‘It’s Friday, I’m In Love’. So goes The Cure’s early 90’s hit. But this is Oxford, and it’s Friday night, and the kids want to dance. Fortunately for them, Peace are in town to give an airing to their recently-released debut album, In Love.
The record itself is mostly all killer no filler, so there’s plenty to fill out the show. Opening with ‘Delicious’ and ‘Follow Baby’, Peace bring a brand of shaggy excellence to their live shows. You hear strains of Oasis in ‘Waste of Paint’ and The Cure in ‘Lovesick’, but these references serve as a source of inspiration rather than being a soundalike. It shows that as writers, they are happy to scour past decades for influences, but then make them their own. As a live show, they pull off a charming swagger – there’s not a short back and sides in sight, and that’s what you want from your rock bands.
With only one full length record in the bank, or perhaps because of a fondness for the track, a B-side gets a live airing. The announcement of such a thing would not normally fill a room with joy, but despite most of the crowd not knowing the track, it bristles with the smart hooks the band are becoming known for, and it’s one that can be quickly spotted and absorbed by the crowd who take their cues, as the chorus hits, to carry on making the floor shake.
In Love is a record that is full of the expected semantics on the subject of love, but it’s also an emotion that Peace are able to bring to their shows, and extract from the audience. The final track before the encore disappears off into a proggy freak-out, and is something to enjoy; it’s not like a Mars Volta/Cedrik Bixler-Zavala breakdown where he yells “you are all sheep!” (or some such remark) at the crowd. Those are fun too, but Peace live up to their name to evoke a certain spirit and atmosphere.
The encore arrives with more big tracks still to come. ‘California Daze’ is such a sun-soaked lament, it’s clearly built for far sunnier places than the dark O2 Academy, but it illuminates the place. Ending on ‘Bloodshake’ gives Peace a final chance to do the slow-groove verse flipping into a more urgent chorus, and to get the place moving one last time. The “ooh”s and “aah”s in the chorus are largely coming from the crowd as the track descends into its widescreen ending, with guitars winding over crashing drums. It’s a show that demonstrates Peace are more than capable of bringing an excellent record to life.