The 24th of January was (only) the 4th time that I'd seem Peace so far and the first time I'd seen them (amazingly) in over a year. Each time I've seen them. They've gained confidence and been better than the time before. What was really noticeable is that Harry Koisser has undergone a Marc Bolan style transformation. Sporting a natty brown fur coat, an earring and half arsed blonde highlights. He's now more badass, more rock n roll. Life on the road and outside of Birmingham has made him much cooler. The lyrics and tone of the songs have changed ever so slightly, while the songs on 'In Love' were about love and youthful optimism, the songs off the upcoming 'Happy People' are slightly darker. 'I'm a Girl' is about gender politics, and there was a slower Ballard about loneliness which felt ironic to me, being surrounded by teenagers making out. Older newbies such as 'Lost on me' and 'Money' are already fan favourites, the albums not even out yet but everyone went mad for those songs, and knew all of the words. Peace are every bit as much fun as they ever have been. 1998 was the high point for me, words cannot describe the joy of hearing that song live. This time it was performed with no gimmicks, no confetti or double neck Gibson's. The song itself was enough. As usual banter was kept to a minimum, With Harry occasionally explaining what the songs are about and whether we were all having a great Friday night, before realising it was Saturday.
The crowd were in a party mood well before Peace had even come on stage, and by starting the set with 'higher than the sun, and follow baby, the crowd instantly became a moving, sweating, clothed orgy, of kids, crushing each other, and pushing forward. If this had been done in the Temple rooms, someone might have died. I lost my shoe at one point, and found my filthy van on some guys foot, having lost his Chelsea boot. before I'd found my disgusting filthy shoe though Peace had a few more songs to play. After cooling us down with the slower 'Sugarstone' they finished with 'Wraith', one of the funkiest songs they've got. Then just left, as the guitar feedback made a repetitive bleeping noise for a few minutes. Once people had cooled down the inevitable cries for an encore had started. AS if they were ever going to leave us there. The encore mixed new tracks 'Someday' and 'I'm a Girl' and 'Lovesick' which the crowd loved. Harry informed us that they'd be doing a DJ Set later, and that we were all welcome if we wanted to hear 'Uptown Funk' played 15 times. I'll tell you about that later. B-Town Rating 9.2/10
http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/peace/2015/the-library-the-institute-birmingham-england-63ca827b.html
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