The Kissaway Trail at Latitude Festival 2010
Danish six-piece (or five-piece + 1 tamborine player, it’s not a real instrument) The Kissaway Trail provided ambience intermixed with a totally new brand of Alt Rock. I think they are in fact a quintet, but there was a stray man on stage looking more unwashed than the stinking crowd whose energy was suggesting he was playing something more impressive than a tamborine. It looked like a sort of ‘Come on now, let your weird cousin in the band’ situation.
Urgent, choral vocals, militaristic drums and trilling guitar riffs resulted in a mighty punch-fist-to-the-air set. Although the bubbles from the band’s bubble machine may have fallen flat before reaching their audience, the music certainly didn’t. Creating an epic sound that could fill a headline stage without the OTT nature of a lot of Post Rock, the band sent a tingle of satisfaction throughout my body on numerous occasions. The crowds were treated to tracks from the new album as well as tracks from the eponymous debut; ‘69’ in particular set the audience to ‘excited head bobbing’ mode. Opener of the latest album ‘Sleep Mountain’ and closer of the set ‘SDP’ was an upbeat, energetic reflection of the show. After such a full-on performance fit for an evening headline act, I was left disorientated by the noon sunshine outside.
The band’s infectious cool provoked me to go get a few tattoos and take up smoking, before remembering that it’s not cool when British people do it. So where does one stumble to after such an almighty performance? I let it sink in over a ‘Dairy Milk Caramel’ milkshake. Mmm, sticky.