Bucharest, October 18th, Arenele Romane. Tarja descends upon Bucharest with her “In The Raw Touri”. This has to be one of the best Tarja shows I have seen. And I have seen 14 of them.
First of all, big thank you to Metalhead for bringing her to Arenele Romane. It felt weird after all these years to be at a Tarja show and not be seated, but freaking finally!!
I cannot say it was my favourite show of hers, but it was certainly different. 2 years of pandemic gave her time to rediscover her love for the stage and let her fine tune her show.
She re-orchestrated most of her song to give them all a bit of a common sound, making the show very homogenous and just flowing. There are songs where I would have preferred the studio version, such as Undertaker or Diva. However, I do appreciate the effort. It’s worth noting that now songs just went one into the other without dead times in between, making the show feel much smoother. And yet, nothing was lost in the public interaction. Tarja is always the artist who tried the most to speak some of the local language and always gives some of her best tries at Romanian.
Big props to Tarja’s band and crew as well. Just because she is the big name on the door doesn’t take away from how good they are. This time they also had a band solo, or as my boyfriend called it “my favourite moment of the show”. I am super happy to see Alex and Doug do more singing, Alex especially. Brings something extra to the live experience.
The setlist was quite good. After all, this is the tour that should have been before the pandemic, to promote her “new” album. So of course, things are missing, but we got a few new ones (Serene, Silent Masquerade), a few older ones (Anteroom of Death), and a few throwback ones that we really enjoy (My Little Phoenix, Until My Last Breath, I Walk Alone). We even had a Nightwish classic (Wishmaster) and an acoustic moment. I absolutely love it when shows have acoustic parts, however, this one needed some more well known songs as well.
Overall, Tarja was just different, for the better This amount of energy and just happiness clearly shows her passion for it all. Even at the very end, she spent a few good minutes on stage after the band left to just take in the public and say thank you, which is rarely seen. So if you still get to see heron this tour, enjoy that!
On the not as wow side of the evening, I have to wonder why it was so hot in the heated tent. We have an energy crisis after all :)) and it wasn’t that cold outside. More than that, opening bands… I already said I have seen a few Tarja shows so I just know that the bands she brings on tour to open for her… Well they paid to be there. And that’s the kindest thing I can say. It’s never anything remarkable, which is a shame.
Last but not least, on a personal note, as I mentioned before this wasn’t my favourite show and something was missing I guess. I didn’t get the Ohmagad it is Tarja in front of me butterflies. Which is normal as I am getting older and I have seen not just many shows of hers, but a lot of shows in general. But it’s a bit of a bittersweet grief for all the passion and love I had for her, heading the fanclub, spending countless hours debating everything about her with other fans. Felt like the chapter of fangirling in my life ended, but I am glad we had a good show for that.
