Peace, pictured above with Ex-England striker and Stoke City reserve Peter Crouch (he featured in their promo video for Gen Strange), have taken over the B-Town baton from peers Swim Deep. And it’s going to be tough getting it off them.

Date: October 2, 2015

Venue: Rock City

Earlier this year, Birmingham nu-gaze future-glam indie heroes Peace played three sold-out gigs at Nottingham’s Bodega to launch their sophomore album. Now back on the big stage, there’s a real sense of belonging.

They’re a band that has steadily grown from the B-Town revival (B-Town being the term for bands who’ve emerged from the Birmingham or West Midlands region) and surpassed former leaders of that scene, Swim Deep.

Musically, they’re not a million miles away from that band, but they come equipped with a much wider fanbase and deserve this larger platform.

They begin with second album opener O You, before ‘old’ single Wraith really kick-starts the crowd into a frenzy.

It’s quickly followed by a further trio of singles. Their first ever single Follow Baby keeps the intensity level high with its grunge-like feel, new single I’m A Girl’s crashing guitars and bombastic clout gets the crowd bouncing while Money’s fuzzy squall and snaky riffs complete a crackling segment of the set.

The young – and now very sweaty – crowd are given time to catch their breath and absorb a respite which sees the band tone things down with three acoustic numbers.

After the calm, Perfect Skin gets things bubbling again with its scathing anti-body beautiful agenda, while Gen Strange, although not released as a single, is a dizzying maelstrom of all the band’s best bits.

Elsewhere the thunderous opening new wave welly of Lost On Me inexplicably morphs into a lost Duran Duran song and California Daze is a hazy, nu-gazing slacker-rock shuffler.

There’s a demonstration of their showmanship and prowess in a musical stew prior to the encore, in which the band strangle every last ounce of noise out of their collective instruments,  before fan favourite Lovesick sends the place nuts and Higher Than The Sun proves to be a real tub thumping belter.

They end with the funkadelic World Pleasure and with that, it’s Peace out everyone.