By Matt Stocks / LouderSound.com
Nov 11, 2022
The Alive are the future of rock 'n' roll.
At this stage you’re probably thinking the Kiss Kruise is a purely nostalgic experience designed solely for old people to relive the glory days of their spandex-sponsored youth. And you’d be well within the realms of accuracy to assume that’s the case. It’s very much a celebration of the past, but the future is a topic of conversation that comes up a lot, not just in regards to the future of Kiss and the possibility of more Kiss Kruises (more on that later on), but also in regards to the future of rock ‘n’ roll.
During our live Q&A with Doc McGhee, we talk a lot about the future of the rock music and there’s several young bands on the Kiss Kruise who prove that rock ‘n’ roll is in safe hands – shout out to Caleb Johnson & The Ramblin Saints, Baron and The Aviators to name a few. But the young band that really make an impression on this year’s Kiss Kruise is Californian alt. rock trio The Alive.
The combined age of The Alive is less than the average age of anyone in Kiss (bassist Manoa Neukermans is 14, drummer Kai Neukermans is 18, and guitarist and vocalist Bastian Evans literally turned 18 on the boat), but they more than hold their own amongst a bill of seasoned professionals who’ve been at it for longer than they’ve been alive. They also stand out musically: their sound owes much more to the music that knocked hair metal off the top of Mount Olympus in the early nineties (i.e. grunge and alternative rock) than it does the dominant style of music on the Kiss Kruise.