The Breakers

In the antiques world the single most important thing is Provenance – it tells you the history and the owners of the object; in the world of music one of the most important attributes a band can have is Reputation and The Breakers come with the cheers of none other than Steven Van Zandt – Little Steven – willing them to success.

I have to admit to a real delight in the power of a great white soul band and The Breakers tick all the boxes – they could be up there with the likes of The Asbury Jukes and the E Street Band in terms of the quality and punch of their sound – at times they come over like a modern day incarnation of Exile-period Stones or even The Small Faces – yep, THAT good.

Toke Nisted has a raw and Rod-esque voice and backed up by the power of |Tomas Stelsvig’s drums and Jackie Larson’s bass they drive like a V8 Camaro with the occasional screeched corners but all the growl that you could wish for. The twin guitar attack of Anders Bruus and Klaus Helbjerg howl like banshees on the likes of ‘Riot Act’ but on a track such as ‘If You Please’ they come over like the Faces with all the emotion and louche languor of ‘Maggie May’. ‘New York City’ is almost in a disco place with a ton of strut and sass and ‘Union Street’ is deep, deep Soul.
The rocky side of their nature comes out on tracks like the opener ‘Start The Show’, which I swear reminds me of the Ramones with horns (!), or the wonderful ‘Temptation’ whuch the New York Dolls would be proud of.

You may have guessed from the names of the artists that these guys are Scandinavian, Danish in fact, but if you didn’t see the names you would simply see them as a great Soul/Rock/Blues/Showband.
Steven Van Zandt co-wrote all the songs and produced but if they didn’t have the talent and the heart he couldm’t do anything with them.

So much fun.