Music Performances That Made You React Emotionally

[Porch Dweller]

Originally Posted by trogdor

The Floor Jansen / Henk Poort version of Phantom of the Opera left me amazed and moved.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plCScjvDOJM

I'd never heard of Floor Jansen until about six months ago. Then once again thanks to the Youtube algorithm, a Nightwish video showed up in my feed. Damn, she's got some pipes!

You know the old saying "I'd listen to them sing the phone book"? Yeah, a radio interviewer had her do that.

[trogdor]

Originally Posted by Porch Dweller

Good thread! Music has been an important part of my life so I could probably write a book on this topic. But I'll limit myself to the most recent time I was just blown away. Devin Townsend performing Kingdom for EMGTV.

I knew of Devin from when Steve Vai selected him as his singer when he was 17 years old. He stayed with Vai for a bit, left, and started some extreme metal bands which I was not interested in at all. Then he started a solo career. I'm not familiar with his music besides having heard a few songs here and there on SiriusXM.

Then a couple of months ago, for some reason the video for Kingdom showed up in my Youtube feed, and out of curiosity or boredom I clicked on it.

When he started singing at about the one minute mark my jaw dropped. As the Brits might say, I was gobsmacked. It's an incredibly powerful, clean, almost operatic vocal that builds to a fry that you'd think would shred his cords, then he seamlessly returns to clean for the "Stay with me, Lord" chorus.

It's a moving, uplifting song that is buoyed by Devin's humor and mugging for the camera. For example, he says he's going to play the most epic guitar solo in EMGTV history, then proceeds to tremolo pick a few notes (the irony is that he's such a good guitarist he probably could rip off an epic solo).

There are a lot of songs that move me, from Pink Floyd's Time to Allman Bro's Blue Sky to Opeth's Coil to Irma Thomas's Anyone Who Knows What Love is (Will Understand). I hadn't heard anything new in quite a while that had that same affect until Kingdom.


As a technical side note, the "EMG" in EMGTV is the company that makes guitar pickups. Devin's performance was a demo for the two types of EMG pickups he uses in his guitar. His guitar and vocals are recorded live; all of the other instruments are from the studio backing tracks.

Nice performance! I had only heard of him from Dean Lamb's Youtube channel. He seems to have a good sense of humor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDb85gzVzzQ

Originally Posted by Chainsaw13

Good choices guys. James, I don’t know the song, but I had a Devin Townsend vid in my YouTube feed yesterday. I watched some but will need to see if I can find it again, plus look for Kingdom. I remember him from his Vai days also. Guys has some pipes, plus a really good guitar player.

Marc, Floor is incredible. I believe the Nightwish CD I have is her singing. She’s also been on The Charismatic Voice YouTube channel (opera singer who more than reacts to other singers/bands).

I’d have to say for me the one memory that still gives me tears is listening to TSO, Christmas Eve and Other Stories. Took my Mom to see them a couple of times. Never knew she liked rock operas, or maybe she was humoring me. One year I scored front row center seats. That was the year my Mom was dealing with cancer. She had a blast seeing the show that close.

A close second is remembering seeing Rush at the old Palace venue, north of Detroit. Alex Lifeson standing in a wall of light, playing his solo during Limelight.

Being up close is the way to enjoy a show! I'm glad you got to share that with your Mom.

I've seen quite a few episodes of the Charismatic Voice! I've been meaning to dedicate an hour or so to watch the throatcam video on the singer from Lorna Shore's vocal cords.

I like Floor the best of all the Nightwish singers. Tarja was amazing for all of the early operatic stuff. Anette was great with all the music they wrote with her, but I saw them twice with her fronting and her performances of some of the old songs were painful. Floor can do everything with her own twist.

Originally Posted by Porch Dweller

I'd never heard of Floor Jansen until about six months ago. Then once again thanks to the Youtube algorithm, a Nightwish video showed up in my feed. Damn, she's got some pipes!

You know the old saying "I'd listen to them sing the phone book"? Yeah, a radio interviewer had her do that.

I've been a fan of Floor since her early days in After Forever. I didn't enjoy her Revamp stuff as much, but was ecstatic when she joined Nightwish.