Tarja Turunen, 25.11.2007 Columbia Club

So, yes. I was really sceptical. And I did not expect too much from the concert at all. The only reasons I actually got a ticket in the end were, a) that she can sing and b) that the concert took place in the Columbia Club, which is rather small and cosy. Much better atmosphere than a huge hall, in my opinion. The concert was supposed to start at 20:00, so I arrived at the venue at half past seven... and had to move to the end of the queue, which went all the way down to the Columbia Hall (the larger of the two venues). Well. After twenty minutes in the cold I finally entered the venue and ended up in the next queue: the one for the wardrobe. Oh well. Another fifteen minutes later I could start to find a place. Of course the hall was quite full already, but I managed to get a nice place on the lower part, maybe fifteen or twenty meters from the stage.

And there I was waiting. And waiting.

Oh, and waiting. At nine the concert finally started. So much for times on the tickets... There was no support band, which was probably a good idea, because the stage was quite filled with all the equipment of Tarja's band, so having a support band would have meant a complete rebuilding of the stage.

But once she started, it was actually good. She had a good mix of 'own' things, covers (hilarious version of Poison) and old Nightwish songs. Of course Walking in the air was played which was amazingly good. Most interesting was however the band. There were a bass-player, a guitarist, a drummer, a cellist, someone on the keys and backing vocals and another one alternating between guitars, percussion and vocals (her brother, actually). In particular the bass-player was extremely good, really made a difference.

Tarja of course was doing the vocals and clothes (I counted 4 different outfits, the first one, pardon me, looking like a trash-bag), but also had two songs for which she played the (electric) piano. Nice touch, I did not expect that.

After one encore they finished at around half past ten, so they played for 90 or 100 minutes. Pretty much what I expected. All of them seemed to have a good time and also the audience (me included) enjoyed it; especially in the second half of the gig the atmosphere became really nice and relaxed, whereas in the beginning I had the impression that most people where still a bit aloof.

I think it really helped that the gig was quite small, in total I would say something like 300 people, I might be off by a hundred or so, I am not good at estimating. And given that this was the very first concert of their tour, they did quite well. Highlights of the concert were, no doubt, Phantom of the Opera, even though I admittedly do not quite like the song normally, and Walking in the air. Thinking of it, Passion and The Opera rocked aswell.

So, yes. I was pleasantly surprised: I had a good time and even though one or two songs were quite lame, the overall mix of songs was really neat. On the plus side is definitely the band and the small scale of the gig, on the minus probably the price, 30€ is on the upper end of what I would pay for it. But okay, it is not helplessly overpriced and I absolutely do not feel robbed. Certainly a gig that is worth going to if you like Tarja.