Kasabian, Wagons @ FestivalHall, Melbourne (23/07/2010)

Sat 24th Jul, 2010 in Gig Reviews

It wasn’t a quick sell out like their last tour here in January, and they weren’t exactly riding off the height of West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum like they were at that time either – so you have to admit it seems a little strange that Kasabian would compete against the onslaught of internationals down under for Splendour the same week as their national tour. The room did fill out nicely though, and the band quickly proved they don’t need their latest successes to put on a show.

Before the main event were Melbourne scene stalwarts Wagons. Of the plethora of local acts to pick from, you know you’re in good company when a headliner chooses Henry Wagons and his troupe to open the stage. Equal parts Cave, Cash and Rogers, Wagons are like the host band at some kind of hellish rodeo, producing country tunes that are as greatly dark and murky as they are dance-inducing.

Henry possesses one of the best presences in town and he wasn’t shy to flaunt it all over the festival Hall stage, riling up responses from the crowd and serenading/taunting various members of security staff. The band’s cover of The Gambler – told to be at least 55 per cent as good as the original – held up about 55 per cent of the set, too. The rest was all great, let it be known, but this one just stood out the most. Wagons proved to be the right way to welcome Kasabian, even if the pairing wasn’t altogether a predictable one

No matter how obvious it is that a band’s not coming out until the lights are down, testing the smoke machine never fails to get roar from the crowd. Kasabian were no exception to the premature welcomes, but when the pulsing lights did begin (along with the introductory, er.. All Out Of Love) the band were more than deserving of the hailing – thumping straight into Shoot the Runner to open their set with punches.

Now, the thing about going to a Kasabian gig is that it should never be a passive experience. There’s a mosh pit there for a reason, and aside from such being the only way to make Festival Hall bearable, Kasabian deserve the kind of messed up jump abouts they received. Underdog and Where Did All The Love Go? picked up the pace a little from the opener, which by its end could easily have been less sloppy than it became. Still, a few tracks in and the band had cemented their attitude toward this show – Tom Meighan sparing little time in falling for Melbourne and getting them to reciprocate the feeling.

After a nice stint of WRPLA, Kasabian got down to the real business of the evening – finding the love they omitted on their last tour (no pun intended). This time around the show was going to be about all three of the band’s LPs, and a double hit of Cutt Off and Reason is Treason quickly got older fans excited; though there was no shortage of fists in the air chanting “K, I, L, L!”

Meighan has certainly still got the right attitude to be fronting this band, and even though it seemed his ego (and dammed smirk) was getting the better of him at times, his constant revving of the crowd is to his credit. It’s also further proof that standing back and simply watching Kasabian is just not enough. Those in the thick of it, sharing more neighbourly sweat than they might like to admit, were the ones taking the most out of this show.

A couple more recent tracks made the second half of the set list (arguably the two best were saved for the encore), but there was plenty of room given to look back – Empire, Doberman, Stunt Man and Club Foot rounding out a very healthy listing. Said encore, which was as predictable as they come, was led by Fire, along with a simultaneous bounce throughout Festival Hall – enter the song’s chorus and the bounce became chaos; beautiful beautiful chaos.

The crowd then heeded the lyrics to Vlad the Impaler, continuing the hefty mosh and flailing limbs to “get loose, get loose”, before LSF from the first record rounded things off with a big old sing along.

This time around, Kasabian’s tour reasoning might not have made perfect sense, but as is the proof in the show – sometimes these are the better gigs to head to. This one certainly trumped their last Melbourne efforts.

CHECK OUT SOME OF THE PHOTOS FROM THE GIG HERE