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PHOTOS: Nightwish, Sabaton and Delain

Nightwish, Sabaton and Delain

Town Ballroom, Buffalo, NY, USA – Apr 16, 2015

Review By Jessie Lakatos, Photos By William Smyers
When I arrived at the Town Ballroom, the first thing that I noticed was the impressive line that went down for a few blocks.  If you don’t  know anything about the venue, it resemble an old movie theater without the seats.  People came from all over to see these three bands from afar perform  to see this show in Buffalo NY.  If you are are not familiar with any of these bands, neither was I at first.  At first mention, I thought wow, they must be pretty popular.  “Popular” is not even a close to suitable word to describe just how big these bands are.
Unfortunately, because of the long line, it took us a while to get down the block, through the inspection of security, and in the doors to get our credentials, we missed our first 3 song window period to photograph Delain.  I was however impressed with how the security handled the line, I have been to concerts there with less people and it took far longer to get in.
While standing in line, I always take the opportunity talk to the the concert goers.  I enjoy their excitement and feelings towards the band that I am reviewing.  I had the pleasure of speaking with a group that came from mid Canada to see them.  I learned that this was one of 26 shows that they will be playing in North America.  The Town Ballroom was the smallest venue with their fullest capacity is 1000.
Delain, a gifted metal band formed in 2002,  warmed the stage with their Dutch symphonic metal music.

setlist-

 

  1. Mother Machine

  2. Get the Devil Out of Me

  3. Army of Dolls

  4. April Rain

  5. Sleepwalkers Dream

  6. Not Enough

  7. We Are the Others

 

In case you missed it,  Sabaton, a Power Metal band from Falun, Sweden band that normal plays in venues all over the world,  that sells out to hundreds of thousands people, played right here in Town Ballroom, Buffalo NY.  This sold out show, packed with concert goers from as far away as Mid Canada to catch one of their limited North American tours, rocked out to a band that isn’t known that well here in the States just yet.  For, myself and everyone that attended the concert for their first time, it is easy to quickly grow fond of them with their metal riffs and their war history based lyrics.

 

I had the chance to sit in on an interview with Joakim and he explained that the band lyrics are mostly historical and they have their facts checked for correctness.  Most of the war based songs are based around WWI and WWII.  He mentions that he had teachers thanks them for using facts in their lyrics.  also shared a story that we met a 90 yr old man to thank him for teaching people about the history, he thanked him at one of his shows and they all came out and thanked him for his time, he was in a wheel chair. The man wasn’t leaving. So they asked him if he needed help? He said no, I am watching the show. But sir, our shows are loud and not calm. He said that the 90 year old man said “If I can handle the Nazi’s I can handle this”

 

Sabaton, starting in 1999, is so large that the have to Festivals and Cruise with the names on them.  High energy performance, on point perfection, with a flawless performance makes this band and instant hit.  Normally, Sabaton plays to crowds of few hundred thousands back home.

 

Taking the stage, the band was wearing their trademark army fatigue style pants and Joakim Brodén, the  lead singer,  wearing his special trademarked special vest, studded with metal plates Mohawk and sunglasses.n Playing on 1/10 of the stage and not able to have their normal stage set up, that has included in the past a drum kit set up on top of a full scale

 

Sabaton was formed back in 1999 in Falun, Sweden when the members of a band called “Aeon” reformed and rearmed for the upcoming first recording in Moon Music Studio. The founding members of Aeon: Rikard, Pär and Daniel Mullback had joined forces with Oskar and Joakim earlier during the year which had seen a few line-up changes and the guys decided on a fresh start and changed the name of the band to Sabaton. These are the same guys you see on stage today.

 

Sabaton is full of high energy from start to finish, Jakhim wearing the flag of Sweden as a super cap, to a fans bra over top his vest.  I have never see a more perfect precise performance.  They may have been playing in a much smaller place than they are used to, but no one left feeling that way, infact they left feeling that they blessed to see them.  I have seen a lot of bands treat smaller venues like second class or worst, Not these guys, everyone is first class.

 

Set List
         The March To War
  1. Ghost Division
  2. To Hell and Back
  3. Carolus Rex
  4. Soldier of 3 Armies
  5. Resist and Bite
  6. Swedish Pagans
  7. Uprising
encore:

 

  1. Night Witches
  2. Primo Victoria
  3. Metal Crüe
  4. Dead Soldier’s Waltz

 

After Watching Sabaton’s performance I was trying to imagine just exactly how was someone going to follow that?  just then… Nightwish dimmed the lights to blue and the sounds of the ocean and wales filled the place.

 

Nightwish, the third-best-selling band and the third-best-selling musical entity in Finland with sales of over 900,000 certified copies. Nightwish, also the most successful Finnish band abroad with more than 8 million records sold worldwide, and has also collected over 60 gold and platinum awards.

 

Nightwish announce their 2nd single, for the title-track Endless Forms Most Beautiful. It will be available onMay 8th as a limited edition MCD, 10“ Vinyl and as a download.
The tracklist is as follows:

 

  1. Endless Forms Most Beautiful (album version)
  2. Sagan (instrumental) previously unreleased
  3. Endless Forms Most Beautiful (alternative version)
  4. Endless Forms Most Beautiful (radio edit) previously unreleased
Line up:
Floor Jansen – vocals
Marco Hietala – bass, vocals
Erno “Emppu” Vuorinen – guitars
Tuomas Holopainen – keyboards
Kai Hahto – drums
Troy Donockley – uilleann pipes, low whistles, vocals

The Greatest Show- (Chapter V) Sea-Worn Driftwood)
  1. Shudder Before the Beautiful
  2. Yours Is an Empty Hope
  3. Nemo
  4. She Is My Sin
  5. Endless Forms Most Beautiful
  6. My Walden
  7. The Islander – (First half performed solo by Marco)
  8. Élan
  9. Weak Fantasy – (preceded by a Dawkins narration)
  10. Storytime
  11. Dark Chest of Wonders
  12. I Want My Tears Back
  13. Stargazers
  14. Sleeping Sun
  15. The Greatest Show on Earth – ((Chapters II) Life & III) The Toolmaker)
Encore:
  1. Ghost Love Score
  2. Last Ride of the Day

More photos of this event can be viewed at www.wsmyersphtotgraphy.com/bands

 

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