C-Halle, Berlin, Germany
14th May 2011
Tarja & Markize
Due to her fascinating mixture of classical music, Metal, Gothic and Pop, TARJA TURUNEN attracts a very varied type of people. At the C-Halle, young girls wearing gothic clothes and short skirts were standing together with older couples dressed decently. Remarkable was the absence of Metal fans, apparently Tarja’s music is not heavy enough for the fans of Metal music. The C-Halle was crowded, but not full, and people were in a good mood.
Markize
MARKIZE is a French Alternative / Gothic Metal band which was founded in 2003 and consists of Alina Dunaevskaya (vocals), Nicolas Thomas, Franck Chentrier and Julien de Feyssal. They Currently support TARJA TURUNEN during the European part of her “What Lies Beneath” tour. http://www.markize.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/markize
Music & Performance
MARKIZE begun their performance at eight o clock and played only 40 minutes. Alina, the singer, was wearing a gorgeous and very revealing white dress adorned with gauze, whereas the male members of the band were chastely dressed in black an white. Alina’s voice is beautiful, but lacks a little bit of power and singularity, like the music of the band itself. The songs were nice played, but sounded all very similar. She managed to capture the attention of the audience ‘cause she entered the stage full of energy and power, but no one of her songs had the potential to be a catchy tune. People applauded her, but didn’t become ecstatic. Really strange was that MARKIZE played a LADY GAGA cover which didn’t seemed to fit for a Gothic / Metal band. But the band earned a lot of sympathy when after the last song, Alina took a picture of the public with her digital camera. 
Tarja Turunen
TARJA TURUNEN is one of the most interesting musicians of the alternative and dark music scene of today. Like so many other famous representatives of the dark and gothic music, she comes originally from Finland. After studying opera singing in her native country, TARJA earned her first successes with the alternative metal band NIGHTWISH. She left the band in 2005 and started her solo career, publishing a total of three albums until now. TARJA is now on tour through Europe and America with her last one, ‘What Lies Beneath’. The band which is going on tour with her consists of Mike Terrana (drums), Christian Kretschmar (keyboard), Kevin Chown (bass), Alex Scholpp (guitar) and the former member of APOCALYPTICA Max Lilja (cello). http://www.tarjaturunen.com / http://www.myspace.com/tarjaofficial
Music & Performance
At nine o clock, the stage was cloaked with a transparent dark veil adorned with T TARJA’s face, which created a mysterious ambience and augmented the expectation. At quarter past nine, the cello player entered the nearly dark stage and begun to play - a really successful beginning of the performance. During the whole intro, the stage remained veiled, even when TARJA started to sing. At the second song, the veil disappeared and the stage was illuminated with pink, blue, yellow and green lights. TARJA was wearing leather trousers and a long black coat and started a really intoxicating performance with head banging, crazy jumps and filling the hall with a lot of joy, energy and power. 
She captivated the audience with her outstanding voice and her warm and friendly attitude, talking to the public in a perfect German. When she started the fourth song, ‘I walk alone’, people got excited. But also her band made a big contribution to the success of the evening, above all the drummer, who performed a really astonishing drum solo, juggling with the sticks and earning a lot of applause. After this, also the band without TARJA performed a beautiful solo. The powerful ballad ‘Underneath’ was accompanied with keyboard and cello. After some NIGHTWISH songs in an acoustic version, the regular concert finished with a real Metal song, ‘In for a Kill’. TARJA played a total of three encores and left a very good impression here in Berlin.
Setlist
01. Intro
02. My Little Phoenix
03. The Crying Moon
04. I Walk Alone
05. Falling Awake
06. I Feel Immortal
07. Drum Solo / Band Solo
08. Little Lies
09. Underneath
10. End of All Hope (Nightwish)
11. Higher Than Hope (Nightwish - acoustic)
12. We Are (Acoustic)
13. Minor Heaven (Acoustic)
14. The Archive of Lost Dreams (Acoustic)
15. Ciarán's Well
16. In for a Kill
17. Where Were You Last Night / Heaven Is a Place on Earth / Living on a Prayer
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18. Die Alive
19. Until My Last Breath
20. Wishmaster (Nightwish)
Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 10
Sound: 9
Light: 8
Total: 9 / 10
All pictures by Nadine Ginzel (www.dyingsun.de)
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