Peace Live at The Haunt

Peace walk on to the stage bathed in a sea of flashing lights and the audience packed in to the sweat pit that is the Haunt in Brighton applaud furiously as they catch a glimpse of their indie heroes. Peace are here to indulge them with their clever mix of indie songs tainted with pop influences.

After the explosion of their debut album In Love back in 2013, Peace released their second, heavily Britpop influenced album Happy People. They thrive on groove laden, reverb infected indie pop that relates to their hometown of Birmingham. Other bands from that particular scene have faded away, but Peace have managed to maintain their reputation and have become one of the most talked about bands in recent years.

Set opener ‘Higher than the Sun’ has all the classic Peace elements. Douglas Castle’s Echo drenched guitar and front-man Harry Koisser’s subtle voice singing a happy and optimistic chorus. All the members of Peace command the stage extremely well. Their confidence in their music has grown hugely since they first started out which is shown when we are treated to the first flavour of Happy People. Peace dive straight in to ‘Money’ the first song they put out from the new album. It’s full of texture and colour more specifically royal blue and yellow as shown on the album, and upon hearing it live there is a sense of a band who know they are at the top of their game. Koisser struts around the stage with arrogance and swagger whilst the other members are intricate and on point musically. ‘Lost on Me’ a big hitter off the new album goes down a treat. The song got the audience singing along in unison despite the fact it might have been the first time many of them had heard the song live.

The classics from the first album also make an appearance in the set. ‘Lovesick’ transports everyone back to 2013 when Peace first reached our ears. This gets the whole venue jumping as does ‘I’m a Girl’ with its huge chorus and catchy lyrics. As the set ends with the funky Happy People closer ‘World Pleasure’ Peace have left a lasting impression. It was a gig which was floorless and proves once again that Peace are just one step away from breaking into the mainstream.

Friday, 3 April 2015