A small comeback tour by the 1990s Wilma band hints that it could be successful in the modern age.
Rock
Wilma at Tavastia on January 31.
great white, Do whatever, On the ferry… The Wilma band played stylish pop rock songs at Tavastia that could have hit potential. However, they have already been made in the 1990s, the latest one that appeared in 2000 Lovestoreon the disc.
Singer between songs Anna Kuoppamäki said that the idea of a comeback started sprouting two years ago, when the debut album Dust from the moon (1992) had been published 30 years ago.
According to the always unreliable Wikipedia meter, Wilma is not a very significant band. The search term tells the history in one line and states the return in half.
Instead, for example, Nuorgam, which flourished online for a couple of years as the bible of alternative music, elevated Wilma to the most stylish Finnish rock band of the 1990s.
Suomirock is of course a broad concept, but back in the day, Wilma was rather characterized as shoegaze. The ethereal style had become fashionable in Britain at the end of the 1980s, shortly before singer Anna Kuoppamäki and guitarist Hans Andersson founded Wilma in the early 1990s.
Back then, a woman making songs as the front of a band was rare. Wilma is usually named as Kuoppamäki's band. In connection with the small return tour, Andersson has been highlighted a little more diligently.
Andersson also plays guitar now. It would be hard to imagine Wilma without her. The cooperation between Kuoppamäki and Andersson went smoothly. The difference from more than five years ago was not visible at all.
Other musicians were Miia Keurulainen (contacts), Marko Nyberg (bass) and Anssi Sopanen (drums). The person from Keuru is remembered for the Pansies band. Both Nyberg and Sopanen have played in Husky Rescue, which, especially in the early days, had a lot of the same spirit as Wilma.
Along with the guitarist, Kuoppamäki's sonorous voice has not changed either. As a performer, he has rapidly gained more confidence. He was much more relaxed now than in the last century.
The gig in the beginning, though, I was also reminded of the subtle impersonality that plagued Wilma already in the 1990s. When the style is supposed to be streamlined, a lot is demanded of the songs. Not all of them have so many hooks that the even thickness wouldn't creep in to bother you.
The same thing sometimes plagued even the big names of shoegaze. The style is not named shoe staring for nothing. A kinder name is dream pop, which also does not raise expectations of jagged rumble.
At times, it felt that Wilma was aware of the issue and sought an edge a little out of character, even with hard rock-tinged intros. Those songs, however, calmed down to the same lines.
The lights emphasized a cool image. A horizontal light bar ran behind the stage and was bathed in light of one color at a time. The solution was idiosyncratic and consistent, but controlled in a way that took some getting used to.
Evenness was forgotten when halfway through we got to the parade of the most nuanced pop rallies. Towards the end Sisters drove some of the women in the audience even to drool.
Maybe it was high time to remind Wilma. Tavasti was not full, even though the loft and the back bar were closed.
On the other hand, there could be demand for a more permanent return than a few gigs. The gender distribution of the evening's audience seemed even and the age range was quite wide for a nostalgia-driven gig.
Quite a fair share of the population was barely older than primary school when Wilma finished almost a quarter of a century ago. And there was certainly room for children of this century as well. Wilma could therefore have hit potential.
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