Live: Peaness @ Soup Kitchen, Manchester

In the cavernous, smoke-filled belly of Manchester’s Soup Kitchen finds a sell-out audience eager to catch the latest step in the ascendance of Peaness, who are embarking on a short UK tour to kick off a busy year.

Support comes in the guise of rigid-tight Witching Waves, whose energetic and well-composed punk riffing and thundering drums brings the crowd to the lip of the stage. Features in BBC Introducing and Line of Best Fit demonstrate why the three-piece are a band to be taken seriously, even if their mid-set banter isn’t.

Peaness have garnered plaudits through incessant live touring since their formation in 2014. Despite their tongue-in-cheek name and good-humoured, upbeat songs, the band have a complex musicality and highly efficient delivery during their set that shows a committed outfit. They are possibly the more polite riot grrrl band ever, with smiles fixed throughout, giggles and exclamations of thanks resonating between songs. The audience is seemingly just as happy to be there as the band.

Songs about anxiety and Brexit, ‘Girl Just Relax’ and ‘Breakfast’, bring cheers and laughter from the crowd. The band turns back to them for song suggestions in a ‘Millionaire’-inspired ask the audience segment with accompanying sound effects. The receiving whoops for an old song taking the consensus, before the band launches into ‘Ugly Veg’.

The set is brisk but full of humour and positivity from band to the crowd and vice versa. The pop sensibilities of Peaness combined with a strong stage presence are that of a rapidly rising band that are set to take their infectious vibes to a much broader audience this year.

Listen to Peaness latest single Kaizen here