Nightwish
Made In Hong Kong (And In Various Other Places)

Their last live was in 2006, "End Of An Era," perhaps the best live album in history (certainly theirs). After the change of singer and the recording of their latest, sumptuous album, many fans and beyond were curious to hear how the newcomer, Anette Olzon, would fare during the concerts. In response to this Hamlet-like question, Nightwish presents us with the 'live' of their latest tour, "Made In Hong Kong (And In Various Other Places)." 'Live' in quotes because the product we have is composed of a CD with 8 live tracks recorded during the tour in various places and plus two B-sides from "Dark Passion Play," as well as a demo version of "Cadence Of Her Last Breath", and a DVD containing the singles' videos from the album and a tour documentary.

The live tracks are the heart of the album and are:
"Bye Bye Beautiful", one of the singles, with a sweeping chorus that delivers the maximum thanks to Marco's interpretation; "Whoever Brings The Night" is fiercely alluring and, though on the album it seemed somewhat strange and out of place, live it shows its best; "Amaranth", which gains darkness and power here; "The Poet And The Pendulum", the most monumental track of Nightwish that loses nothing even in the live version; "Sahara", the most fantasy-like song from the album, with the chorus '1001 nights unseen' serving as an excuse to engage the audience; "The Islander", a sweet ballad here enriched by Tuomas' keyboards, which eventually picks up the theme from 'The Piano Lesson'; "Last Of The Wilds", a beautiful instrumental interlude that here doesn’t quite measure up like on the album; "7 Days To The Wolves", perhaps the best track on the album.

Nightwish do not disappoint: almost all new songs are flawless and leave no room for breath for the listener. Everything is perfect, except, unfortunately, a very noticeable mistake at the end of "The Poet And The Pendulum" by Anette, who did not make the same mistake on the album and in other concerts. Besides this, it's slightly baffling there aren't any songs prior to "Dark Passion Play," perhaps to avoid the usual Tarja-Anette comparison. A comparison which, as made evident by the live, ends in a tie: Anette is perfectly capable of holding the stage and engaging the audience and, apart from the aforementioned mistake, never goes off-key.
The 'bonus' tracks are "Escapist", a song that reminds us, as if it were necessary, of Tuomas' desire to escape reality and solitude, and the ballad sung by Marco, "While Your Lips Are Still Red", sweet and romantic. "Cadence Of Her Last Breath" in demo form is perhaps even more compelling, direct, and full of pathos.

The three videos from the singles in the DVD are exactly what you'd expect from Nightwish, entertaining and poetic: "Bye Bye Beautiful" comes off as a mockery to all those who claimed the choice of singer was based on aesthetics, "Amaranth" makes the lyrics' content even clearer with a kind of sad fairy tale, "The Islander" is extremely poetic with the story of the lighthouse keeper from the lyrics. The documentary "Back In The Day... Is Now" is an interesting and entertaining 'Behind The Scenes' describing the band's life during the tour, through an interview with Tuomas.

This "Made In Hong Kong (And In Various Other Places)" is definitely not, however, the live one might have expected from Nightwish's longest and most expensive tour, also due to the fact that the live tracks don't come from the same concert, lacking somewhat that typical live flavor, with interludes and dialogues that, although present here, appear disconnected from each other. Due to this and the fact that the whole is interesting and engaging enough, besides representing the possibility to get some otherwise difficult (legally) tracks, but also quite slapdash, the final rating can't go beyond a 3.5, rounded up, in the hope that Nightwish finally decides to give life to that live with orchestra that fans have always been waiting for. This CD+DVD is a useful product only for those who do not have the patience to wait for the band's next studio album.