21st November 2021: The last time I seen Easy Life was over two and a half years ago in Leeds and with that started my first time at Leeds Festival, so seeing them in Belfast was truly a moment of reminiscing. This tour celebrating the release of their album Life’s a Beach has been one full of stage diving, mosh pits and a massive set full of their classic hits and album standouts.
Support came in the form of Irish collective Tebi Rex who following the release of their new album It’s Gonna Be Okay just wanted to get the crowd bouncing and come join us all after for Easy Life, and that’s exactly what they done. The Maynooth natives brought a certain energy to the stage that encapsulated the perfect sound to prepare for Easy Life.
It’s very rare that an act this new would have such an expansive set but with Easy Life they through it all at the crowd from the start. ‘Pockets’ as an opener had the crowd moving and ticking over into the next run of tracks with members of the band taunting the crowd as each song passed.
Easy Life perform as like a mixed up Leicester vision of Tyler, the Creator and The Streets and this comparison goes beyond their musical talent, with lyrics filled with metaphors and very British anecdotes showing an artist true to their craft. The set continued filled with album single ‘Have a Great Day’ and then scattered with tracks from their various EPs with ‘Nice Guys’ and ‘OJPL’ being a deafening sound from the crowd in unison with frontman Murray.
Track ‘Sangria’ which in its recording features Mercury Prize winning artist Arlo Parks was played with the crowd filling in for Arlo Parks echoing the backing track for this song. Then came the sets real moment of madness, Murray climbing on top of the Limelight bar and demanding a mosh pit opened in front of him with the crowd moving from the stage to the club bar for this, ‘Skeletons’ sent the crowd into a frenzy with this leading to Murray being crowd surfed back onto the stage.
The set ended with an encore that finished with a track no dissimilar to the spoken style of Mike Skinner with ‘Music to Walk Home To’ with Murray reintroducing the rest of the band with each showing of their musical talent as the crowd bounced along with it. This large set proved that Easy Life are one of England’s most exciting new acts and for sure one that could become festival main stays for years to come. Dylan McAllister
