Nightwish -  Jannus Live - St. Petersburg, Florida - April 21st, 2018

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 Nightwish, who are in the midst of a 9 month long world tour in support of their new compilation album Decades, made a stop at Jannus Live on April 21st. The amazing Finnish Symphonic Metal band has been touring since March 9th, 2018 which was the same day that Decades was released, they began the tour with a show in Atlanta on March 9th and the final North American show on the tour was April 22nd in Miami, the show we attended at Jannus Live on April 21st was the 2nd to last show of the tour which included 34 stops in North America. From here they are off to Europe with their next show scheduled for May 18th in Estonia.

 

 After spending a few hours before the show hanging out with friends we made our way to the venue. It appeared that this was going to be a well attended show as the line to get in literally went halfway around an entire city block! We were a bit worried about the time it would require to get inside with the usual bag check and everything but it ended up being a non issue. Jannus Live is definitely on top of things and has one of the most competent security details of any venue in the area! We were pleasantly surprised to discover that everyone in attendance at the show received a free copy of the band's latest CD, Decades, on entrance to the venue. This made the night even more special and was a rarity for a concert, the only other time in all of our years attending concerts that we received a free CD at a show was when we saw Bon Jovi at Giants Stadium in New Jersey for the One Wild Night tour in July of 2001.

 

 There would be no opening bands for this show and we were ready for an entire night of Nightwish! We checked out the large selection of merchandise, they had the obligatory concert shirts plus some other items such as CDs, autographed vinyl record, signed poster etc. They were out of certain items and shirt sizes as this was the night before the end of the U.S. leg of the tour.

 

 The band consisted of Floor Jansen on vocals, bassist and vocalist Marco Hietala, Tuomas Holopainen on keyboards, guitarist Emppu Vuorinen, Troy Donockley on uilleann pipes, tin whistle, additional vocals and guitar and drummer Kai Hahto. Original drummer Jukka Nevalainen had to step out of the band temporarily and didn't record the last album Endless Forms Most Beautiful, or tour in support of it due to insomnia. The most noticable change in the band came when vocalist Floor Jansen replaced Anette Olzon in 2013. A GREAT decision in my opinion as Floor is my (Bill) favorite female vocalist!

 

 For this tour the band had promised to pull out some rarely performed gems from the band's entire catalog and they came through in a big way! If you've ever been to a Nightwish show you know that these events are something special as Nightwish are not a "typical" Metal band, their music is deeper if you will, almost spiritual in a way. The stage featured a large screen which featured different visuals which matched the mood of the songs, speaking of mood…there was a very moving and beautiful intro performed by Troy Donockley on the ulliean pipes. After Troy's intro the entire band took the stage and launched into End of all Hope, this was the beginning of 2 hours of non stop Nightwish! The band performed 20 songs in total, the audience was enraptured throughout their set with the band feeding off the crowd's energy, the band were all smiles throughout. There were several songs performed that were unexpected such as 10th Man Down, Dead Boy's Poem, The Kinslayer and Devil & the Deep Dark Ocean, along with the expected hits including Wish I Had an Angel, I Want My Tears Back (Bill's favorite) and Nemo. Several of the band's songs are on the longer side with the epic 20 plus minute song The Greatest Show on Earth being performed. Floor is an amazing frontwoman and has a seemingly boundless energy, throughout the show dancing and spinning her hair around. As any concert photographer knows generally we are allowed to shoot the first 3 songs of a concert, thanks to an awesome security guard we were allowed to stay in the pit for the first 4 songs. Also, I was in front of guitarist Emppu Vuorinen several times during the first 4 songs, he kept giving me the thumbs up and the metal horns, I love when a band member interacts with me as a photographer! As I was leaving the photo pit I did the air guitar thing in front of him and he tossed me one of his signature guitar picks..VERY cool! It is a great addition to my collection of picks. It was nice to see the diversity of the fans as all ages were in attendance, it's always great to see the "younger generation" getting into this fantastic band and music! There was no encore, after the end of the show the band left the stage, they came back onstage after a couple of minutes and took their bows in front of a very appreciative crowd.

 

 We hung out for an hour or so after the show at a bar that was next door to the venue, as we were leaving we saw a group of Metalheads gathered around on the sidewalk, as we got nearer we noticed that Floor was there getting ready to get on the band's tour bus! She was gracious enough after a long night to meet with fans for a few minutes, sign some autographs and take photos, it was a true fanboy moment for me! She signed my photo pass and I got a photo with her, I told her that she was my absolute favorite female vocalist and that I couldn't wait to see Nightwish again.

 

 All in all it was a great night seeing one of our favorite metal bands and hanging out with friends. We would like to thank Kristin Torres from Nuclear Blast for setting up the press credentials and photo pass, and Nightwish for performing an amazing show!

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Setlist

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Intro (With Swanheart instrumental snippet) - played from tape

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End of All Hope

​Wish I Had an Angel

​10th Man Down

Come Cover Me

Gethsemane

Élan

Sacrament of Wilderness

Deep Silent Complete

Dead Boy's Poem

Elvenjig

Elvenpath

I Want My Tears Back

Amaranth (first time performed on the tour)

The Carpenter

The Kinslayer

Devil & the Deep Dark Ocean

Nemo

Slaying the Dreamer

The Greatest Show on Earth (Chapter I: Four Point Six. Chapter II: Life; Chapter III: The Toolmaker)

Ghost Love Score

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The Greatest Show on Earth (Chapter IV: The Understanding; Chapter V: Sea-Worn Driftwood) - song played from tape

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