Varttina, Somerville Theatre, January 19, 2007
By JEFFREY GANTZ | January 22, 2007
Värttinä |
From Finland with love, not to mention attitude, Värttinä arrived at the Somerville Theatre last Friday, and as the sorrowing wind of “Itkin” whipped through the speakers, the three vocalists — Mari Kaasinen, Susan Aho, and Johanna Virtanen — took the stage and broke into “Tauti” (“Disease”), fighting off the title devil dog with lots of writhing and threatening. They could have used some help fighting off the back line, six guys on fiddle, accordion, bouzouki and soprano sax, bass, percussion, and guitar; as Värttinä, who took their present form in 1989, have evolved, the boys have steered the girls farther from their distinctive odd-metered runos and closer to overamped backbeat rock.The 18 numbers drew largely from their 2006 release, Miero (Real World), with a scattering from previous albums going back to “Yötulet” (“The Night Fire”) from 1994’s Aitara, plus one number, the upbeat “Pajatus” (“Chatter”), that hasn’t appeared on CD. (It was scheduled for Iki but got bounced.) Dressed in combinations of red and black, with long skirts and bare feet, the ladies cackled and kaffee-klatsched, shimmied and swiveled, the band providing Balkan and Middle Eastern flavor. They explained some of the songs — “That’s woman power!”, Aho exulted after “Lumotar” (“The Enchantress”). “Eerama” and “Miero” (“Outcast”) were performed a cappella. Vartinen did the plangent solo on “Vaiten valvoin” (“I Lay Awake”) and the tongue-twisting snake spell on “Äijö” (“Old Coot”); Aho got the solo on “Maaria”; Kaasinen got a splinter in her foot during “Vihma.” (“Don’t worry, this is normal,” Vartinen reassured us.) Bringing out the vodka (looked more like Smirnoff’s than Finlandia) for “Laulutyttö” (“Girl Song”), they exhorted the audience to do the Finnish wave. The band gave them a mid-set break with two instrumentals, “Lieto” and “Pyry” (“Snow Flurry”), and an extended workout for the muscular guest drummer, Toni Porthen.
For the first encore, the girls came back and proposed an “advice” song, only they needed (they claimed) advice on “how to keep a man happy.” They polled the band. Fiddler Lassi Logren blushed and answered: “Use the leather whip.” Bassist Hannu Rantanen: “Bring beer”; guitarist Antto Varilo: “Dance naked.” They went for “Nahkaruoska,” the leather whip, then finished up with an audience sing-along on Seleniko’s “Seelinnikoi,” a song about a girl who marries without her mother’s approval, Aho and Virtanen pogoing with hands in the air. Kiitos, ladies, thanks — but next time, bring the whip out sooner.
