After Within Temptation’s concert at Helsinki last December, four members of an unofficial Finnish WT-fanclub, Angels of Temptation, decided not to wait for the festival season and booked seats for Theater Tour gigs at Enschede and Nijmegen. Four months felt like an eternity, but finally the end of March came. We had a four days holiday at the Netherlands with two WT-shows, what could be better?
For two of us this was the first time to experience a seated WT-concert. Parts of the setlist were published beforehand so we knew to expect something special and unique. Some of the songs, for example Say My Name, had never been played live before. Some, such as The Swan Song, have only been played at very special concerts.
The whole concert at both Enschede and Nijmegen was great and really worth the travelling! The concert was divided into two parts. The first part was a kind of a soundtrack for a movie, and the setlist was
Intro
The Last Dance
Bittersweet
Overcome
Restless
Sounds of Freedom
Our Farewell
The Swan Song
Say My Name
Never-Ending Story
The second part was like a normal gig, and the audience was allowed to stand. The setlist was
The Promise
Ice Queen
Caged
Iron
Lost
Faster
Stand My Ground
Mother Earth
Sinéad
Stairway to the Skies
The first part with an awesome intro and all the special songs was absolutely beautiful. The band played well, the lyrics and the videos matched, the light show was fabulous. During the second part it would have been impossible to stay seated, and at Sharon’s request we stood up. At Enschede the whole audience was awesome: a lot of people stood the whole second part and were clapping their hands and jumping. At Nijmegen the audience was calmer.
Both nights became even better for we met Jeroen and Sharon after the shows. We had brought for all the band members bottles of “salmari” (a traditional Finnish liquor that tastes like salmiakki). We also met some very nice Dutch WT-fans and had excellent after parties with them. Now we are waiting for WT’s gig at Saaristo Open festival, but are also planning our next trip to the Netherlands.