NIGHTWISH will play a special one-off live show in Los Angeles, CA on January 21st, a release show for the new Imaginaerum album. Roadrunner Records has issued an interview with bandleader and keyboardist, Tuomas Holopainen, in which he discusses the new album, the release show and more. An excerpt follows:

Q: On January 21st, you’re doing a one-off show in Los Angeles. Will that be a full performance of the album? What are you planning?

A: "We just finished a three-day rehearsal here. We just finished about three hours ago. We had a dress rehearsal for that show here in Helsinki. No, we’re not going to play the album from beginning to end. I never liked that idea, of any band doing that with a new album. For some reason, I just don’t like it. So basically we are just mixing up new songs with the old songs. I would say maybe 50 percent of the show will be songs from Imaginaerum, and the other half from the older albums."

Q: And is that what you’re planning for the larger tour, to present a large amount of new material?

A: "Yeah, it’s called the Imaginaerum World Tour, we want to play the new songs. These are the songs we’ve never played before, so we want to do them, we want to promote the album and it just feels natural to put a lot of emphasis on the new songs. But we’ll never forget the old catalog as well."

Read the full interview at this location.

Nightwish have announced a CD signing session at Sound Check in Hollywood, CA on Friday, January 20th.

Details:

Event starts at 6 PM

Sound Check Hollywood

8872 Sunset Blvd.

W. Hollywood, CA

310.358.0280

Nightwish recently revealed that Imaginaerum has reached Gold status in Germany, with more than 100,000 units sold.

Band leader Tuomas Holopainen comments: "Germany never fails us! Only five weeks since the release and Imaginaerum goes Gold! Magical, wondrous, imaginative and grateful times we're living. Huge thanks to all the fans and the fellowship of Nuclear Blast!"

Another Gold level was reached in Greece, while the record already made Triple Platinum in their home country, Finland.

And there is even more news to announce from Germany: the band's Once album has reached a Triple Gold level, and the Dark Passion Play album has reached Platinum.

First week chart positions for the Imaginaerum studio album include:

Finland: #1

Sweden: #3

Switzerland: #3

Germany: #6

Austria: #9

Slovenia: #13

Ireland Indie: #15

Czech: #16

Norway: #17

Poland: #18

Hungary: #21

Holland: #24 (Holland Indie: #12)

Italy: #32

France: #33

Portugal: #33

Belgium Flanders: #44

Spain: #49

Belgium: #51

Denmark: #55

Belgium Wallonia: #64

UK: #69 (UK Rock: #3; UK Indie: #7)

Imaginaerum is the band's first album since 2007's Dark Passion Play, which was then-new singer Anette Olzon's debut. The album sees a North American release today, January 10th. Check out BraveWords.com's review of Imaginaerum at this location.