Pop
Hot in the ice rink in Helsinki on Friday 26.4.
Olin In Provinssi in 2017 at a gig that felt like a special experience at the time.
On one of the festival’s smaller stages, a band from which only one single had been released performed. It was easy to get a feel for the front row, because the gig was not particularly crowded. The band’s name was Kuumaa.
The provincial gig wasn’t a disaster, but it also didn’t leave the feeling that I was following the starting point of Finland’s future number one band.
I was wrong.
About seven years later, it seems obvious that Kuumaa will perform in a sold-out ice rink in Helsinki.
On Friday last week, the band released the third album of their career A drop in the ocean. It even left behind an international pop icon on the Finnish album chart Taylor Swiftin new disc.
Kuumaa has become a band especially loved by young women, somewhat insidiously. Now the hysteria caused by the band the magazines are already comparing to Dingo.
Johannes Brotherus’ vocals flow cleanly throughout the show.
Friday night in the ice rink, the hysteria is not massive when the band starts playing. Young fans screaming at the top of their lungs at Kuuma’s concerts has become a well-known phenomenon, but screaming in the ice rink does not incite the ears to become intoxicating.
During the first 45 minutes, the band plays the entire 12-song album, plus an unreleased song On the winning side.
It’s just a shame that the songs about love on the new album repeat themselves and some of them feel completely irrelevant. Live, they don’t stand out any more, but the best moments at the beginning of the gig are the familiar biggest hits A sense of destruction, Port and Here’s everything.
A pleasant surprise comes only when the soloist Johannes Brotherus performs a pop ballad accompanied by piano by himself I trust the future. As a concert version, it rises to a whole new level.
Jonttu Luhtavaara (left) and Aarni Soivio have been in the band Brotherus since its foundation.
Brother himself sums up the essentials, when in the middle of the gig we move to the stage where the band starts performing familiar songs from throughout their career.
“Jäähalli, now let’s get down to business”, the soloist shouts before Oh, just one more second – song.
It feels the same in the audience. When the obligatory part has been played, we get to the best songs and a really boisterous concert atmosphere.
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At the gig, it becomes clear how strongly Brotherus is the front image of the band.
The material of the band’s debut album, released in 2019, differs from the electronic soundscape of later times, and for example, in its chorus Shout louder is surprisingly the best part of the show – a sensitive ballad as well Twinkle twinkle.
The band performs its biggest hits with extreme confidence, as it should be for a band that performed over a hundred gigs in the last year. Brotherus’ vocals flow cleanly and the falsettos sound great. Of the other members of the band, the most attention is drawn to how Jonttu Luhtavaara working around the drums with respectable intensity.
At the gig, it becomes very clear how strongly Brotherus is the front image of the band. Luhtavaara, bassist Aarni Soivio and a keyboardist Okko Saastamoinen focus on playing. Kuumaa is a modern pop band to the extent that it doesn’t have a guitarist at all. In some of the songs, Brotherus himself of course takes up the guitar, That’s why I’m you – also for violin in the song.
Even though Brotherus gathers attention, he’s not a pop star who pulls boisterous interludes, dives into the audience or messes around on stage in any way.
Kuuma’s passionate fans have recently become their own phenomenon.
To get hot everything in the performance is restrained to the last and even understatedly simple. Stylish, someone would surely say. There are no extra structures of any kind on the stage, no guest soloists, no pyrotechnics or any other gimmicks. Difference, for example Antti Tuiskun to pop spectacles is huge.
Of course, Brotherus knows how to make the audience scream, and when commanded, the ice rink reaches a roaring collective chant for the big songs.
This is exactly the kind of stylish performance the band is probably aiming for. It succeeds perfectly in that. However, a memorable gig would require something more.
A total of 27 songs from the band’s career were heard at the ice hall concert.