It should only seem fitting that upon venturing within ear-shot of Melbourne’s Festival Hall – a venue famous for housing the Fab Four a half century ago – the mighty guitar racket of none-other than NME indie-rock flag-bearers The Vaccines could be heard blaring through the doors at full volume; their ragged guitar anthems cosily nestling against the gritty working-class surroundings that form the landscape around the arena.
The Vaccines were here to precede the mighty Kasabian, whom they would soon no doubt be trying to dethrone as Britain’s premier rock band of the current era.
Here on their fourth visit to the country in two years, a rarity when one takes into account how far away Australia is to the rest of the world, Kasabian finally seem set on capitalizing on what they always promised: to be as big here as they are in their native homeland. Although not quite at the stadium-level that they are elsewhere, the fact that ‘Velociraptor!‘ was the group’s first album to break the top ten here, coupled with the ensuing anticipation that followed their stellar 2010 tour, the stage was set for a mighty performance to live up to swelling hype that is so often associated with them.
During a heady twenty minutes in wait for the main attraction, the crowd seemed to pulse and breathe as an entity of its own, expanding and receding with each infrequent dim of the stage lights and each oft-pause in the quaint intermittent music that crawled through the otherwise Herculean speakers. As sudden as it was bound in lethargy, a host of dim figures protruded through the coal-black shadows with a primal grace, shuffling about the stage as if were an exhibit for Cro-Magnon man, and yet exercising such trademark swagger with significant charm. Tom Meighan isn’t the greatest frontman in the world today, but there are few others who could pull off donning a pair of charcoal-black goggles amidst an equally soot-black haze. How he saw anyone, or anything, is anybody’s guess.
Brimming with an intensity to match the noise bestowed upon them by the emphatic crowd, Meighan and co. were quick to launch into the up-beat drawl of ‘Days Are Forgotten’; injecting the anthemic chorus into the fans like it were a drug, a drug that would only accelerate with each recital of the song’s catchy refrain.
The equally contagious ‘Shoot the Runner’ was soon to follow. Although as a creative composition it will never be considered amongst the best songs in their canon, the crowd-inciting ‘Empire‘ selection works feverishly well in a live environment, building on the mighty momentum swung into force by the opening track.
As Meighan and main songwriter Serge Pizzorno interchanged between various calls of “How are ya Melbourne!”, and “Get on your feet Melboouurrne…!”, every track sounded like a single, reinforcing how well the group’s songs work in a live setting. The band’s groove-driven fusion of dance beats against rock n roll guitars worked best for the adrenalin-laden ‘Velociraptor’, recited by Meighan with menacing stares into the audience, paving the way for Serge’s shuffling guitars to introduce the group’s best track – ‘Underdog’. A more excited reaction from a crowd could not be recalled, as each and every punter maintained a fearsome intent to ‘live (their) lives on a lullaby’ like the character in the song, bouncing in and out of the track’s irresistible beat in impressive unison. The routine one-two punch ensured that ‘Where Did All the Love Go?’ followed with an equally anthemic response from the audience.
Several Kasabian staples dotted the second half of the set-list, whilst newer cuts from ‘Velociraptor!’ fared just as well. After a short break, the band came back onto to rip into ‘Switchblade Smiles’ and ‘Vlad the Impaler’ for the encore. But it was the long-awaited ‘Fire’ that was truly a spectacle to behold.
True to its name, the hall was set alight for the huge chorus that lies as the centrepiece for perhaps the band’s most well known song. In preparing the crowd for one last-chorus in an extended version of the hit, Meighan rallied his troops in a spectacular fashion, as if he was preparing them for a war, he got everyone in attendance down to a crouching position and then slowly made them rise for one final bursting chorus, imploding the song onto the crowd like a crackling midnight display of fireworks.
Kasabian delivered everything we’ve come to expect of them and more, maintaining their status as one of Britain’s best bands of the moment with a piledriving set dripping with anthems.
One can only hope they will venture upon these shores again in the near-future.
