Jessica Clingempeel | Founder | Co-Owner
Tarja is back! The North American “Living The Dream” tour started in Philadelphia. Those who had the VIP upgrade got into sound check a little after 3:00pm and spent a little over an hour watching and listening. Right after sound check, we went in for the meet and greet. Soon after we were ready for the show. The last time Tarja was on American soil was 2018 and we were ready for her!
Chaoseum was the opener for Tarja and they did not disappoint. If I had to sum their sound up, I would say Korn 2.0. They are a band from Switzerland who has toured with Tarja before and for good reason. I had never heard of them before, but am now a fan and would definitely see them again in the future! The set was flawless! The instrumentals meshed well with the vocals and the vocalist had different ranges to his voice. He could hit a note! I have to add, he looked good too. 😉
Now for the main event – Tarja! Lights down, intro plays. Soon the guys begin to walk on stage and “Eye of the Storm” begins, and Tarja, in all her glory, walks on stage with the outfit you see her wearing on the “Best of..” covers. The crowd is going wild and are already singing along and jumping, some even crying. There was a little girl in the crowd who I let get to the barrier beside me. She went crazy when Tarja waved at her. I gave her a signed poster and she was given a drum stick as well. Her night was made.
Tarja did 3 outfit changes, all of which were stunning! The last outfit, as you can see in the photo above, was a new outfit which Tarja dubbed her “space outfit”. The set was long and filled with pure energy! A wide variety of tracks from all studio albums were played. The crowd went wild when “Nemo” began to play and for good reason as that was the final era of Nightwish that lead to Tarja’s solo career. There was an intimate acoustic performance in the middle of the set where it was just Tarja and the piano. In Baltimore, I was in tears, and it was even more intimate as a friend of hers had died a day before.
As with Chaoseum, the instrumentals were flawless. Doug on bass, at one point, playing with his teeth or mouth. He has always been a badass on the bass. We all know him from his other band, Living Colour. If you don’t, shame on you. Alex and Julian slaying on guitars especially during their solos. Christian wowing the crowd during the beginning of “Innocence” and of course the drummer Alex Holzwarth hitting every beat. And then you have Tarja, the queen, the main instrument of the band. Her vocals belting every note that comes out. Perfection – no mistakes are heard, just beauty. Amazing energy all night. If you were bored, then I don’t know what venue you were at or you were just that intoxicated. Both nights were out of this world, and I already miss it.
This was both my sister’s and mom’s first time ever seeing Tarja live and they LOVED IT. Mom has more appreciation for her music now.
I have to also comment on the first venue, Theater of the Living Arts in Philadelphia. Not only am I the co-owner of this webzine, but as most of you know, I am also Tarja’s USA admin. (By the way Tarja, thanks for the wonderful conversations we had at both shows! As always, it was great seeing you!)
Moving on, the venue, both security and manager/LiveNation, (who goes by Dana Clem), treated me like pure shit. She not only did not believe I was the administrator of Winter Storm, she did not want to see the email from Tarja’s husband, website, or anything else I had on me, including my badge. She just downright spoke rudely to me and claimed my badge was a fake. She went back in, and security came out telling me to move off of the premises. I stood at the establishment next door to them, and they still made it out like I was on their property and asked me to move away even further laughing while doing so. Other attendees walked over to me and even complained about how they were rude. When they were allowing people in, not only did they confiscate my admin badge, but they also took my press badge away from me. At the end of the show, where they hurried everyone out the second the band left the stage, the security that laughed at me outside, gave me my badges back and had the audacity to say have a good night to me. Never have I ever had an issue with any venue, and I have been to a lot including WACKEN in Germany. NEVER an issue.
I also want to add that they wanted to keep me from taking Tarja’s tea in that Tarja already knew she was getting, so I had to give it to Eleonora (tour manager) and they still proceeded to check it. Looking online at reviews of this venue I see other people had similar issues as well. That is not a good thing. Poor security and management.
P.S. I also had my autistic sister with me. The other venue, Baltimore Soundstage, was awesome!
Anyway – both shows were AMAZING!
Review of the NY show coming soon from co-owner Ryan Murray, so stay tuned. For more photos I took, check out below!
Ethereal Metal 
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