Nightwish: Showtime, Storytime

A few years back I found a video of a song I really liked on the Internet and downloaded it for my PSP. The band was called After Forever and one of the things I liked most about the song was the extraordinary powerful vocals. The vocalists name was Floor Jansen, a Dutch performer whose voice has a really pure tonal quality. She could be a great soprano in classical music but has chosen to be a rock performer. I lost touch with After Forever and didn't hear anything else from the band. Then this year I was reading Metal Hammer magazine and discovered that Floor Jansen was the replacement touring vocalist for Annette Olson, who used to sing for Nightwish. I only have one Nightwish album (Dark Passion Play) but I think it's a good symphonic rock album. Nightwish and Annette parted company and Floor was asked to help them complete the tour without having to cancel their booked shows. If I were a ticket holder I know I would want the band to continue. Learning songs by a band in short time without pre-tour rehearsals must be very difficult but to replace a singer who has been with a band for 6 years or so must be doubly difficult. The fan reaction would be something anybody would be worried about.
As things turned out, Floor learned the songs and the tour continued. What was surprising was that Floor did such an excellent job that the fans overwhelmingly responded to her in a positive way. She has a huge presence on stage and she not only does justice to the songs she actually sings them so passionately that she improves on the original! Quite extraordinary.

One concert performance stands out in particular. A night at the Wacken Open Air festival in August 2013, Germany. This concert was recorded and released as a double Blu Ray DVD with the concert on one disk and a documentary about joining the band on the other disk. The pack also contains two audio CDs of the concert. Called Showtime, Storytime I bought this as my first Blu Ray. It is AWESOME!!! Thoroughly recommended. I put it on and turned up the volume, it was almost like being there!

Nightwish has also confirmed that Floor Jansen will be the vocalist on a permanent basis and not just a touring vocalist. This should be excellent news for Nightwish fans. I believe the band are taking some time out, a good thing since their world tour was so long. But in summer 2014 they will be getting together to start work on their next album. I already have something to look forward to in 2015 now! I may have to gradually complete the Nightwish back catalogue in my music collection.