After a couple of years of waiting, Nightwish eventually came back to Italy with their ‘Decades World Tour’, a show which the Italian fans awaited for longer than a year and that would not leave the public disappointed.
Perfectly in time with the announced schedule, Nightwish’s guest of honour for the night, Beast in Black, walked on stage. The power metal band didn’t hold anything back and managed to have the first rows dance and jump from the very first songs. Their setlist included classics such as “Eternal Fire” and heart-wrecking ballads (“Ghost in the Rain”), which was followed by a surprising, extremely fun and aesthetically innovative performance of the “craziest song [they] have ever written”, “Crazy, Mad Insane”: an unexpected chorepgraphy and led-sun glasses amused the audience. The band also performed the single “Blind and Forzen”, after which the lead singer invited everyone present to watch the new music video; he also announced the upcoming leading-tour which will kick off from Europe in the near future.
Once the opening act walked off stage among the crowd’s cheers, it soon was time for Nightwish. The screen showed a polite request not to use phones, in order to better enjoy the band’s road trip through memories. Troy was the first to appear and soon the rest of the members were visible as well. They wasted no time and started off in big style with fire, smoke and the exciting triplet “Dark Chest of Wonders”, “Wish I had an Angel” and a gem, “10th Man Down”: the public received the delivery so well that Floor had to note that it was the greatest start so far. The show continued with songs from the last album mixed with more or less played tracks from earlier records, including a mgistral cover of “Elvenjig”, fittingly followed by “Elvenpath”. Each performance was accompained by amazing and breathtaking artworks that included wolves and winterscapes, fireworks and smoke, which made the atmosphere (quite literally) hot and impossible to predict. Unexpectedly, “The Carpenter” and “The Devil and the Dark Deep Ocean” were played too, the latter one introduced as a twisted “love story”. In the meantime, in the background the audience could occasionally see Tuomas and Floor gleefully sipping wine. The ever-present “Nemo” didn’t miss its opportunity to have everyone dance and scream, and in general the fans were having a visibly great time, there was obviously a lot of jumping and moving, so much that at some point during the show a member of the audience felt sick and needed to be carried out by paramedics. Floor was clearly distressed but still managed to hold the stage with class and natural talent: she took the chance to thank the Italian fanclub (Nightwishers Italian Official Fanclub) for the gift received during the meet and greet: a very peculiar one indeed, considering that the band was given a star named after them. The members expressed their gratitude and once the singer made sure that the sick person was doing better, the gig took off from where it left. During the whole performance no fire, head nor fumes were spared, and during “Ghost Love Score” a moving sea of orange and reddish confetti was added, leaving everyone in awe, a final parting goodbye that left everyone present quite emotional.
After the show Floor and Troy stopped by to say thank you and greet some fans, confirming that the band too had a great time during the evening. Needless to say, Italy seems to be ready to welcome them again anytime soon, to say once again “we were here”.
Review by Michela Sereni