Photo: WENN.com
Monday night saw Peace, one the most talked about new bands of the year take to the stage at Bristol’s most intimate venue, The Fleece. The Birmingham band released their debut In Love a couple of weeks back, toured with the NME Awards and have subsequently sent fans and critics into a frenzy ever since. Their astoundingly strong debut has resulted in a near sell-out tour, and this small and personal show was something to be very excited about.
Their backdrop was a large peace symbol, the lighting moody and atmospheric. As the band took to the stage, dressed like 90’s grungers with their starburst electric guitars and shabby hairstyles, they certainly looked the part.
They began with ‘Delicious’, a Stone Roses-like, gently thudding intro that’s chorus quickly sent the crowd insane. The sound quality was spectacular; Harry "Harrison" Koisser, the bands charismatic and incredibly rock n roll frontman revealed to the audience a camera lodged into the neck of his guitar, filming them throughout the show.
‘Follow Baby’ took the energy in the room to an unbelievable level, while they sang, “Follow baby, we’re gonna’ live forever baby,” it felt iconic. As they blasted through their album, thrashing about the stage and kissing each other (a lot) Peace put on a first-rate show.
The frontman then claimed that this was, “One of the best nights we’ve ever played” much to the delight of everyone present. They ended with the 10- minute- long, Binary Finary cover of ‘1998’ taken from the EP Delicious. Normally, if a relatively new band were to drop a mostly instrumental track of this length at a live show it would go down like a lead balloon. Yet, Peace’s rendition had the adverse effect.
The encore was ‘California Daze’, a dreamy, melodic rock track that was written whilst the frontman was promoting a club night in their native Birmingham, standing up all day with one of those big arrows pointing to the venue. They wrapped up their most killer track and biggest hit ‘Bloodshake’, inviting everyone to come and join them at a nearby pub afterward.
It was one of those gigs that just felt special. The kind of show that you will brag about to your friends in the future and say, ‘I was there’.
