Temper Trap + Kissaway Trail

There were several reasons this return of the Temper Trap to Milan was worth anticipating, following last December's show at Casa 139. Their debut "Conditions" is marked by a solid, consistent melodic quality and a fresh, engaging sound, even if it's not the height of originality; every account of that December gig had been glowing; the opening act, Kissaway Trail, has already earned good reviews for their two albums. Add to that the heavy airplay enjoyed, until not long ago, by the single "Sweet Disposition", and it's no surprise to find the scaled-down version of the Alcatraz packed.

As mentioned, it's the Danish Kissaway Trail who open the evening, playing six songs across a solid half hour. The sextet's approach seems to be delivering indie-rock built around songs that stretch out and breathe more expansively than the traditional song format, with a continuous flow of sound and vocal interplay. The melodic ideas aren't so much about the song as a whole, but rather the guitar and keyboard figures that interact with an imaginative rhythm section and vocals made dynamic by the interplay of two different voices, whose timbres, truth be told, are quite similar to one another.

There's never a sense of predictability within the songs, and the listening experience is consistently engaging, with a sound that's clean and tight but also fairly intricate. Unfortunately, all this compositional and performative skill doesn't always translate into personality, since more than once there's an excessive nod to the style of Arcade Fire, especially on the third song of the set. Still, a convincing live show and a band well worth following.

Temper Trap play for twice as long as the support act, but the interest they generate deserves to be less than half. Let's be clear from the start: this isn't a bad show, but the Australian band's performance is such that it leaves no mark whatsoever and fails to stir any real emotion. The problem lies in a sound that is completely devoid of the nuance and freshness of the record, concerned only with maximizing live impact, and ending up flat and cold as a result. The rhythm section keeps time forcefully but with excessive regularity, the guitars and keyboards always interact in the same way and stick to the same key, Dougy Mandagi's voice is excellent in maintaining real power while staying in the upper register, and the rest of the musicians — almost as if realizing that their frontman's pipes are the only thing capable of rising above the ordinary — lower the intensity of their instruments during the vocal parts, precisely to push it blatantly to the fore.

Obviously, with this approach it's easy to hold the whole crowd's attention, but if you've been to more than four or five gigs in your life, after a while you find yourself listening to what's happening onstage purely out of habit, with no real urge to pick up on what the band is offering, since it's always the same old routine anyway.

The quality of the vocals, the undeniable tightness of the band, and songs that, as mentioned, do have good melodies manage to make the show enjoyable regardless — indeed the crowd applauds enthusiastically and in some cases sings along with the band — but it's all too superficial, and this hour of live music slides by as harmlessly as water on glass.

You leave Alcatraz with the feeling that Temper Trap wanted to set up a live show suited to big arenas, without taking into account that, at least on this occasion, they were playing in a club with an audience of under a thousand people. In cases like this, it's inevitable for a music fan to quickly forget what they've just witnessed, even if, as in my own case, one felt that overall the performance didn't deserve an outright failing grade.

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