Gig review: Circa Waves at Rock City

Peace are a band that really know how to build a setlist that flows perfectly, starting the show with a bang by playing their biggest hit Lovesick, which sounded fresh as ever and really got the huge audience moving. This song brought me back to seeing them at Leeds Festival when they had just blown up in the NME and seemed to be one of the biggest bands in Britain.

It was clear that the band have evolved in many ways since then, with their original lineup now slimmed down to a three piece for this performance, yet their evolution is certainly a positive one as could be heard in newer tunes such as World Pleasure and Good Jeans, which really stood out in the set among more familiar songs such as Wraith which followed, provided another anthem that sparked huge cheers from the crowd.

California Daze had a wicked shredding guitar solo that exploded perfectly out of frontman Harry Koisser’s Marshall stack after a long hypnotic build up. An epic finale of their 10 minute psychedelic sounding tune 1998 (Delicious) really hit the mark especially towards the ending, this one really blew me away and provided a brilliant twist of psychedelic rock to the show.

From the minute Circa Waves began it was evident how professional their stage craft has become, using their giant laser lightshow to great effect to enhance their performance, and a sample of a radio announcer to introduce their show, creating a very surreal and exciting introduction before blasting into first tune Do you wanna talk, which had a fat chunky bassline that mixed perfectly with the pounding drumbeat which chugged the songs along with a frenetic energy that sent the crowd wild. Standout track Hell on Earth got nice and heavy, with super-saturated guitar riffs and a huge-sounding chorus that made full use of their spaceship laser lightshow.

Towards the middle, their set became perhaps a little too slow and similar in pace and tone for me, despite the brilliant synthesizers in Sad Happy, a tune I particularly loved. The pace was then quickly picked back up with storming drums and thunderous guitars ringing out a shockwave of sound during Goodbye, which brought the energy in the room to a peak with its fuzzy distortion and intense high octane energy.

You could really tell the love that the band’s fans had for Circa Waves, with frontman Kieran Shudall stopping after the song to thank the crowd and all their fans for sticking with them after 12 years of touring and making music. Finale Carry You Home was the perfect synthy anthem to jump around to, and got the crowd screaming for an encore.

The band came back onstage and gave their fans exactly what they wanted, ending with T-shirt weather, one of the classic tunes from first album Young Chasers, which created a mass singalong that felt like the perfect end to the night.

This was the perfect double bill of two veteran UK indie bands who both showcased the best of their classic hits as well as new directions and evolutions that worked very well alongside the more familiar tunes. That served to show-off both bands’ ability to carve an exciting musical path forward for themselves after more than a decade of making music together. This show proved to me that the UK music scene is more alive than ever and I’m glad to say that both bands blew me away!

Circa Waves performed at Rock City on 15th February 2025.

@circawaves