Gig review: Peace, QMU, Glasgow

TWO ALBUMS into their career, it may be that Brum band Peace are still feeling their way towards an idea, any idea, of their own. But for the moment they are doing tolerably fine, cribbing fairly apologetically from the indie giants of yesteryear, most of whom have reformed in recent times to show young pretenders such as Peace how it is actually done.

Peace

QMU, Glasgow

Rating: **

In their favour, Peace trade in tunes rather than atmospheres so, despite the pallid delivery, there was generally a vocal hookline for their fans to take up vigorously at various points during the set. The Britpop-lite Someday was buoyed up by a fairly strong melody, while Float Forever provided further singalong whimsy.

Frontman Harry Koisser displayed a modicum of charisma but he will need to turn up that dimmer switch to match the louche magnetism of The Libertines which he is chasing.

Brother Sam, wearing retro smiley face t-shirt and Adidas tracksuit top, grabbed his moment to live out the Madchester years he is too young to have experienced first time round, with a low-slung psychedelic funk bassline in the style of Mani from The Stone Roses. Rather than induce a head-lolling reverie, it sent the crowd into another “here we f***ing go” frenzy.

There were more Mani-inspired basslines, acid guitar wrangling and some of the feral indie funk lurch of Happy Mondays during the encore rendition of World Pleasure but, as elsewhere, this was served up in greatly-diluted form.

Seen on 26 September