London Calling: Nightwish At Wembley Arena

“We were here!”

- Nightwish

I was introduced to Nightwish through a video of their 2013 performance at the Wacken festival in Germany. I was instantly mesmerized by their exciting pyrotechnics, unique soundscape, and singer, Floor Jansen, who had soaring vocals and the ability to hold the crowd in the palm of her hand. The band’s discography immediately found itself in constant rotation in my playlists.

Since high school, my favorite band has been Queen. This included a time when it was hard to get access to their back catalog as their popularity had waned in the States. For many years, they did not even have an American recording contract and their CDs could only be found in the expensive export bin. They were selling out stadiums across the globe but were not even touring in the United States.

Similarly, Nightwish headlines festivals in Europe, but only play in small theaters in America. I had seen the band twice at the Grove in the shadow of Angel Stadium in Anaheim and the 1,700-seat venue was an intimate setting that made me appreciate Jansen’s vocal abilities even more. Still, watching this band on a small stage was like taking a wild animal and constraining it within the confines of the cage at a zoo. I longed to see Nightwish in their native habitat.

As 2019 came to a close, the band started to announce dates for their next world tour. Having never traveled outside of North America, my wife and I decided that we would make the jump. At first, we set our sights on the festival circuit, but due to my wife’s mobility considerations, we decided to select a date for the arena portion of the tour. Tickets were purchased for the Wembley Arena stop and the anticipation began. And then COVID hit and the world came to a stop.

Like all other bands, Nightwish was forced to suspend their trek across the world as the world dealt with the pandemic. At first, the show was delayed by a year. As the rescheduled date approached, my wife’s Multiple Sclerosis had become progressive, making it more difficult to travel. Instead, we both felt this would be a great trip to share with my mother and the travel arrangements were booked.

As the trip approached, the omicron variant started to spread across Europe. Less than two weeks before we were supposed to leave the shutdowns began again and the concert was delayed for another year. Luckily we had purchased travel insurance with our package.

As the Omicron surge waned and bands began to tour again, Nightwish was the first concert my wife and I attended in an indoor setting. The band performed well at The Wiltern in Los Angeles, but it was a somewhat muted experience. Perhaps fans needed time to get their sea legs back after being locked up for so long. Maybe the band was still trying to reform its onstage chemistry as they adjusted to the departure of Marko Hietala, a longtime member of the band who had been a key component of their performances.

With my appetite stimulated by the performance at The Wiltern, I looked forward to the November date in London with renewed anticipation. The trip was rebooked and the plans were set. Then another wave hit the shore.

On October 26th, Jansen announced through her Twitter feed that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and would be undergoing surgery. While she expressed confidence that she would heal in time to begin the European tour, this potentially devastating news was about much more than a night of entertainment. As the mother of a young child, Jansen spoke of the fear of not seeing her daughter grow up to become a woman in her announcement. She also spoke about how shocking the diagnosis was as it was only caught because she went for a regularly scheduled mammogram and had no indication that something was wrong.

Jansen’s surgery was successful and just days before the tour was set to begin she was declared to be “cancer free.” While she stated that she was “not back to a 100%”, she expressed confidence that “the shows [would] give [her] the power push” that she needed.

My mother and I arrived at Wembley Park via “The Underground” a few hours before the show and I was immediately taken in by the history of the grounds that I was about to enter. As we left the station, Wembley Stadium stood before us. While the building is new, it sits on the grounds that hosted Live Aid and Freddie Mercury’s legendary performance with Queen. Just months ago, the Foo Fighters had joined with their friends and fans to pay tribute to their fallen bandmate, Taylor Hawkins, within those walls.

As we walked toward the stadium, the arena appeared on our right. The building was built in 1934, but the front is more modern. While it only holds 12,500 people, it is the second-largest arena in the United Kingdom. Once inside it felt very similar to the Long Beach Arena. While we had reserved seats, the floor was general admission and standing room only.

While I was not familiar with the opening act, Turmion Kätilöt, the crowd was. They had a unique sound that combined dance beats with industrial metal. Their two singers sang in Finnish. It was an interesting performance.

The second band was Beast in Black, who had also opened for Nightwish on the American leg of the tour. They were received much better by the Wembley audience than they had been at the Wiltern. This band was a master at delivering 80’s era metal cliches. Their performances were tight and very entertaining.

Nightwish took the stage to “Noise,” a song from their newest album Human. :II: Nature. From the start, the benefit of seeing them on the arena stage was evident. As drummer Kai Hahto launched into his opening fills they were accentuated with pyrotechnics. Huge video screens enveloped the stage with animated backgrounds. The energy emanating from the crowd was considerable.

I found it refreshing that the set list had been completely revised from the earlier leg of the tour, allowing the order of songs to be a surprise to me. It was clear that Jansen was reveling in being in front of a crowd again after her health scare. If she really was not feeling like she was at 100% I could not tell from the strength of her voice or the way she commanded the stage.

While keyboardist and songwriter Tuomas Holopainen is the leader of Nightwish, the focus of the spotlight on stage is Jansen. This seems to be recognized by the band with Holopainen’s abandonment of his usual spot at the front of the stage. Instead, he joined Hahto and multi-instrumentalist Troy Donockley on the back riser. Founding guitarist Emppu Vuorinen and the band’s newest member, Jukka Koskinen, joined Jansen at the front of the stage but mainly stayed in the background.

As the set neared its conclusion, the band revved up the crowd to new heights with opening percussive notes of “Ghost Love Score.” Jansen soared through the ten-minute-long opus punctuated by fireballs that were launched in synch with the music being produced on stage. The crowd was urged on and performed their parts with enthusiasm. As Queen does with the operatic part of Bohemium Rhapsody, the band walked off stage as the pre-recorded orchestral part played. They returned for the finish to the song that includes what I call “The Note,” which Jansen executed flawlessly, followed by her congratulatory fistbump from Vuorinen. Now, having seen the band four times, I am still amazed how a note sung without lyrics can make eyes well up with tears.

The final song of the night was “The Greatest Show On Earth,” another opus that logs in at nearly twenty minutes. It is based on the writings of evolutionary biologist and renowned atheist Richard Dawkins and speaks to the limited time man has spent on Earth compared to its vast history. Its theme of appreciation for the time that we have been given was acknowledged by Jansen in a speech within the song that referenced both the pandemic and her health scare. I thought of my wife at home who was supposed to be by my side but how lucky I was to be sharing the moment with my mother. Hansen urged the crowd to make the most of every moment that we have been given and then launched into the closing refrain of “We were here.”

The band took their bows as the prerecorded closing of the song still played. Jansen then stepped into the spotlight to provide one last round of vocalizations. They stepped off the stage and the house lights were brought up. There was no cliched pre-planned encore, though the crowd would have been happy to have the band continue to play on.

After waiting for so long to finally see the show it almost seems surreal that it is now in my rearview mirror. The performance exceeded my expectations and was definitely worth the 5,000+ miles to get there. Now I cannot help but wonder what is it like to see the band in front of 82,000 fans at a festival. Another wish for another night.

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Carl Petersen is a parent advocate for students with special education needs and public education. He was elected to the Northridge East Neighborhood Council and is the Education Chair. As a Green Party candidate in LAUSD’s District 2 School Board race, he was endorsed by Network for Public Education (NPE) Action. Dr. Diane Ravitch has called him “a valiant fighter for public schools in Los Angeles.” For links to his blogs, please visit www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com. Opinions are his own.