Event Review: Kasabian

Kasabian, one of Britain’s best loved bands return to the Capital to continue their UK stint of the ‘Velociraptor’ tour and what a better place to round up the UK leg in one of the UK’s most successful and poignant arenas, the O2.
Christmas had certainly come early for me this year because if there is any band that is going to rock around the Christmas tree (sorry for the cheese) it would certainly be Kasabian.

I had been anticipating when I would meet the Kasabian boys again, the last time I experienced them live they had just released their second album ‘Empire’ and they were rocking the stage at V festival. I was standing 5 rows from the front, surrounded by 40 plus year old men and I got punched in the face think this not as a bad time, it was the best music experience I ever had.
So I was keen to get back into the action and see what plans they had next for us southerners.

Kasabian fans certainly do not disappoint in their style choices, the amount of times I had to do a double take because there were so many lookalikes. You cannot expect to have your hair done that particular way and not have people point and go “Oi mate, you look like Serge” it is pretty inevitable.

They opened up to ‘Days are forgotten’ taken from ‘Velociraptor’ which definitely got the crowd revved up with the repetitive line which almost sounds like a bird call. The one area that Kasabian never falter is their ability to make each song sound like a rock anthem. With lyrics like “Can you feel it coming?” and “Get loose, get loose” you only have to put a hash tag on the front and you’ve got a worldwide twit trend.
Tom Meighan took control of the stage from the get go, every great front man has his own rock star stance, Freddie Mercury had the iconic one fist in the air and Mick Jagger had his cock of the walk strut. Tom Meighan opens up his arms and lets the applause fill the gap to which the audience oblige by giving it to him. Serge takes his place as Meighans’s right hand man with his ability to take control of vocals and fill the arena with his guitar styling’s which give life to songs such as “Shoot the runner” and “Underdog”. Ever since Christopher Karloff’s departure from the band in 2006 after citing “Creative differences” Serge has really stepped up the plate in becoming Kasabian’s biggest contributor in song writing. Of course, in any band you have the silent members the ones you never hear of and stay out of the spotlight, but without them you would not be successful and this is the case with the bassist Chris Edwards and drummer Ian Matthews.

The old classics were played which received amazing crowd energy like “Club Foot” and “L.S.F” and the band were happy to get the crowd off their feet and go absolutely mental. The use of lighting and visuals were also a highlight of the night, but with a song like “Empire” with its patriotic energy I wish they would have used some military footage or at least used the beginning scene from the video of the child messenger running. The introduction to “Empire” seemed a little rushed, there was lack of bass and drum beat to get the crowd going, nevertheless as soon as the lyrics came across the crowd were loving it and singing along.

“Switchblade smiles” was a real crowd pleaser with its use of synth sounds and almost hypnotising verses which jumped straight into a heavy drum beat and almost turned the O2 into a rave.
They finished off their set with a performance of “Fire” which left a big impression on the fans as we all piled out of the arena, one person would begin that addictive note of the long winded “oh” and the next minute everyone has joined in and the sounds echo around the concourse.

I judge how good a gig is by the reactions of the people leaving. Apart from the ones who were staggering about from the (overpriced) beer available the rest were all in high spirits and singing along to every Kasabian song under the sun. I think it is fair to say the show was a huge success, the visuals were amazing and the music was epic.

So the UK will now bid Kasabian fare well as they continue their ground breaking tour into summer 2012, all I can say is, world take care of our boys because we want them back and remember to #GetLooseGetLoose.