PEACE
The Louisiana, Bristol | October 29th
Arriving five minutes before showtime to a heaving and already sweaty Louisiana, it’s clear that the hype around tonight’s headliners Peace has spread substantially from their native Birmingham.
Infiltrating the South West with reckless abandon, the band find themselves at the forefront of the baggy/shoegaze revival currently in motion. Along with hotly tipped Mancunians Shinies and Bristol’s own Towns, Peace’s retro stylings and phase drenched guitars are responsible for the latest revamp of the genres originally pioneered in the late 80s.
Wasting no time jumping straight into the opening track from debut EP Delicious, Ocean’s Eye is a raucous and immediate pop gem featuring a deluge of wah guitars and a bassline that would sit snugly on a Stone Roses record. Following in quick succession come single Free Baby and its B-side Lil’ Echo. Here Peace firmly enter baggy territory, and the latter especially finds frontman Harrison Koisser adopting a subdued Jeff Buckley-esque croon, minus the vocal acrobatics. It makes for a chaotic opening.
The highlight of the set arrives at the midway point with the hazy and shimmering California Daze. Reminiscent of early Oasis before Liam buried himself under a mountain of Bolivian marching powder and lost himself in his own perceived self-importance, the song is, to put it simply, a bona fide anthem. Although the word is one thrown around fair too quickly and easily, from the initial synth drones right through to the crashing guitar solo at the song’s orgasmic climax, there is no other word for it.
Spanning a total of fifteen minutes, the penultimate song of the night 1998 (Delicious) is described by the band as “a longie but a goodie.” How right they are. Epic, sprawling and any other superlative you care to muster, the song builds from humble beginnings to an intense psychedelic finale which owes a considerable debt to krautrock.
It’s a shame, then, that the final song of the night is also the biggest disappointment. The band’s breakout track and most accessible on record Bloodshake, though well received by the assembled fans, felt somehow out of place amidst the rest of the set. The tropical rhythms and high-pitched guitars ala Foals, when juxtaposed with the earlier songs, proved underwhelming. Finishing the set with the previous number could have been far more satisfying.
Although hardly groundbreaking, and stirring an intense feeling of déjà vu, Peace are an impressive live prospect. Songs like California Daze and 1998 (Delicious) feel more grandiose in the live arena than on record, and if they can continue on this path of making haze-inducing rock and roll songs with underlying pop sensibilities, there is no limit to what they might achieve.
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Words: Benjamin Salt
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