Peace in Whelan’s, Dublin, on March 20th 2015

Birmingham band Peace recently churned out their second album, ‘Happy People’, an album that continues to develop the fun, upbeat sound that was first evidenced on the band’s debut ‘In Love.’ ‘Happy People’ is a well-produced album, but there’s no hiding behind any kind of produced sheen on the live stage – not that we’re particularly worried about that tonight. Peace have a solid reputation as a decent live act, and we arrive at Whelan’s expecting something good.

The band open with a blast of proper rocky noise, before diving into Bloodshake, the closer from their debut record. It might seem strange to open a show with a closing track, but the song is a belter and the ferociousness of the tune means the band hit hard without needing any kind of warm-up or time to settle. Follow Baby is a catchy riff and hook packed beast, which channels some heavier vibes than the recorded version and its energy fuels a powerful performance. The epic, spiralling 1998 sprawls out for what must have been ten minutes or so, but the band captivate with expert dynamic changes and dramatic build ups.

Californian Daze features a slower, gentler side  to the band without being any less impressive, and new tracks Money and Perfect Skin impress with their powerful choruses that are not only singable, but chantable. There’s a nice balance between old tracks and newer ones, with perhaps a few more older ones thrown in, but the band manage to work their way through all their major hits. The on-stage banter is kept quite minimal, with a few mumblings between songs and an apology for being a bit under the weather. There also seems to be a bit of bother with technicalities with a sound guy wandering on to tweak a few controls, as well as a few unnecessarily long pauses. The band plow on regardless, though, and certainly when playing their tunes they don’t seem to struggle with any difficulties.

I’m A Girl and World Pleasure continue the barrage of insanely catchy songs and the consistency exhibited throughout the show is probably Peace’s best feature. The show ended quite early, just scraping the hour mark, but there can be no complaints here. Peace’s show was stuffed with immediately engaging and energetic tunes that kept the momentum going for the duration, and the group sure did deliver tonight