Topman and NME are currently touring around Universities in the U.K bringing along some of the hottest rising talent in the U.K. indie scene. You had to be a student to go to this event and this was evident as soon as I entered. The amount of people you could immediately identify as a fresher was disproportionately high. This was to Peace's benefit however as the crowd was very lively and receptive to the band as they reeled off a plethora of well-loved hits.
This is Peace's first time on tour in a couple of years and if I'm honest, it showed. The gig felt like a gig of two halves. The first half exposed the fact that the band were still shaking off the rust as frontman Harry Koisser's vocals were all over the place at times. The second half however really saw the band come into their own as they revisited big hits from their banging debut record. When the whirling sounds of frenetic guitars began the build up on '1998 (Delicious)' I could feel the ground shaking beneath my feet and the crowd were throwing themselves about with reckless abandon. It was a turning point of the gig and won the rest of the crowd over who weren't fully invested.
The gig only lasted an hour and when Peace were delivering huge hits like 'Money', 'Lovesick', and 'Higher than the Sun' the time absolutely flew by. They did have a tendency for self-indulgence however. They extended 'Wraith' to an agonisingly long period of time and I could see the crowd getting bored of it and just wanting the next track to start. 'Lovesick' got the biggest reception of the night so when that was followed with 'World Pleasure', which by the way is still a very good song, it all felt a bit anti-climactic. Swapping them two around would have resulted in a much bigger finish for the band but regardless, the gig was still a fun night of sing-a-long hits that was very well received.
