Okay, I have to admit the previous time I saw WW I was not terribly impressed. Technical problems, drifting vocals and a general sense of disorganisation hindered the talented band from showing its best. That weighed heavily on my opinion, especially when I wrote about the band in Progression.

However, the 1 May concert was a refreshing change. The intimate setting of Von Krahli was not acoustically pleasant, but the night of the concert it somehow made it better. The musicians, especially vocalist Hannes Pikkat, displayed much more confidence and it showed in the music.

The first set featured more straight-forward material and a few covers. Though I thought Pikkat did an excellent Ozzy Osbourne impression (even the stage presence!) for their rendition of "No More Tears", the performance of Rush's "Tom Sawyer" missed the mark.

Between the two sets while chatting with members of the band and the progressive rock community in Estonia, of which many gathered at the show, songs from DURP Records' Progresive DisDURPance Volume 2 was played over the PA. Included on this compilation was WW's "Wanna Know". Though in my opinion it was not their best song, it worked well on a disc full of Queensryche and Dream Theater clones.

That isn't to say that WW is devoid of a Dream Theater-like sound. Their second set, which featured their main prog set, was full of prog metal pieces. The performance of the new song, "M.O.U.R.N.I.N.G." was excellent. The opening soft vocal line by Pikkat worked well and sounded excellent, before the band dived into an intense prog metal monster.

Several other songs worked very well during the concert. "Wanna Know", fresh off the compilation release, was as solid as ever. "Farewell" also worked well, as did most of the songs in the second set.

A few minor technical problems hindered the enjoyment of the concert. The keyboards of Toomas Jõks was lost in the mix quite often, but also unnecessarily raised too loud at times. The high end of Elmo Saul's bass also disappeared once too often. But the one that cannot be attributed to the sound man was the volume of Andrus Lillepea's drums, which the small and irregular shaped venue could do little to accomodate.

Throughout the evening the rhythm section was solid. Bassist Saul was on the mark most of the night, providing solid backing to the rest of the band. Guitarist Raul Kusta Aan was excellent, and his sound worked quite well. The guitar solos moved well in conjunction with the keyboards. While the keyboards suffered from mixing problems, the sounds used by Jõks didn't do much to enhance the music.

Clearly the drumming of Lillepea was among the highlights of the concert. This world-class drummer showed exactly why he's been lauded as the top drummer in Estonia for so long. He is definitely more from the busy, large-kit style of Neil Peart (Rush) and Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater), effectively using every bit of his kit to the fullest. With a sound closer to prog metal than straight-forward prog rock, the drumming adds the extra bit of power to the sound. Though at times over-busy, Lillepea is the highlight of the band.

Though sounding quite good for the night, the vocals of Pikkat is still the weak link in the band. At times it seemed the vocal melody was just not suited for him, as the range causes him to go off tune too often.

But all in all, the concert was much better than the previous instant I saw the Tartu-based band. As Pikkat is based these days in Paris, the band does not play that often. However, despite the glitches, it raised a bit of hope that Estonian progressive rock is slowly on its rebound.

Mel Huang
Tallinn, Estonia
2 May 1999

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