I’ve never been a fan of the standard “Christmas music” and its overworked carols and drummer boys and what not. I’ve always hunted for music that’s a little different. Out of my collection of “holiday” or winter music, assembled over the last 30 years or so (yes, there are few New Age CDs in there, an awful lot of Celtic music, plus one lonely Josh Groban), here are some that sing to me right now.
The most recent addition to my collection isTarja Turunen’sFrom Spirits and Ghosts. Tarja is the former Nightwish vocalist and a true metal goddess, but this album is not what most folks think of when they think “metal”. This was the first Tarja CD I bought last year, because I found her rendition of O Come, O Come Emmanuel online (after discovering her through Within Temptation), and it is hauntingly beautiful (the videois, well, haunting). I have always found Christmas to be a bittersweet holiday, and Tarja captures that perfectly. Operatically trained, Tarja’s soprano is sweet indeed. Try Feliz Navidad.
For more of that moody, bittersweet quality, I love the old folk hymn, I Wonder as I Wander, as sung by Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary, on A Holiday Celebration with the New York Choral Society. This 1988 album is a wonderful collection of less-often-heard songs, including a couple of Hanukkah songs and of course, Blowin’ in the Wind.
A heavy holiday isn’t complete without the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I’ve had The Lost Christmas CD for many years, but it was buried in the back of the cabinet. So glad I dug it out! I love Siberian Sleigh Ride, but the whole album makes for a real head-banger’s holiday.
We bought Renaissance Holiday (presented by Chip DavisofMannheim Steamroller fame) back when our daughter was in marching band, and imagine our surprise when her band music ( Volte by Praetorius) popped up on one of the tracks! It’s been a favorite holiday CD ever since, always bookended by those other Mannheim Steamroller classics (Mannheim Steamroller Christmas and Christmas Extraordinaire) that are so familiar now.
My list would not be complete without the poignant Christmas in the Trenches, by John McCutcheon. I discovered John McCutcheon’s Winter Solstice when I first crossed into unfamiliar “winter music” territory back in the ’80s. The song tells the true story of the Christmas Truce during World War I. Here’s another take on the Christmas Truce story (as told by Doctor Who).
Lastly, in my continuing hunt for new music, here’s a holiday track, Seasons Change, from Circlefour, a rock band from the Midwest US. They’re pretty new to me, so I’ll have more to say about them in coming posts.
So there you have it–a few of my favorite things, musically speaking, for the holidays.
I was supposed to be in London today, attending a concert by Brazilian metal band Semblant. Since I’m not there and can’t do that, here’s more from the beginning of the journey…
After Groningen, I could not wait for more—music, live music, live metal music! And soon after we got home from Groningen, Within Temptation announced that its Resist Tour was coming to the U.S. When I saw they were coming to Philadelphia, New York and Boston, over the first three days of March, that settled it.
The weekend got off to a great start. On Thursday, I am cruising through Connecticut along I-95, about halfway into the five-hour drive, mentally ticking off my packing list—now where did I put the tickets? Oh sh*t! Kristin had even texted to remind me to bring them, and I’d replied, sure, no problem, they’re right here on the fridge. And then I went off without them—needless to say, I’m in a panic. I get off the highway—naturally, no easy rest area or side street was handy, but I find a spot to get out of the way of traffic, and send Kristin a frantic message. Within a few minutes, my very tech-savvy daughter has it all under control: “Electronic tickets—everything’s fine.”
On Friday, we leave Kristin’s place crazy early for the hour drive to Philadelphia, running through Wendy’s first for what we believe will be our last meal for a long time, and then head to the Fillmore. The GPS leads us to what looks like a vacant lot with chain-link fence and barbed wire curled around the top, under an elevated highway—this is the parking? Luckily our friend from the Facebook fan group, whom we’ve never met in person before, arrives about the same time with a carload of more friends, and she knows the drill.
For all three shows, we have general admission tickets. We are packed onto the floor like sardines, with several hundred others. Groningen was the first time I ever experienced this. When we first get inside the venue, the crowd is thin—the die-hard fans arrive early, and the rest fill in later. All kinds of people are here, all ages, from little kids riding their parents’ shoulders to oldsters like me, most wearing band Tee-shirts, many sporting fantastical tattoos, long hair, short hair, all different color hair, from gray (dyed, on twenty-somethings—why is this trendy, I can’t help wondering) to cerise to blue (like mine). Some tiny college girls behind me are long-time fans of Within Temptation and seeing them for the first time—I will give them room, just as some of the In Flames fans moved over to give me room. One of my takeaways from the weekend was just how nice everyone is; you feel like you are crammed in with 500 of your best friends—literally.
Smash into Pieces opens the show. First out is the drummer, completely hidden under a black cape and an illuminated mask, then joined by the others. The crowd slowly warms up—it seems this band is new to everyone else as well as me. But they lead off urging everyone to jump, and before I know it we are jumping and head-banging and every molecule in the room is vibrating. In the middle of it all, their vocalist dives into the crowd. Gasps and cheers—all I can see is his feet sticking oddly above the crowd, then vanishing. They’ve dropped him! But he clambers back onto the stage and with a wisecrack, goes on.
Next up, In Flames—the vocalist’s cheeky banter with the folks over there in the middle front, the white-haired, bearded guy with the gorgeous white guitar, the bass guitarist with his slashed jeans revealing a tattooed knee, the other guitarist with wild head-banging rocker hair and incredible biceps, and the drummer going crazy up there in back—I am grabbed by the throat and pulled into the music. If this is metal, give me more!
When Within Temptation comes out, they are as spectacular as I remember them, and this time, I sing along on many more songs. And when it’s over, all I can say is, “Wow, we get to do it again tomorrow!”
After the show, a clutch of us huddle together in the cold rain by the stage door, hoping Sharon and the boys will come and talk to us; she’d had some trouble with her voice initially and said she had a bit of a cold. But she does come over, and the others ask for photos. She agrees, but says, smiling, “Go home—it’s raining! Aren’t you cold?”
Finally we make our way to my car for the drive back to Kristin’s. The rain is turning to snow, and within a few more miles, it’s snowing heavily. We will flirt with this storm the whole weekend.
In the morning, we’re up and back in the car for the drive to New York, where we will catch the show at Playstation Theater in Times Square. We make another friend in the line at the theater. I satisfy a craving for a hot dog off a foodcart near the line. Then with our friend’s help, we secure spots at the barrier again. Some friends from Philly are here too.
Each band pulls me into their world—the musicians deep in their music yet feeding off the crowd, the crowd feeding off them, heads banging, singing along, horns up. Red and blue light fingers explode through the haze, the floor vibrates under my feet. I never want it to end!
Between bands, the lights come up and we chat with people standing near us. In New York, In Flames had a lot fans and one guy had been a fan for over ten years, and this was his first time seeing them live. His excitement at being there was over-flowing, and caught In Flames’s vocalist, Anders Friden’s attention. Anders asked him for his phone and tried to snap a photo of the crowd but the phone locked him out. The fan was devastated. But after the set, the setlist was tossed toward us, and I caught it and gave it to him, setting off tears of joy.
With the crowd warmed up by Smash into Pieces, In Flames further incites moshing and crowd-surfing. We keep an eye out, lest crowd-surfers slide in our direction. One guy surfs 4 or 5 times, with his lime green underpants hanging out.
After the show, we get our picture with Smash into Pieces. The drummer is still draped in black, right down to the black makeup on his (her?) hands. Kristin and our group of friends headed outside, but I lag behind for some reason, and as a result, get to chat with Anders and guitarist Chris Broderick who are hanging out by the door. “You converted me!” I tell them and fist-bump with Anders.
After dinner at the nearby Hard Rock Café, we catch the 7 train to a Marriott in Queens for the night. And then up and out to hit the road again, this time toward home—to Massachusetts.
Sunday was perfect driving weather, with plenty of sun and not a snowflake in sight, but by the time we arrive, the weather is degenerating. Our new friend from New York joins us in line at the House of Blues, directly across the street from Fenway Park.
The show is a reprise of the two prior nights. Each crowd is different, but the atmosphere is thick with enthusiasm and excitement. Afterward, we emerge from the theater to find snow falling steadily and the street blanketed. WT’s bus is standing nearby. We pace up and down, stomp our feet, and watch the snow fall. We hope the band will appear. A couple at a time, they come out of the bus and wander over to us to chat a moment, sign autographs and take pictures, before heading to the pub down the block. Finally, Sharon comes out, and she too pauses to visit with us. They have a driving day ahead of them tomorrow, and she seems relaxed.
Tonight, with heavy snow forecast (already a few inches on the ground), my worried husband has lined up a hotel in Copley Square where we can sleep through the storm.
What a night, what a weekend. When’s the next one?
Forget the coronavirus for a few minutes, and come back with me…
I grew up in the Sixties, saw The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show, the night before my 10thbirthday, along with 73 million other people. I spent most of my early teenage years with my little transistor radio glued to my ear (it was about the size of my smart phone, but a little thicker). The Beatles went in their direction, and I wandered away. Married in my twenties, we lived briefly in California where I listened to a progressive rock radio station that introduced me to Elvis Costello, Patti Smith, Joan Jett, the Cars, but then we moved again, to northern Maine where the only radio station that appealed to me was public radio. I listened to classical music in the mornings every day, Morning Pro Musica with Robert J. Lurtsema. And then somewhere along the line, even that stopped.
So I was musicless until 2018. Never went to a concert of any type—well, Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops came to my hometown while I was in high school; Teresa Stratas, a star singer with the Metropolitan Opera also visited and my mother, desperate to hear her, took me along. And then there was Weird Al, maybe ten years ago, with my daughter. But that’s it. Nothing else. I recall sitting on the stairs in my father’s house, knowing the Monkees (or was it the Beatles? Hard to know, it was so long ago) were in Boston—but that was so far away, and when I was a kid, there was no money for such things.
Fast forward—it’s 2017, and my daughter, Kristin, is fascinated with a band—a Dutch band. The band hadn’t toured in 4 years, and she’d missed them that time, so she said, “Hey Mom, how about we go see Within Temptation? They’re touring again.” “Where?” “Europe”. This of course gave me pause, but life had changed over the last few years: my husband and I had been traveling a lot; I’d spent a few months in the Netherlands on my own; and a milestone birthday was approaching for my daughter. After some further thought, I agreed.
What had I done? I’m going to the Netherlands to see a symphonic metal band. I don’t even know what that is. My daughter insisted we buy tickets immediately—“They will sell out fast!” A few days later, “I also snagged VIP tickets,” she told me. Now I am not only going to a metal concert, but I am also going to meet the band. What have I done? Did I mention I was 64 years old at the time?
With the tickets bought so far ahead, I had time to do my homework, but procrastinator that I am, it was Fall 2018 before I got some CDs and started listening. My daughter had actually played some of the band’s music on a road trip to Maine a few years earlier, so a couple of songs were actually familiar. I asked her about mosh pits—were those a thing to worry about? Not with this band, she assured me. I knew metal music only from headlines and that whole Walmart-banning-explicit-lyrics-thing that happened a while back.
November arrives, and shortly after Thanksgiving, we arrive in Groningen, Netherlands. Our hotel is next to the venue, Martini Plaza. In the evening, we scope it out, make sure we know where to show up for the VIP thing.
On concert day, we appear in the venue lobby, and wait. A small group of others, mostly from around Europe, are also there, and we chat. Most have been following Within Temptation for years, like my daughter.
Kristin in front of one of the band’s trailer trucks.
Then we enter the hall where we will first listen to sound check. The singer, Sharon den Adel, is there, soon joined by the other band members. She is dressed in jeans and a comfy jacket and leggings, and she’s tiny, and when she sings, her voice is pure, beautiful, but I understand she is not turning it all on right now, not yet. They come down from the stage, to chat and take pictures. It all feels so natural, strangely ordinary. Ruud Jolie, lead guitarist, says to me, “You’ve never been to a concert and you decide to come to Netherlands to see us as your first?” Yes, indeed!
(L to R) Mike Coolen, Ruud Jolie, Sharon den Adel, me, Stefan Helleblad, Jeroen van Veen, Martijn Spierenburg
Our selfie, but Sharon had to click the picture!
Following a tour of the backstage area, we take up our spots on the railing in the hall, and wait. Now the waiting is hard. My old feet are feeling it (we—perhaps foolishly—had walked into Groningen in the morning, not wanting to waste a minute.) Tech people are puttering around on the stage. Someone is tuning a guitar—“Is that one of them?” I ask my daughter. “No, just a techie.” Then the lights go down. A momentary hush.
Guitars scream, the bass pounds. Ego Kill Talent takes the stage, wild and crazy, leaping about, stomping, guitars driving, lights flashing from all angles. The music surges through me, like a tsunami, pounding, vibrating my body like I’ve never felt before. I am alive! I can feel it! I have never felt so alive!
Again the lights go up, again we wait, but now everyone is impatient, watching watches, checking phones. At last Within Temptation takes the stage—drummer, keyboardist, guitarists, and finally, Sharon emerges, and the crowd goes wild. Her voice is perfect, and she is radiant. I am teary-eyed. I cannot believe I am here.
I am so close to the stage that I can watch Ruud’s hands on his guitar, I can tell the notes he is playing. The lights are flashing, smoke is pouring from the stage like eruptions, jet blasts, contrails spraying from the floor. The drums—oh, the drums! The pounding is going right through me. I feel the music, and when Sharon sings the lyrical bit at end of Raise Your Banner, my heart is in my throat.
I knew from that moment there is no going back to silence.
Stefan Helleblad & Jeroen van Veen (Photo by Kristin Michel)
Sharon den Adel (Photo by Kristin Michel)
Sharon den Adel & Ruud Jolie (Photo by Kristin Michel)
Linnea Arold Michel 