The Kissaway Trail

Question: What’s the last thing to come out of Denmark and make it big in Britain? Answer: Rhomboid Liverpool footballer Jan Molby. Question: What’s the next big thing to come out of Denmark: Answer: Don’t know. But based on Monday night’s performance it won’t be The Kissaway Trail. The show really did have Danish written all over it – it was a pig of a gig.

Supporting Editors at the Brixton Academy, they had the ideal opportunity to impress a large crowd that was ready-made for their brand of anthemic rock. They barely registered a ripple of applause. It was not hard to understand why. For music, any music, to be special it needs to embrace the essential elements of soul, humanity – a sense of shared identity and experience that the listener can relate to. What the Kissaway Trail attempted to do was not seduce you, but bludgeon you into submission.

This was music without subtlety and lots of rock posturing. Marxist music that purged passion in a putsch that ousted melody in favour of regimented drumming and bashing bass playing. They are the Alarm with flat hair and without the tunes. If that is not a damning indictment, I don’t know what is. Throw in the arm pumping and overtures to the crowd to clap and it wasn’t long before people began making their way to the bars at the back of the venue. This was an attempt at rousing rock music without ever being arousing.

This band is some commentators’ idea of the ‘next big thing’. I can only suggest they refer to the weighty tome that is ‘Worst Predictions for the Top’. It’s the only place they will find The Kissaway Trail as a new entry.