A delightful early in-store session at Rough Trade East saw The Kissaway Trail showcasing their wares in a largely unplugged performance that was an interesting contrast to the epic scale of their eponymous long player.

The Danish youngsters proved their songs are good enough to stand the alternative treatment and can breeze along freshly stripped of their sumptuous string arrangements. It’s always nice to catch such an alternative glimpse at a band and see that they have the flexibility and rounded musicianship to handle it. The short but sweet twenty minutes began with Messrs Fagurlund, Corneliussen, Pedersen and Mydtskov demonstrating their combined vocal talents over strummed acoustic guitars, before later on the volume increased as Daniel Skjoldmose added wondrous jangly stylings to the highlight of the set ‘It’s Close Up Far Away’.

A shamefully sparse clutch of shoppers (or those who had left work earlier than normal like me) had a real treat, and it’s to be hoped that they had a good show a few hours later – literally across the street at 93 Feet East. Were it not for a developing stinker of a cold, I would have been tempted to see their other, energetic beefier, live side. Probably the best thing to come out of Odense since Hans Christian Andersen.

Links
The Kissaway Trail [official site] [myspace] [album review]