STANDING on the monitor, arms outstretched, Tom Meighan sure knows how to rouse his crowd. Or at least get them to put their hands in the air. A lot.
But the last time I checked, constant exhortations to “Come on!” do not equate to anything even remotely resembling the presence that was lacking from Kasabian’s undoubtedly well-received showing on Thursday.
Perhaps they should study support band The Hours more closely. Singer Ant Genn may not cut the svelte dash he once did with Elastica or Joe Strummer’s Mescaleros, but he works hard to engage an audience that hasn’t come to see him. His co-conspirator Martin Slattery also exudes charisma from behind his keyboard, masterfully steering the sound out of the muddiness that blighted set opener Love Is An Action and into the euphoric shades that colour the almost-hits Ali in the Jungle and Murder Or Suicide.
Kasabian’s grandiose arrival is met with arms-aloft elation by the fiercely partisan crowd. The band has long courted obvious comparisons with Oasis and Meighan has even peppered his vocals with a variety of Liam-esque whines (see Underdog, Where Did All the Love Go?), but for all their ability to make grown men hug each other and spill beer, Kasabian are a much different animal.
On record their prog-rock infatuation is tempered by clever studio production, but in a live context songs like Fire, Empire and Fast Fuse are delivered in movements rather than as a whole.
Shoot the Runner still sounds like an uncured Glitter Band hangover and the segue of You Got The Love into LSF is nowhere near as clever as it thinks it is.
All of which means first album tracks like Cutt Off and Processed Beats provide the night with its highlights – just like they did when a much hungrier, angrier and smarter Kasabian first stormed the Guildhall back in 2004.
