Peabody / The Golden Age

Andy J Ryan Apr 06, 2023

Peabody – Spectrum, 7 October 2007

The new four-pronged Peabody takes to the Spectrum stage to launch their new EP ‘The Devil For Sympathy’.

The Golden Age were the last minute lead-in replacements for this evening after The Instant were a last minute scratching. They, along with the headliners, have also gone through somewhat of a recent rebirth and line-up change of their own.
They play a sneering, swirling mix of heady guitars and attain some masterfully noisy moments of pure rawk. For those after a ready reference point think Sonic (in their) Youth with the same intricate and intensive guitar work and the similarly shared lad/lass vocals.

Peabody has gradually settled into their new quartet incarnation. The pub-rock frivolity has been replaced with a new fierceness. In simple terms they’ve evolved from the Friday night punchy good-time band to develop a new level of simmering seriousness – you now need your ears as well as your beers.

The music and songs are denser, deeper and delivered straight from the devil too if the new single is to be believed. They have also delved a bit deeper into ’epic’ territory with a number of songs and have a lash at some harmonies to sweeten the deal too.

Previously synonyms with the blaring jukebox and beery bluster of the top floor of the legendary Newtown late-night dive the Townie, they now reflect some of the more adult, poignant and meaningful conversations held there later in the piece.

Everybody has to grow up at some stage and Peabody has seemed to have reached a musical maturity. The stupid boys and their abundance of alcohol still rear their head and there are still the cheeky oblique references and smart-arse lyrics. Bruno is still the effusive focal point but on a whole Peabody come across have struck a new grandness and could be posed for bigger things with their impending album Prospero.