Concert Review | Maija Vilkumaa’s party gig was full of nostalgia, and the singer shone like a rock star

Rock

Maija Vilkkumaan’s 20th anniversary gig of the non-album at Tavastia on March 8.

is 20 years since Maija Vilkkumaa got to hear two pieces of news within one day: his No-album is number one in the Finnish charts and is a recent member of parliament Tony Halme has sued him for defamation.

The musician, upset about the election result, who wrote on the internet, was not charged, but No-album continued its life on Finland’s official album chart for a total of 56 weeks and as a central part of the history of Finnish rock music.

Maija Vilkkumaa was celebrated by fans and almost Nowith his line-up from the time of the album, the album’s round years with a sold-out special gig at Tavastia.

Vilkkumaa was accompanied on stage by his wife’s guitarist Mikko Kosonenin bass Niko Kokko and on the keyboard Tero Pennanen. It was in the drums Jan Pethmanin in exchange for Ilkka Tolonen.

The feeling of the warm-hearted class meeting was enhanced by the fact that there was also the original mixer, lighting technician and the audience cheering Beach sex the introduced shirt seller, who, according to Vilkkumaa’s story, met even at the most difficult gigs, having fun in front of the mixing booth: “This is the best thing ever!”

The album was played from start to finish in chronological order. The audience, consisting of people in their thirties and forties on average, sang along to the album’s opening track Kristina’s from the first chorus.

Maija Vilkkumaa are the biggest stars of the early 2000s. No-album’s hits and especially the title track is includedto classic material that, when interpreted in a karaoke bar, gets even the corner tables to join in the chorus.

No sounds both very nostalgic and fresh in a certain way today. It brings to mind echoes of the melodic rock of its era, Garbage, The Cardigans, About Alanis Morissette and No Doubt.

At the same time, it makes you miss music that talks about more than love and breakups or getting married and drinking.

Vilkumaa is above all an atmospheric storyteller. His songs tell the story of whole characters, around which dramaturgical tension is set. No is a psychological thriller about the relationship between a neurotic mother and a daughter who longs for freedom. Cunt tells about a bully bursting with anger, who ends up on the cold hood of a police car with a knife in hand. You can’t mourn is a song darkened by heavy riffs, the tragedy of which is in the first verses:

“When Sarah turned eight / Then it happened / That only one came to the party / Even though twenty-five were invited.”

Vilkkumaa says at the gig that when these lines appeared somewhere in his head, he started to cry.

It has been a pleasure that Vilkkumaa has returned in a certain way to its roots and its own strengths with the album released last year 1973.

gig was organized on Women’s Day, but Vilkkumaa had no need to emphasize its exemplary role as a female music maker and frontman of a rock band.

There was enough other stuff. Vilkumaa is a well-known chatterbox. Between the songs, anecdotes from the album’s birth were heard: how Vilkkumaa, who is approaching his thirties, did yoga, went to concerts and sent e-mails from an internet cafe Pekka Ruuska In New York after the WTC attacks.

Speaking parts between about every other song gave the audience a chance to peek behind the scenes and experience something special. On the other hand, they interrupted the dynamics of the evening.

You noticed that by comparing the actual playthrough of the album to the encore, where the audience got really excited when the hits came in an almost unbroken loop. No-album, only songs that could have been heard in 2003 were heard: Truth and duty, Laura of Ingalls, Those who are satisfied with sfirst Satumaa tango.

Old band seemed to be a little confused in a sympathetic way, as if the time machine had suddenly thrown the old poop back to the beginning of the 21st century. The players started to warm up at least in the Led Zeppelin spirit To the hall– for the billing, and especially Mikko Kosonen deservedly got space for his impressive solos during the gig.

Maija Vilkkumaa was in her element and bounced on stage in her Whitesnake shirt and zebra-patterned pants like a self-righteous rock star. The purity of the vocals was sometimes secondary – as it should be – but Vilkkumaa’s distinctive interpretation also carried such very challenging songs as Wrong and I losewho haven’t been in a concert set for decades.

However, for the audience and the band, it was above all a nostalgic return to somewhere on the threshold of adulthood and a new era.

With the transition to the single era, such one-disc-sized phenomena will hardly be born anymore, and along with the round celebrations, you can immerse yourself in the bloody memories of your own youth.

Vilkkumaa is one of the biggest stars of the early 2000s. Picture: Outi Pyhäranta / HS

Correction at 2:45 p.m.: In the story, the bassist’s name was incorrectly stated as Niko Kosonen. The bassist is Niko Kokko.