As winter approaches, so begins the influx of bands to our shores for festivals. Both Groovin The Moo and Splendour in the Grass have produced stellar line-ups this year – and with stellar line-ups comes stellar sideshows. Birmingham heartthrobs Peace are one of the bands travelling the country, hitting all regional centres of Australia for Groovin The Moo.
For a band who wrote a song about Australia just for this tour alone and filling out Melbourne’s Ding Dong Lounge for two consecutive nights, the hype around one of Britain’s much-loved bands was one to be believed.
On the first night of the two shows, the crowd was a mix of all ages; dads in cricket shirts wandering the venue, girls fresh out of high school lining the front of the stage. As members of Peace roamed around the venue throughout the night, the girls’ whispers and excitement filled the air – something anyone at a young age could relate to upon going to their first concerts.
[include_post id=”439981″] Melbourne locals Smile served as an amiable support, with witty remarks such as “we’re Smile… and we’re not from England.” Playing material from their debut Life Choices, the band’s jangly dream pop musings set the atmosphere for the night. Tracks like ‘Sunni Hart’ and ‘Still Waiting For My Man’ were received well, with the band maintaining a solid crowd throughout their set. “We’re sure you’re all just gonna leave when we’re done but Peace is next,” smirked the frontman.
“Make sure you don’t go – we’re just the middle star entertainment.”
As Peace finally made their appearance on stage, they were met with rowdy applause. Kicking off the set with ‘Money’ – back-to-back with ‘Follow Baby’ – Peace was dynamic and heart pounding. The size of the Ding Dong band room made it an intimate performance, and contained all the energy exuded by frontman Harrison Koisser. With enough swagger to make anyone swoon, Koisser displayed an unfathomable amount of energy in his peace symbol shirt – his dance moves only rivalling those of some in the crowd. He may have been little narcissistic, but the crowd loved it.
The band’s set comprised of a conglomerate of tracks from their sophomore release Happy People, and debut In Love. ‘Perfect Skin’, ‘Bloodshake’ and ‘Lovesick’ proved to be crowd favourites, whilst the constant “how are you doing tonight” met with screams and yelling from over intoxicated people. A Rihanna cover also managed to sneak its way it, much to some of the crowd’s delight.
The set ended with ‘Wraith’, but Peace returned for a three-song encore before leaving the stage once more. Thanking the crowd on multiple occasions, the band seemed quite humble to be playing shows. Their last tour of the country happening two years ago to small-scale shows, it seems this time around they’d developed a stronger following.
From Birmingham to the big stage, Peace has made a name for themselves in the past few years. Dynamic and exuberant, their live performances hold up as well as their studio recordings, and are evidence of a band that is hardworking and thoroughly enjoy their time on stage. With their performances received so well, it’ll be interesting to see what the band have in store next – and what their next Australian tour will consist of.
SETLIST
Money
Follow Baby
Happy People
Gen Strange
California Daze
Perfect Skin
1998 (Delicious) (Binary Finary cover)
Lost On Me
Bloodshake
Lovesick
I’m A Girl
FourFiveSeconds (Rihanna cover)
Wraith
Encore:
Someday
Higher Than The Sun
World Pleasure
