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Review & Photos: Peace @ Barfly, London [Live]

27th September 2012 at the Barfly in London // "...with a confetti moment followed by a group of crowd-surfers (yes, at the Barfly)..."

by cfaruolo, September 28th, 2012 and has been Read 1164 times.
Last Edited by: Jack Stovin September 28th, 2012.

Buzz bands, hype and all that... What does it mean? Nothing. It's all down to the songs. Peace were blessed with the buzzity-buzz exposure pack, but let me tell you that there's still plenty of talent to squeeze from this watermelon.

We first saw this Birmingham quartet playing at a smelly basement in Camden at the beginning of the year and since then they nailed a record deal, toured with the Mystery Jets and Manic Street Preachers, released a remarkably acclaimed debut EP and booked a UK tour. First stop of the tour: London, a date that's been sold out since EP Delicious got 5 stars on The Fly.

'1998 (Delicious)' - a predominately instrumental hurricane of shades and build ups hit us for the first ten minutes of the set and the energy transmitted from the stage was vibrating. Doug had a few issues with his guitar but he seamlessly changed it for another one mid-song throwing the faulty one at the floor with no regrets. Singer Harrison was all dressed in black but he was emanating colours from behind his fringe.

The fans in the front row kept trying to reach them and hit hands after clapping their brains off between song and song, and the horde of photographers followed carefully each move of these dark and tropical characters squeezing in the non-existent photo pit. Peace didn't say much but they swept from atmospheric to bouncy, from Oasis on happy pills to Primal Scream riding a car in California with clever abandon.

The instrumental explosion of 'Bloodshake' came with a confetti moment followed by a group of crowd-surfers (yes, at the Barfly) including guitarist Doug who jumped on top of the fans and continue playing until the end of this utterly rich composition that's been described by themselves as "escapist and straight forward". An accurate way to describe Peace too.