Live

Kasabian

Bill Cummings 10/12/2004

So I'm on the train back from Swansea University to my Mothers in Cardiff and the phone rings: "Oi Bill, I've got a spare ticket for Kasabian, do you fancy it?" I've never really been convinced by the NME driven Kasabian hype bandwagon before, but hey, it's a free night out! How could I refuse?
Kasabian are a beat combo from Leicester who trade on the baggy past and add modern power too it. What's clear from the audience made up of old Baggy fans, leary beer boys and drugged up Mod's is that Kasabian are a boys band. By that I mean they appeal to a sensibility in the indie fan that remembers the first Stone Roses album with great fondness, loves all things Happy Mondays and has seen primal scream ten times. The problem is I'm not on drugs like half of the crowd here, and no, I'm not up for it, mate! Back off!

Anyway, down to the gig. Kasabian are ok live. A decent mixture of flashing lights allied to monkey type dancing and their range of melodic beats. The songs pass by, each one followed by a comment from me of "oh that sounds like early oasis" or " this looks like Primal Scream and sounds the Mondays", each track as derivative as the next. Only "LSF" with its swaggering chorus (We've got our backs against the wall" indeed) engenders my interest. Elsewhere, and their biggest hit to date "Processed beats", although alright is pretty forgettable in the drunken fog.

Overall Kasabian are a decent live band but their material doesn't engage with me in the slightest. Go and listen to Kinky Afro followed by the stone roses debut offering if you like baggy! Kasabian are simply a copy of a copy and if you aren't "off yer tits man" it don't work.