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Kasabian at Brixton Academy, July 16 2009.

Photos: Kasabian live at Brixton Academy, Thursday 16 July.

Leicester's finest make a bid for world domination. In Brixton.

You've got to hand it to Kasabian. Emerging at the height of that wave of suspiciously similar-sounding guitar bands five (yes, five!) years ago with a comparatively unique ''baggy'' tag, their reputation of being a danceable Happy Mondays-meets-Primal Scream soon merged into simply being a more electronica-tinged equivalent of Oasis.

Noel Gallagher's swift seal of approval and even admiration, not to mention that Kasabian incorporated a swaggering frontman and a guitarist/songwriter whose lack of technical skill as an axeman was easily overshadowed by his astounding sense of melody, did little to help their - in hindsight - unfair classification. Kasabian, after all, had a few tricks up their embroidered sleeves.

Half a decade later, and although still sharing a stage with Oasis (that would be their recent Wembley gigs), Meighan, Pizzorno & co. Have thankfully moved in quite the alternate direction from their long-time touring partners. Third album West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum swapped pulsating beats for, well, semi-psychedelic-disco-for-the-insane. Where, a few years ago, frontman Tom Meighan famously called Julian Casablancas ''a posh f**king skier'' and claimed that Kasabian's music, their live shows, the people they knew, their bollocks and pretty much everything else was ''fuckin' empire!'', he now states his discontent for having ever been labelled as lad rock. How things change.

The crowd tonight then, as if they're trying to prove a point, consist largely of men who look like they went around the mid-90's claiming to be 'mad for it'. Plus their wives and girlfriends. Sure enough, at least 7 lager-clenchers here tonight are sporting a Pretty Green t-shirt.

By the end of the night, only the presence of a stage will separate the venue from a football terrace - the crowd singing the primal coda of L.S.F at deafening volume as trainers fail to find floor underneath plastic glasses after 90 minutes of testosterone-heavy entertainment.

For those unaware of the fact, Brixton Academy mid-summer is a sweatbox. And with rain and lightning coming from all angles outside, the existence of air inside this otherwise fabulous venue is as rare and precious as the Shakespearesque setting we are all familiar with. So, from the moment Kasabian emerge onstage, the last breath of oxygen is drawn and we are forced to get by on adrenaline and beer. It could, in all fairness, be a lot worse.

For this evening, the ever enthusiastic spectators are witnessing a band ready to level the.whole.bloody.world with only the aid of omnipresent, not to mention overpowering, bass. And one Tom Meighan. From the opening strains of Underdog to the coda of LSF, Meighan appears as charismatic, controlling and pleasantly schizophrenic as any superstar frontman, drawing the crowd into every song like it's the last, alternating between being a swaggering incarnation of their latest album title and being completely and utterly uninterested.

Taking us through a set which, with only three albums under their belt, is an impressive array of hits, an imminent bid for world power seems plausible. Blur fans: Don't vote Dave, vote Sergio. Only when Meighan briefly leaves the limelight and vocal duties to Pizzorno does the beer queue triple in size, but as he sees the crowd go - pardon the expression - bananas during Fire, everything is forgiven.

Club Foot manages the feat of inspiring a few thousand people to sing a caveman version of its quite frankly daft guitar riff, Shoot The Runner provides Brixton's loudest ''Bitch!'', and as the now customary cover of You've Got The Love gives way to L.S.F, and as it again yields to the crowd's never ending chant, not the downpour outside nor the overstimulated hooligans can bring anyone down.

Words: Brand Barstein

Photos: Kasabian live at Brixton Academy, Thursday 16 July.

Were you there? Leave your review in the comments below.

10:11 AM | 17/07/2009