Surprises. They’re either the sweetest thing in life or sink like a led balloon. Last night’s surprise was thankfully far from the latter. It was very much a case of drop your plans and get off work to join the queues, Peace are in town.
For those lucky enough to win tickets to the gig, announced just the day before, they made up a sweaty and cramped crowd whom the band rekindled their love with, after their array of big festival stage appearances over summer. Visitors to The 100 Club on Oxford Street would be blessed with not just Peace but two other acts as well; fellow B-town boys JAWS and Nottingham outfit, Childhood. Both washed the crowd in psychedelic groove and set up the main act of the night.
They’ve learnt how to do these things now, Koisser and co. The setlist doesn’t look too dissimilar to that of their Birthdays shows almost 18 months ago, but it’s now been tinkered with and mastered. Their ‘1998’ cover kicks things off with it’s most spine-tingling of build ups and the well known songs are rattled off, the crowd growing in liveliness. There’s room for the new too. ‘Money’, ‘Lost On Me’ and ‘World Pleasure’ which are set to feature on their second album, all made an appearance. By the end of the set and ‘Float Forever’, the band were met on stage by sweat drenched teens mauling the various members, Harrison at the back trying to squeeze out the final lyrics and guitarist Douglas Castle hopping aboard the crowd.
After a few drinks and a chance to transform into his ‘pre-show’ clothes, I spoke to frontman Harrison Koisser about the show, their second album, and their future third album...
Hi Harrison, how’d you feel that went?
Really well, I thought it went good. It was a really good show.
It was only announced yesterday. Has it been planned for long?
No, pretty last minute, fairly last minute, not very long at all really.
Childhood and JAWS also played tonight, are you big admirers of them?
Yeah, they’re mates, we’ve been playing around with those guys for quite a long time, they’re beautiful bands.
Last year you played a string of shows at Birthdays in Dalston, how did this compare to that?
Yeah, this was quite similar to Birthdays in that it’s quite intimate. I prefer this to be honest, the Birthdays shows were alright but this was really good actually. We haven’t done a show like this in ages, it’s really fun.
You’ve done lots of festivals recently, do you prefer the bigger stages or smaller venues?
It’s two really different things ya know. I think with big festie shows we come off stage and don’t feel tired or drained. Whereas tonight you come off stage and you’re like woah! You’ve given everything to the show, so I dunno which is better.
I saw tonight you had to retreat to the back of the stage as the crowd spilled over...
Yeah, I wasn’t really sure what to do. I don’t really mind that, it’s just stuff gets broken so it’s like ‘I’m off!’
You played three of your new songs tonight. When can we expect the new record?
January. I’m pretty sure it’s January now, because we wanted to do it in August but the closer it got, we wanted to put out quite a bit of material before, and we put out 3 songs, maybe we should put out 4 or 5. Just try something new, get a lot of material out there.
Would you say this record’s evolved from ‘In Love’?
Definitely. I think we’re just exploring more stuff, different things, experimenting with different genres and stuff. We’re all a bit more musical now and we all understand what we’re doing a bit more. There’s a bit more groove on this record.
Are you intending on taking a break after this record?
Nah definitely not. I think we’ll probably tour for two years and then release another album, try and record it during that.
You’ve been pretty much non-stop over the past two years wouldn’t you say?
Maybe yeah. I think that’s the way to do it though isn’t it. While you’re young, just keep on releasing records and see where it goes. I mean the sound will probably evolve quite a bit.
I’ve noticed you’ve changed your appearance since coming off stage. Do you have any post-show routine?
Yeah, it’s nice putting on a new pair of clothes, I’m energised again. I’ve gone into my after show look!
And have you got any plans to stick around in London for the next few days?
Yeah, I’m staying in London at the moment. I’m gonna do some more writing for the third album. It’s really weird writing for the third album before the second one’s out, but we’re doing that now so I’m gonna stay around for a few months until December.
So there you have it. Keep your eyes and ears open, ‘cos there’s no stopping Peace for now. See their setlist below:
1998
Bloodshake
Toxic
Money
Follow Baby
California Daze
Higher Than The Sun
Lost On Me
Scumbag
Wraith
World Pleasure
Lovesick
Float Forever
By Joshua Shreeve (@JJShreeve)