5 reasons why you should have visited Finland to witness Nightwish’s not so secret show at Club Teatria

Finnish symphonic metallers Nightwish played a “secret” show under the name of Nevski & The Prospects at Club Teatria in Oulu, Finland on July 28th. The band played a full set consisting of 18 tracks and the show marked the first proper show the band has played in front of an live audience for over two and a half years and the show marked also the first official show for the band’s new touring bassist Jukka Koskinen.

Here is 5 reasons why everyone who is a fan of the band and would had the possibility to go see them should have done so:

1. Club shows returning. There is no denial that the past year and a half have been extremely difficult for all of us who live and breathe live music. There has not been many shows happening either outside or inside so when the rescheduled date for the not so secret Nevski & The Prospect show was announced I just had to go and see it despite it was organized in the middle of the week. It is very important for us music fans that when shows are happening we go out and support the venues who have been shut down for over a year and most likely faced a financial disaster along the way. Also knowing that a band like Nightwish which normally sell-out arenas here in their native country is very special band to witness in club atmosphere.

2. The audience. It was really amazing to see how heavily the crowd reacted each time the band finished playing a song. You could sense how eager and hungry the fans were for the show and it felt amazing to feel a band play in a sweaty club again last time for me personally being Bodom After Midnight‘s club show at Rytmikorjaamo last October. (R.I.P. Alexi Laiho).

3. The band was hungry for shows. Already from the first notes you could clearly see that the band had waited for the show as eagerly as the audience. The group played with really high energy through out the set and after meeting Tuomas Holopainen for the Auri interview two days later (that is coming out soon) he said that his neck was still sore from all the headbanging. The group has also welded really well together despite a very essential member of the band Marko Hietala leaving the group in January. I must admit I was scared how much it would affect the band but now after seeing the virtual shows, Club Teatria show and Qstock festival performance I am confident the band will pull this through just fine and Jukka Koskinen is just a perfect touring addition to the band with his calm and very professional attitude and playing. He handled his bass parts flawlessly.

4. Floorgasm should be included as a word to dictionary. There is no denial how charismatic and amazing vocalist Floor Jansen is as she really does make the songs of Nightwish to look extremely easy to sing but try repeating some of the most challenging vocal patterns and jump and mosh in between them and you will notice that definitely not a task everyone could do. She just hits the higher notes with perfection and gives chills down the spine while doing it. You can check out a live videos of “Storytime” and “Dark Chest Of Wonders” to understand what the word Floorgasm means:

5. Setlist. The show Nightwish played at Teatria was the first show where the fans were actually able to witness the new songs from “Human :II: Nature.” played live if you don’t count those virtual shows in. Overall the setlist of the show was really balanced showcasing both past and present of the band and we got to witness “Harvest“, “How’s the Heart?“, “Noise“, “Shoemaker” and “Tribal” live which all sounded great and fitted well into the live environment.

Hopefully the world will soon start to open up properly because I really hope everyone to be able to see Finland’s biggest and finest metal export in action again all over the world.