Well, the info to the upcoming Colours In The Road Tour (part 2) promises full-bodied a triumphal procession of TARJA TURUNEN and a concert evening in a “stylish and elegant ambience” in established, partly seated and precious locations”. Ok, can’t help myself raising my eyebrows… Düsseldorfs venue • Stahlwerk • is great but precious? Philharmonics would have been a precious place… never mind. Former Nightwish singer TARJA is known for her opulent live shows. And ticket prices are steep, depending on category fans have to pay 42 up to 48 Euro, plus fees of course. So, I expect something great!

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My drive towards Düsseldorf was somewhat of a show-jumping course to avoid all traffics yet made it on time to the Stahlwerk with the first big rain drops falling on my head, perfect! ;) Hell, I wasn’t here for a long time… (2008 to be exactly). The venue was separated in the middle and the room before the mixing desk completely seated. The hall fills up quickly. Many of the fans get themselves a house-made pizza, which is extraordinary delicious, before looking for their seats. Faces full of expectations everywhere.

On time Dutch hopefuls :: THE NAME :: enter the stage. It is a young band, who just released their debut, titled Unchained. They should have named it “unleashed”, because that’s the way they rocked the stage ;) The guitarists seem to fancy Samael, while singer Hadassa seemingly was an apprentice to Simone Simon of Epica. Latter band definitely had its impact on THE NAMEs music too. Audience was restrained at first but THE NAME managed to thrill them step by step with every new song. At the end the crowd released them standing with enthusiastic applause.
Setlist: Intro, Draw The Line, Radiate, Imperfect, Twisted, Image, Fight, Masquerade

Changeover behind a huge Colours In The Road curtain, then a fulminant intro before :: TARJA :: jumps on stage to rock the hell out. Wow! Welcome applause is frenetically and leaves her speechless, but not voiceless ;) Yes, TARJA TURUNEN appears on stage like a Grande dame you might know from a solo singer at the opera, but she is at the same time so likeable, lively, close to the audience, communicates and interacts with them and literally lifts her fans up the seats.
Apropos seats… With the fans standing all the time seats got reduced ad absurdum. There haven’t been any other exclusive details either that would fit the mentioned “stylish and elegant ambience”. No candles for example, no extra musicians, a choir or something else. I would not dare to claim that tonight’s show did not differ any bit from the (normal rock)shows of the first part of the tour last autumn. Even the stage-dress of TARJA was the same. However, the show itself was awesome! Amazing lights and a stunning band. Attention was focused on TARJA of course, but second sight went to Mike Terrana who did incredible things behind his drumkit, and third sight went to cellist Max Lilja. Christian Kretschmar (keys), Anna Portalupi (bass) and Alex Scholpp (git) remained a little bit too much in the background.
Musically TARJA drew a bow from her most recent album Colours In The Dark via What Lies Beneath to My Winter Storm. Another plus she gained making her shows explicitly “camera friendly”, inviting everybody to take a cam to the show and make as many photos as wanted. And it worked fine - no chaos in front of stage and press photographers got not hindered in any way either. That I call perfect work conditions ;)
So yes, I had a fantastic evening, the fans too, obviously. Did I already mention how delicious the pizza was? There could have been more people of course and I say the steep ticket prices were not totally innocent of this situation.
Setlist: In For A Kill, 500 Letters, Damned & Divine, Falling Awake, I Walk Alone, Anteroom Of Death, Never Enough, Darkness, Neverlight, Mystique Voyage, Die Alive, Deliverance, Medusa // Victim Of Ritual, Over The Hills And Far Away, Until My Last Breath

story & pics © Dajana