and the kid broke into a big grin! It was funny!

At 7:00pm we finally had tickets with our names on them in our hands and we now had to go around the building and join the line that had been steadily increasing in size since we got there. We first went across the street to a pharmacy, used their restrooms and then bought two granola bars so that we would have something to "eat" before we went into a three hour show. (After standing in line for two and a half hours by now.)

At 8:00pm on the dot (the watch on the arm of the man standing behind us in line beeped at exactly the same moment we started moving forward) we started into the theater. The Wiltern is a gorgeous old Art Nouveau movie theater that has been converted to a music venue. The outside was impressive, but the inside was phenomenal! Our photos do not remotely do it justice! It was beautiful!

We got a spot on the second tier back from the stage and we were behind some people who were standing at the railing. From that vantage point we were level with the people who were on the stage. It was a great spot to be in! There was a screen above the stage that people could text messages to and they would scroll across the screen. It was a great time killer reading all the texts and so the concert seemed to start pretty fast, even though we stood there for about another 45 minutes. (I honestly have to write to Rocket Dog, as this is the second concert I have stood through with their shoes on and this time it was 9 hours!)

The concert started at 9:00pm with Sonata Arctica, another Finnish band. Kevin had played a few of their songs for me before we came, so I had heard them, but I didn't know their music very well. They were great! Apparently though, as the opening act, they didn't rate a spot light so I never really saw what the lead singer looked like, as he stood in front of the stage lights most of the time. The lead singer is very energetic and has great voice quality! He had some power behind those notes he was singing! They played for about 45 minutes and then they were off. Not enough time for them. We wanted to hear more. (YouTube Video Links: Don't Say a Word & Paid in Full)

During the set change Kevin had a funny conversation with a guy who was trying to convince Kevin that he was a bigger Nightwish fan and so we should let him stand in front of us. (He looked a bit like Squiggy from Laverne & Shirley, only with a mowhawk.) First he said he was shorter than me and so we should let him go in front, then he tried see what CD Nightwish had released when we started listening to them. Dude, if you wanted to stand in front of me, you should have been in this spot before me. He tried this ploy out on a couple of other people around us before he gave up and just stood where he was.

At 10:30pm the lights went dark and the crowd went wild! Nightwish came out and even though we had seen posts on blogs about earlier concerts, it was still weird to see Anette with blond hair! She looked great, but different! The concert was great! The sound was great! They have really been putting their own style into things! Marco is actually a classically trained guitarist, so it was nice when he was playing "The Islander" that he added in some great extra riffs to the song! (And, this time, Anette was wearing the tiara again! Cool! Her part in that song doesn't seem right without it.) Jukka was fantastic as usual. With our vantage point we got to see more of him than we have at any other show! The same thing with Tuomas. We were able to see him better than before. We could see his fingers moving as he played the keyboards. It was great! And Empuu was his amazing self! His solos are so impressive!

They started with "Bye, Bye Beautiful" and ended with "Wish I Had An Angel" as they have through all phases of this tour. This series of concerts was actually billed as the North American Tour - The Final Chapter, as they are finishing up their Dark Passion Play tour and heading back to Europe and then to the studio. They won't be back in America in 2009. (:( Sniff!) Where are we going to get our Nightwish fixes now? They sang several songs off the Dark Passion Play CD - Amaranth, The Islander, The Poet and the Pendulum, Whoever Brings The Night, Sahara and 7 Days To The Wolves - and then they also sang The Siren, Dead To The World, Wishmaster, Higher Than Hope and Come Cover Me (this is a really old one that I didn't even remember hearing before!).

We talked about the difference between the three shows we have seen. Back in November Anette had just started and so the songs all sounded very much like they do on the albums. The band was tight and it was mostly the new music. In Vegas Anette had learned more of the older songs and so there was a lot more variety to the set list. This time they are more comfortable and were putting their own spin and sound into the songs we all know and love.

After the show was over (at midnight) we went out to where the buses were parked to see if we could see the band. We weren't able to get VIP tickets this time, and I had brought the photo of me with Jukka and Marco from Las Vegas and I was hoping to get it signed. We stood there and talked some more with the guys from SLO that we had been in line with earlier. One of them had actually got a copy of the set list off the sound board and was going to try to get it signed.

We didn't have to wait long and Jukka come out! I got right up there and he signed my photo first! I said again how great a drummer we think he is. He said thanks and then I backed up. Kevin said, didn't you want a picture with him? Arg! People were really packing in, so I couldn't get back up there. Then Marco came out! When I held out the photo for him to sign he looked at it for a minute as if he was trying to figure out where it was taken. He said, "I look sober!" He signed it and I got another picture with him , and this time he made sure he didn't look sober! :) I was very glad to have been able to have my photo signed! By this time I was able to get back in to where Jukka was and I got another picture with him as well. Then Tuomas came out and I was able to get a photo with him as well! I shook his hand and told him how much we appreciate his music. We waited until 1:30am but Empuu and Anette never came out, so we got in the van to drive to Jer and Renee's house where we were going to crash for what little of the night was left!

This has been a fun adventure this year heading off to here and there to see this band that we have grown to like so much! It has been neat to see the crowds growing at each show (and the prices of tickets going up with each show) and seeing that Nightwish's fan base is really growing here in the US! Hopefully they will get that new album done soon and be back to the US as early as possible in 2010. Because, when they do get here, you know where we will be!

See all the Nightwish at the Wiltern pics HERE.