Anette Olzon - Birmingham Review

After something of a break in July, save for my big Metallica weekend away at the start of the month, August has been busier again when it comes to gigging trips away. Last week contained what will likely end up being seen as some of the best trips of the year, as Arch Enemy laid waste to The Underworld in Camden on a hot Monday night - and I am not long back from another trip away, this time to Birmingham. Getting home today took much longer than it should have, due to CrossCountry essentially not running any trains due to a power failure at their main office. This meant having to travel via London, which added around two and a half hours to my journey - which is not quite doubling it but it is not far off. I could have done without that, really, but thankfully I was aware of the issue very early on - which meant that I ended up leaving Birmingham as early as I could have, before most would have even cottoned on. It certainly could have been a lot worse, but I am glad to be home nevertheless. Sometimes, bad journeys make me question whether the reason for the trip in the first place was worth it. I would say that this one was, and, in years to come, it will be the gig that I remember in any case - not the journey home. Significant disruption on the railway seems to be becoming more of a regular occurrence, though, and for a regular train traveller this is extremely frustrating. Anyway, that is enough about the UK's railway infrastructure - as it is time to focus on the reason for the trip in the first place, which was a rare UK appearance by the former Nightwish frontwoman Anette Olzon. I say a rare UK appearance, but, in truth, her current tour has been something of a rarity. Since leaving Nightwish acrimoniously mid-tour back in 2012, Olzon has kept a low profile in terms of touring. She has remained active in music, releasing a handful of solo and collaboration albums, but live appearances have been quite rare. I think that she retrained as a nurse and essentially kept the music side of things going as a hobby - but over the past year or so she has been ramping back up her live activity. The catalyst for this was an invite to tour in South America last year - focusing on the two albums she released during her time in Nightwish: 2007's Dark Passion Play and 2011's Imaginaerum. I get the impression that she was hesitant to do so, having not toured properly since leaving Nightwish, but ended up accepting the offer - and had a great time being back on tour. The successful South American shows led to offers in Europe - so her current tour was planned, which included two UK shows. The Birmingham show made the most sense to me, so I snapped up a ticket as quickly as I could. I have always been a fan of Olzon. She was Nightwish's singer when I started getting into the band - and I saw her with them in 2009 in London. I think that it is easy to forget now, given that she has long earnt her place in Nightwish's history, that some fans never really took to her - with some of those early shows around Dark Passion Play's release being quite the struggle for her due to the negative attitudes of some. That 2009 show was great - but it was the only time that I saw the band live with Olzon, as by the time I next saw Nightwish live in 2012 she was gone. A tour focused on her two Nightwish albums, then, was always going to be a personal treat - and I was, in particular, looking forward to hearing her sing songs from Imaginaerum. The venue of choice was The Asylum - somewhere I had not been for many years. Given Nightwish's popularity, it seemed a venue on the small side - but it ended up being about right for the turnout. The place was not rammed but it was not sparse either - although I did think that she would have been a bigger draw than it turned out.

Given that the venue operates as a nightclub on Saturdays, too, it meant that the show started and finished early. Everything was done and dusted by about 9:15pm, which was very early even for such situations, so that meant that the evening's sole support act Lost Gravity came on at 6:30pm. Based in London, although fronted by Brazilian musician Breno Val (vocals/guitar), Lost Gravity's simple, harder rock sound was quite the contrast to the symphonic metal which was to follow. Val was the focal point throughout, playing the guitar and singing, whilst the rhythm section just did their thing largely in the background. Lost Gravity turned out to be one of those bands that are fun enough to see live for a while - but are unlikely to impress long-term. I cannot ever see myself listening to the band's albums in my own time, but for 45 minutes last night they did not outstay their welcome. Their music sat somewhere between riffy hard rock and the lighter end of traditional heavy metal - with some decent riffs and the occasional hooky chorus thrown in - but really it was a very meat and potatoes set. There was nothing especially standout about Lost Gravity, but Val came across as very enthusiastic and likeable - which certainly helped to draw the crowd along with him. When they first hit the stage the room was not all that full, but it did fill up as they were playing - and there was something of an atmosphere generated as their set progressed, even if the excitement levels never really boiled over. I got the vibe that most in attendance likely felt similar to me - as there was certainly a sense of casual enjoyment in the room, with appreciative applause, but that is about as far as it ever went. The last song of the night did end up generating a bit of a sing-a-long, which was nice to see - but overall Lost Gravity never set the world on fire, instead just passing the time before the main event.

Due to the early finish, the changeover between the two sets seemed to fly by - and it was not long before some orchestral music was filling the venue. The lights went down, and the four musicians that are currently backing Olzon on this tour took to the stage - with drummer Kiko Lopes soon launching into the punchy intro for 7 Days to the Wolves. All of the musicians, aside from a new guitarist, whose name I could not find, that joined the tour part-way through, were those that backed Olzon in South America. They were all from Brazil, but none of them were known to me. All of them were certainly competent, with special recognition needing to go out to bassist Filipe Duarte who did a pretty decent job replicating Marko Hietala's vocals, but they were very much a backing band - with Olzon being the star of the show. Over the next 90 or so minutes, she and the band ran through 13 Nightwish tunes - and there was a great atmosphere in the room from the off. I did feel that the mix was never quite right, with either the guitars or the keyboards low in the mix at any one time, but Olzon sounded powerful - and very similar to how she did close to 20 years ago. There was none of the stage show of a Nightwish gig, with Olzon just letting the music do the talking - as well as coming across really well in between the songs. It was clear that she was having a great time singing these songs again and, despite the place not exactly packed, everyone was singing along. It was a show that meant quite a bit to a lot in attendance it seemed - and I really enjoyed hearing some of these songs live for the first time ever, or for the first time for a number of years. An early highlight for me was the riffy Ghost River - one of the more guitar-heavy Nightwish songs. It is one of the band's few songs with a proper, knotty riff - and the guitarist did a good job bringing it to life. Bye Bye Beautiful had already been retired by the time I saw Nightwish live for the first time, so it was good to shout along with it finally - whilst the pop metal of Amaranth is still pretty much a staple of Nightwish's setlists. Duarte sang quite a bit during the first half of the show. No-one else really has Hietala's primal roar, but Duarte did well - with the slower drawl of the rarely-played Rest Calm sounding pretty good thanks to his efforts, before the slow-burning chorus was more the realm of Olzon. I think that the song was rarely played live by Nightwish, so it is great that the underrated song was given some love on this tour. Likewise, Turn Loose the Mermaids was never played live by Nightwish - and the folky ballad was really a showcase for the warmth that Olzon brought to the band during her tenure, and it contrasted the rollocking instrumental piece Last of the Wilds. The night was really flying by as I was enjoying hearing so many of these songs live, with another big highlight being Meadows of Heaven - another very rarely played number, and one that really soared with dense orchestral swells and Olzon's powerful vocals. The night was not perfect, though, as the band seemed to loose their way during Scaretale for a bit, which reminded everyone that what they were witnessing was not a slick Nightwish show, but these moments were rare - even if the guitarist at times also seemed to be having trouble with his gear. Despite all the greatness that had come before, it was the penultimate number that was my overall highlight. At one point, The Poet and the Pendulum was likely my favourite song - and it is responsible, at least in part, for my love of all things prog. I had seen Nightwish do it live a couple of times, but seeing it live again was just as much of a treat as it was the other times - with Olzon really giving her all during it, showcasing power early on before the delicate closing section arguably saw her at her best. That could have been it, but there was time for one more in the form of Last Ride of the Day - with the fast-paced, bombastic number ending the show on a real high. The setlist was: (N.B. all of the songs below are Nightwish songs):

7 Days to the Wolves

Storytime

Ghost River

Bye Bye Beautiful

Amaranth

Rest Calm

Last of the Wilds

Turn Loose the Mermaids

Meadows of Heaven

Sahara

Scaretale

The Poet and the Pendulum

Last Ride of the Day

Imaginaerum

It was 17 years since I last saw Olzon on stage, and she still has it in her to deliver a powerful symphonic metal show. She and her band are never going to be able to compete with Nightwish in terms of spectacle, but the two albums she was a part of deserve to be featured more - and she is currently doing a great job shining a light on them again. The night ended up being something of a nostalgic evening for me, and likely everyone else, and I would likely make the effort to go and see her again should she tour again in the future.