FZW, Dortmund, Germany
23rd October 2013
Tarja & Scala Mercalli
Her current album is the centre of this year’s autumn tour of singer Tarja Turunen. During eight shows in Germany, she’ll present the album to her audience. The show in Dortmund was far from being sold-out. I had expected more interest in the solo work of Tarja, but sadly the venue was half filled only. Anyway, the people being present should be rewarded with a great concert…
Scala Mercalli
Italian band SCALA MERCALLI came together in 1992. A first demo, ‘Hell Bringer’, was followed by ‘Gargoyle in The 1999’. Both recordings received quite positive feedback, according to the band’s biography. Over the time, the line-up changed. In 2004, the band released ‘My Daemons’, a promo CD, followed a few month later by a record deal with AB Records. 2009 saw the release of a new album, ‘Border Wild’, via Heart of Steel Records, followed by a tour to support the album. Currently, the band tours in Germany as support of Tarja to gain more fans. SCALA MERCALLI currently consists of Giusy (bass), Christian (vocals), Luca(guitar), Clemente (guitar) and Sergio (drums). http://www.scalamercalli.com / https://www.facebook.com/pages/Scala-Mercalli/232361453520288
Music & Performance
After the show of this Italian band I just asked myself: What was this? The band so far is quite unknown in Germany and were hoping to get better known here with this tour. Judging the reactions of the audience, like “We should have got compensation for pain and suffering to stand this”, SCALA MERCALLI were not really successful in convincing new fans. Applause for their songs was quite sparse, even though singer Christian tried hard to build a connection towards the audience. His screeching chant, being too fast for the music, was not entertaining at all and his stage behaviour was a little over the top. It took half an hour and six song, until the audience was redeemed. As Christian said, the band would be later available at the merch, but I doubt many people were there to see them. 
Setlist
01. Border Wild
02. Only Rage
03. I Will Stop The Time
04. Pain
05. Dissolved In Time
06. My Daemons
Rating
Music: 3
Performance: 3
Sound: 7
Light: 4
Total: 3.5 / 10
Tarja
TARJA TURUNEN is a Finnish singer-songwriter and composer, full operatic lyric soprano. Her work includes three solo albums, and an 11 song EP. She is best known as an original member and the former lead vocalist of Finnish symphonic metal band NIGHTWISH where she left the band in October 2005. After the release of her first independent album, a Christmas project called ‘Henkäys Ikuisuudesta’ in 2006, ‘My Winter Storm’, an album with various styles, including alternative rock and symphonic metal, followed in 2007. It sold over 650,000 copies worldwide and was promoted by a big tour, the “Storm World Tour”, between 2007 and 2009. TARJA's third album, ‘What Lies Beneath’, was released in September 2010. After releasing the live album ‘Act 1’, her latest album ‘Colours In The Dark’, was released in August 2013 via earMusic. Her live band currently consists of Tarja Turunen (vocals), Mike Terrana (drums), Christian Kretschmar (keyboards), new bass player Anna Portalupi, Alex Scholpp (guitars) and Max Lilja on cello. http://www.tarjaturunen.com / https://www.facebook.com/tarjaofficial
Music & Performance
Thirty minutes rebuilding break later, the stage was illuminated in many colours, just fitting perfectly to the new album, and with the intro ‘Deliverance’, the band entered the stage. When Tarja finally appeared on stage, fans welcomed her with frenetic cheers. Right from the start, one thing was obvious: the band really enjoyed playing. You constantly saw smiling faces, good interaction with each other and also with the audience, who just was happy to join in the singing and clapping. Mike Terrana, whose drum set was placed prominently at the right side on stage instead of the back, was as usually very extroverted behind his kit. Also new bass player Anna and guitarist Alex were always close to the audience and moved a lot. Naturally, cellist Max and keyboarder Christian were bound to their places, but anyway showed a lot of engagement. And Tarja? Famous for her time in NIGHTWISH and blessed with an extraordinary voice could convince big time. She is so small and slim (has she lost weight?), seems nearly brittle… you always wonder wherefrom she takes all those power in her voice. 
To sum it up, Tarja was in top form and accompanied by brilliant musicians you were delivered an excellent audio-visual performance. Supported by nearly perfect sound – only a few times I found the bass lines a little booming – she presented a great set, of course containing nearly all songs from her recent album, amongst them ‘500 Letters’, ‘Never Enough’, ‘Until Silence’ or ‘Mystique Voyage’, a song telling about a journey and being today dedicated to a dear friend who was out there in the audience. This friend was no one else than Floor Jansen, now being singer in NIGHTWISH. Besides many songs from the new album, of course there were some older songs from her previous releases presented, like ‘Sing For Me’ or the fan favourite ‘I Walk Alone’, which was – after a short speech – dedicated to all fans. Without them, so says Tarja, her success would not have been possible. Needless to say that she was rewarded with big applause for her kind words. I already said that Tarja was accompanied by a high-class band. The musicians proved her qualities during ‘Never Enough’, when Tarja left the stage for some dress change (btw, she did change dresses much lesser than in the past) and the band got some solo time.
When the set had ended with ‘Medusa’ from the new album, it took a while until the frenetic applause brought the band back. Reason might be that Tarja again changed her dress too. ‘Victim Of Ritual’ from ‘Colours In The Dark’ opened the encore bloc. If you have asked yourself of a song of her former band, NIGHTWISH, would be presented you got the answer now. And the answer was yes. ‘I Wish I Had An Angel’ was welcomed happily. Even though NIGHTWISH now has a great singer again with Floor Jansen, no one else can sing this song like Tarja does. The show ended with a second encore, ‘Until My Last Breath’ and the outro after not much more than ninety minutes. The set was too short for many, but offered great music! Tarja and her band could convince all along the line, making you forget this unnecessary and improper support act…
Setlist
01. Deliverance (Intro)
02. In for A Kill
03. 500 Letters
04. Sing For Me
05. Falling Awake
06. I Walk Alone
07. Anteroom Of Death
08. Never Enough / Never Enough (Band Alone)
09. Until Silence
10. Die Alive
11. Mystique Voyage
12. Neverlight
13. Medusa
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14. Victim Of Ritual
15. Wish I had An Angel (Nightwish Cover)
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16. Until My Last Breath
17. Never Too Far (Outro)
Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 9
Sound: 9
Light: 8
Total: 9 / 10
All pictures by Daniela Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com / http://www.black-cat-net.de/ / http://www.facebook.com/blackcatnet)
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