Date: 11th March 2009 Headline Bands: Nightwish Support Bands: Indica Pain Venue: Brixton Academy Comments: I got there an hour early to find many hundreds of people already in a long queue. But got chatting to people around me so the time went by quite quickly. For the first time also a friend joined me. He arrived 30 min's behind me, by the time which the queue had grown by a saveral factors! Perhaps the longest queue I have seen, which is a good indicator as to how popular Nightwish now are. By the time we went in the queue had gone all the way round the block, back past the entrance and all the way round another adjacent block! Inside I skipped the T-shirts as 30 pounds was rediculous, and for a fairly unspectacular shirt too. I soon found my way to that terrace between the sound area and the stage which has offered me great views in the past. After just a few minutes the first support band, Indica, came on. They were OK if not spectacular for their music. However I was enjoying the view, as they were an all girl band, and a gorgeous looking set of girls too. I was surprised that they were only on for 15 minutes though. Swiftly following them was the second support band, Pain. They were much heavier, and at times reminded me of Nine Inch Nails. Pretty good band overall, although the vocals weren't so hot. The instruments were great though. They vanished after a fast 30 minutes. After a longer wait Nightwish were soon on just after 9pm. The first song, Seven Days To The Wolves, was excellent, and complete with pyros. I was close enough to the front to feel a blast of heat when they went off too! They then proceeded to alternate between older and newer songs. An excellent set list overall. My favourite of the main sequence had to be Poet and the Pendulum, which was also where the most spectacular pyros are, culminating in a blast of streamers that landed all over me. There was also lots of fake snow during Nemo, and later on a ticker tape explosion. Plus loads of spectacular light and smoke effects. The music was awesome throughout. The encore finished with my favourite song of all, Wish I Had An Angel. All too soon it was 10:45pm and they were off. This was definitely my best gig of the year so far. Since I saw them just a year ago they have expanded the gig and added the pyros and other effects that weren't there before. A shame the T-shirts were rediculously overpriced. It is no wonder the pirates outside are doing so well. But this one fly in the ointment aside, it was well worth revisiting Nightwish in a bigger venue (my favourite in London no less) with such good acoustics to see the new effects and pyros in action. And a great first heavy metal gig for my friend too. Although he was disappointed Bye Bye Beautiful was not played. But I guess only so much can be shoehorned into a setlist. I reckon he'd be up for another Nightwish gig in the future, as would I be up for a 4th visit. The following setlist was posted online after the gig: 1. 7 Days To The Wolves 2. Dead To The World 3. The Siren 4. Amaranth 5. Romanticide 6. Dead Boy's Poem 7. The Poet And The Pendulum 8. Nemo 9. Sahara 10. The Islander 11. The Escapist 12. Dark Chest Of Wonders Encore: 13. Ghost Love Score 14. Wish I Had An Angel