Winter Storm USA

From Black_Kitty of Tarja's forum.

Tarja in Romania - 22nd of June 2009

I've been expecting this for a very long time, and finally it happened: Tarja came in Romania for a concert on the 22nd of June. The concert was organised by Artmania and took place at the Palace Hall, Bucharest.

From the very first lines, I want to point out the facts that Tarja was very nice and the concert was very beautiful. But this time it was more than the concert that I saw. I'll just start with the beginning...

Before the concert, there was a press conference at the Caro Hotel and I was told to go there to have an interview with Tarja for The Heavy Metal Magazine. I sent an email to one of the guys of Artmania, a Mr. Claudiu, and I was told everything is arranged, so I prepared the questions and there I went. But, surprise- surprise...

I arrived at the hotel at about 12:45 p.m. and went in to look for my other two colleagues and to talk to Mr. Claudiu about the interview. He told me "Sorry, there is no time for interviews... only metalhead.ro will have a private interview. But you can still ask questions at the press conference..." Ok, that's what I was afraid of. The same happened to my friend who had an interview programmed for metal act. Not that bad still, comparing to what was about to follow. I took out my ID card, to ask for my press badge, but the man said "Oh we'll talk about the acreditations later... now let's walk in, call our artist and get started, shall we?". (Question: only I see it weird that the guy didn't check my ID? Anybody's ID? That the people just walked in, without anybody asking them anything? Blah forget it, maybe I'm just being weird...)

The press conference started at 1 p.m. and not so many things were discussed. Shy at first, the people in the room started asking questions. Some of them were asked before, like "How do you take care of your voice?", some were about different projects in general, and some were focused on the next album. Tarja revealed she has about twenty songs prepared and she is involved in the writing process in each and everyone of them, and that she is planning to have at least one duet for What Lies Beneath. Also she told us she loves the cover Jorn Lande made for I Walk Alone. And after about 15-20 minutes, the same Claudiu guy said "We should stop here...", and Tarja seemed very surprised and said "But why? I like to talk!". (A press-conference that lasts only 15-20 minutes? Hey, am I missing something?). Then Tarja signed a few autographs and took some pics with the people (me too me too ), she was very nice to everybody. Then she went outside to have the interview (the only one) programmed.

My colleagues from the mag said we should go take our badges and go get ready for the concert. But more surprises... We went again to Mr. Claudiu with our ID cards and asked about the acreditations, and with an ironical smile he said "There are no acreditations for Heavy Metal Magazine, because Heavy Metal Magazine doesn't exist anymore! " Well what's new. We work for a magazine that doesn't exist. So good we managed to find that out at last!

I reminded him (agressively, I might say) that he told me something completely different in his email. He made a wtf face and what do you know, he remembered something. He started saying something about forgeting some lists at home, but he kept saying HMM doesn't exist. My colleague and friend Diana got really pissed and called Mr. Lenti Chiriac (chief editor) and told him about the problem. Later she told me the problem is solved. True, when we arrived at the venue, Mr. Claudiu started appologizing. He suddenly remembered Heavy Metal Magazine is alive and kicking, and suddenly he found our names on the list. But still, no badges. We received some tickets somewhere in the back (!!!). So good I kept my very expensive ticket in the front...

The concert started in full power with the song Enough, followed by My Little Phoenix. The sound was very good, the voice and theinstruments could be heard perfectly. Tarja's beautiful voice sounded better than ever, and the band blew me away with their skills. Of course, musicians like Mike Terrana, Doug Wimbish or Max Lilja need no introduction or special presentation. Mentioning their name is enough to get an idea of what happened there. Kiko Laureiro (Angra) was also there in guitars, and beautiful and very talented Maria Ilmoniemi in keyboards. The problem is, along with the gorgeous singer and theterrific band, we could hear the bodyguards shouting "Everybody sit down!!". Let me get this straight... Were we at some theatre/opera, and we didn't know?

Tarja and her band sang most of the songs from My Winter Storm: Minor Heaven (my favourite), Ciaran's Well, Damned and Divine, I Walk Alone, Sing for Me, Boy And The Ghost, Our Great Divide, and also the Nightwish songs She Is My Sin, Sleeping Sun, Nemo and Kinslayer. The main event of the evening was the very first performance of the new song If You Believe, a very beautiful and peaceful ballad, with Tarja singing and playing the piano.

Sometime before the encore, my friend Lucian came to me and said "One of the bodyguards took my tape. I was filming and he took my tape". Weird. We saw Marcelo at the press conference (very nice man) and Lucian asked him if it's ok to record and take pics, and showed him his cameras. Marcelo said "Yes of course". Looks like Mr. Agressive Bodyguard didn't know that.

At the encore, they performed Oasis, Kinslayer and Die Alive.Tarja promissed a new visit with the next album, What Lies Beneath. I can't wait, but honestly, I hope someone else brings her in Romania...Really, she desearves better than that!

After the concert, I met my colleagues from the mag again. The one in charge with the pics said the bodyguards didn't allow her to take pics after the third song. And that they were very agressive tothe photographers. And to the people in the first row generally. Again,am I missing something? The concert was camera friendly. That's what's written in every announcement about Tarja's concerts. What part of "camera friendly" was not clear here?

So... This was it. I only mentioned what I saw. Someone arguewith me and bring solid arguments (I mean solid, not mean words andagressive attacks). What I saw was disrespect towards the artist(because it's her who has to suffer from all of these, it's her imagethere) and towards the fans (because they pay money to see a show, andmaybe they come from far away to see it). Last and not least, disrespect towards the press. I know the press can be annoying andirritating sometimes, but hey, when you're promise an interview, and then you say it can't be done because you want to have fun, and you say the famous rock magazine I work for doesn't exist anymore again because you want to have fun, it's called lack of professionalism. You make fun with simple things that you can joke with, not with serious things. If you can't keep it professional, get another job. Maybe you'll do it better.