I've seen him very often before live on stage, - with Living Colour or with one of his fusion projects. But I would never have guessed him here. Holy sh... who would have thought that. Doug is a genius on his 4 strings and he can play tunes, where you never think, it comes from a bass or is even possible to play them. He is very selfconfident in his solo performance up there and he can manage, that his set sounds interesting and variable.Some of the aprox. 1.000 spectators obviously appreciate it. But actually not many here do know him really and don't know what to do with the rather complicated fusion sound. That's why the reactions are rather a bit hestitated. But please remember, (exspecially for two people in here) if you don't like something, does not mean it's shit. And 2) what about a bit more musical education and compromising in different music?. Because whatever Mr. Wimbish does up there, certainly belongs to the upper class of musicianship.  I'm personally not so keen about the anti-Bush song. Because as I always use to say: politics belong into politic and not on a show stage. But apart from that there is nothing to complain about it. In the ned Doug is joined by the rest of the Tarja Band, who he, by the way, belongs to as well. And at this point, even the Die Hard Tarja fans show some respect. well done, Doug, and I personally look forward to seeing you again in autumn with Living Colour. 
  http://www.dougwimbish.com/

The second artist on the bill is  ‚Passionworks’ and comes from finland like  Tarja. 

To be honest, I have never heard about this group before. And I think I am not the only one here. So you can't really say, it's a lack of general knowledge. Apparently they are currently in the finnish Charts at the top somewhere. But I couldn't find any record,neither at the singles charts nor on the album charts. anyway, singer Harry (Harriet( Hagglund is the focus up there with her spacy overall, which seems to be clued to her body since the band started out in 1999. Not to forget the papa bear hat. Yes it does look pretty funny in a way. But as we say so over here, one sparrow doesn't make a whole summer. So the outfit and the nice light games can't draw you away from a rather boring performance.The current release 'Blue Play' came out in suomi in 2006. But over here it was released one year later then. To me this finnish and seems like a strange mixture between subtile pop rock and a bit like sleepy legs. In any case, nobody is upset, when this spectacle is finished after 40 minutes.
http://www.passionworksmusic.com/
 
.... and there she comes almost flown in like the queen of the night  on a cloud of light, which let's her seem somehow from beyond this planet. 

Yes, my camera is dancing the magic flute twist out of joy because of these many spectral perspectives. The costume of Tarja, which is followed by many other's within this gig, underlines her pretty image. And she doesn't seem to loose a single drop of sweat under this hot lights. It's even these circumstance, which leaves all these fans here (and there are quite a few- still - Nightwish Fans) with sparkling eyes. The 31 year old studied operasinger acts very much with a certain devotion up there and says thank you  in a strongly accented english after almost every song. She also says, that she is so happy to be here and that fans are still faithfull to her. Yes of course this behavior fullfills every sense. Because one of the reasons of the Nightwish split apparently was her moods and acting like a diva. And Tarja certainly doesn't wanna keep this image. In any case, Tarja does everything to be close to the audiance to push up her reputation as a very nice lady. In her current band, apart from Doug Wimbish on bass, is also her little brother Toni Turunen on Percussion, guitar and vocals, and also our german-american drummer boy no. 1 Mike Terrana, who for a change is forced to play with a shirt tonight, We're certainly not used to that, are we?!

The set is a mixture of many Nightwish Songs and also new pieces of her first solo CD 'A Winters Storm'. But something goes wrong tonight, after some technical break down happens, and it's Mike to have to interrupt one song and start again. He had no other choice. Yes, the band gets around this with a sort of joke, But as Mike said later on, from that point nothing really worked our anymore. That's probably, why he sits behind his drumkit with such a face, that even Jack the Ripper seems like Balu the bear compared to him. Thanks god, most people don't realize anything else after this  little mistake. 

And yes, the Heavy Metal queen of the night actually sings a coloartur, which is okay, but drowns in the average sound cloud. Yeah well, not good enough for Mozart's Magic flute, but it's okay within the metal genre and she gets her applause from the fans. Next to the just mentioned song material there is also the cover of Alice Cooper's 'Poison' on the list. In my eyes a deadly sin, because, sorry, but the theatralic vocals don't fit  and it rather seems like a paradox persiflage. But well, you can't tell this true fans. The encore finishes a show, which is according to Mike probably the worst gig on this tour. But fortunately none of these 1.000 kids in here think it that way. And some of them even wait for more than 2 hours in the pooring rain to maybe get an autograph after show. I don't have a clue, whether they got it or not.

Over all it has been worth the experience and the pictures  to have checked out the nitingale of Heavy Metal once. My opion and conclusion is, that Tarja certainly has collected a few plus points with her show tonight here in Munich. But however she did it, it was certainly not a firstclass concert, when you look at it in a neutral, critical way.
http://www.tarjaturunen.com/                                                       

                                                                                                    More Live Pics of Tarja  here