WHERE do you go to after reaching the career peak?
This year has already been an exceptional one for Kasabian. They topped the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury, headlined a hometown gig in Leicester to 50,000 people, and have had their fourth consecutive number one album. In all, its very good going.
Naturally, the way to go is to take your wares to the rest of the country, with the band embarking on an arena tour except for in London, where the band have chosen to do a five night residency at Brixton Academy. The band have played this venue at least once on every tour, so a biggest ever run here makes perfect sense.
Nevertheless, this could have had the air of an awkward occasion. On the tour's opening night in Glasgow, a "production error" meant that the backing screen showed the phrase "London is full of cunts" during a song. That presumably went down very nicely up in Scotland - and had it been kept, most likely everywhere else in the UK - but down in the capital, it could have reduced some of the buoyancy.
Could have, that is. London however is certainly in a forgiving mood from the word go. Night four of the five night stand begins - as the others did - with Tom Meighan and Sergio Pizzorno doing the first verse to new album opener bumblebee acoustic, before the rest of the band join in and get the crowd into a fabulously frenzied mayhem.
By now, you will almost certainly know the drill. Teased by the rhythm to Kanye West's Black Skinhead, there's a pulsing Shoot the Runner, and then the anthemic squawk of Underdog's guitar riff.
Disappointingly, Where Did All The Love Go is again preferred to the superior Fast Fuse, but there's little time to feel down. The rush of Days are Forgotten is a beefier version than the song that opened Kasabian's last appearance here in 2012, before recent single eez-eh blisters past in goofy singalongs, rave synths and Pizzorno running around the stage like a kid filled with sugar.
The counterpoint between Kasabian's co-frontmen is seen in all from dress - Meighan favours a black-and-white checkered blazer as part of a suit, while Pizzorno wears a t-shirt with "stickers" written on the front and a bushy felt fox tail - to singing style to even dancing on stage. But between them, they know how to give the audience a show, and encourage them to go nuts in response.
There's no sense of dulling down the expectations for the smaller room. If anything the concentrated energy feels like even more of a frenzy then in bigger spaces like the O2, and the singalongs as loud and punching through the night air.
Pizzorno's stint also includes time for a funky dance number, with a remix of Empire single Me Plus One providing a surprise highlight. This is then followed by the chill out songs of Thick as Thieves and a semi-acoustic Goodbye Kiss, which is perhaps the only time that the pace and power is relaxed.
The latter directly leads into 2004's Club Foot, which still packs a powerful bassy thump. A re-worked version of Re-Wired, which has a new string intro and has a segment of Camaro's Word Up sung by Pizzorno, is an excellent follow-on.
The live set remains studded with excellent anthems, with a one-two of Empire and Fire - the latter of which features an extended reprise - closing up the main set in style.
Not that proceedings are finished. Barely two minutes elapse before the string section returns to play an extended intro to recent single stevie - accompanied by lasers. The rest of the band join in and do a good show, but the following blast of Vlad The Impaler is much better, with dirty guitars and thumping bass sending the room into a state of delirium.
Supplemented by guitar work from two of the Maccabees, L.S.F. brings down the show in rabble-rousing fashion, with a reprise and all, and the crowd goes home happy. Indeed, they still chant the refrain from the song heading out of the venue and into the cold South London air long after the last member has departed from the stage.
While this may not have had the best setlist or performance Kasabian have ever done, this is still an admirable show, with plenty of punching anthems to get the crowd going. There's also a good deal of sonic variation, some excellent use of the standard arena-rock tricks (screen, lasers, big box of lights, etc), and a sense that band and audience are both enjoying their side of the bargain.
The question now is this - "can they do it bigger?"
Assuming they avoid the UK festivals next year, perhaps one of the bigger outdoor places will be a calling. Lord knows they've got the catalogue of anthems, tricks and fans to pull it off, as this year has very nicely demonstrated.
4/5
Opening for the Leicestershire rockers are The Maccabees, who have previously headlined their own show in this room and indeed in larger places. Having spent most of the last year struggling their way through the creation of a new album, the newly-enlarged band play four new tracks as part of their set.
Surprisingly, these four turn out to be the better songs of their set, with a nice mixture of dark textures yet dance-y sounds. But perhaps not surprisingly, the crowd are more in tune with the old ones, with mid-set track Precious Time getting highlights. The band take a few songs to warm-up, and at times were overshadowed by their elaborate but entertaining light show, but they rise to the challenge and finish strongly, with a monstrous Pelican closing the night with gusto. They will certainly be back next year playing bigger rooms than this one.
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