Kasabian - Victoria Park, Leicester – 21.06.2014
supported by Beardy Man, Zane Lowe (DJ Set), Jagwar Ma and Rudimental (DJ Set)

“LEICESTER! LEICESTER! LEICESTER!”
“WE HATE YOU NORTHERN BASTARDS!”
“WHO THE FUCK ARE LEEDS?”
After an hour in Victoria Park, I soon realised that these phrases, shouted by the Leicesterians that made up the 50,000 in attendance for Kasabian’s open air homecoming, were becoming the mantras for the event itself. They kind of gave Victoria Park a voice with a Leicesterian accent that was making me very glad I decided not to wear my Leeds Celtics American Football t-shirt. I concede that at first I felt like I was intruding on the city of Leicester; a two-hour train journey being my method of invading a celebration for the whole of Leicester. Still, under the June sun and the wave of sound from the self-deprecating “small, diminutive Jew” Beardyman, I started to really feel like it was the summer solstice. Ok, it was the Nandos I had a few hours earlier that made me feel summery but Beardyman helped. This seemed to be the main intention behind the choice of support acts. On first viewing of the line up, I was disappointed at the number of DJ sets after such a drawn out waiting period. After refreshing the NME homepage for what feels like the billionth time, it is rather depressing to hear that the premier support act is a Rudimental DJ set. It does seem that the event organisers were merely going for a line up that was nothing to get excited about and unlikely to upstage the headline act. That being said, the support acts were enjoyable. Beardyman, with his unique brand of beatbox-tinged dance music, was a particularly pleasant surprise.

After the fit-for-purpose support acts had vacated the stage, the crowd at Victoria Park were treated to something I had never seen at any show before. It was a sight that took my breath away. Relating this is enough to bring goosebumps to my skin and a sense of an impending awesomeness I cannot describe. This is a feeling that can only be brought about by one thing: a fucking massive pink digital clock, the campest piece of equipment I have seen onstage at a concert since Steel Panther’s makeup bag. Superimposed on the pink backdrop in thick black text was “48:13:00”. In another first for me, Kasabian actually did a countdown to their emergence onstage. Well, if the four support acts didn’t create a buzz then this did (as well as letting me know I had enough time to go to the lavatory before the set began). When the clock read “00:00:00” and a few awkward seconds Kasabian entered in front of an eager hometown crowd and kicked off with 48:13 gem ‘Bumblebee’. It’s noticeable how well the newer material stands up against the older canon when played live. The rave-tinged crowd-pleasers on 48:13 seem to offset the darker work on Velociraptor! ‘Days are Forgotten’ is quelled by ‘Eez-eh’ in the same way that ‘Re-Wired’ – a particular highlight of the set – eases into ‘Treat’.  

Kasabian’s set is really well worked out. ‘Shoot the Runner’ (preceded by the intro to ‘Black Skinhead’), ‘Club Foot’, ‘Fire’ and set closer ‘L.S.F’ go down a treat (sorry for the pun) and fill the necessary sing-alongs and la-la-la niche.  Along with the good time anthems to make your lungs ache, the aggressive guitar and bass-driven ‘Switchblade Smiles’ and ‘Vlad the Impaler’ really remind you that Kasabian, for all their influences from everything from hip hop to Krautrock, are a rock band and when you go to their concerts you get a rock show. There aren’t many rock shows better.