KASABIAN- Athena Cinema, Leicester
(Vodafone TBA) 26/7/2007

I was thinking the other day that it's hard to remember what life was like before the mobile phone. Starting as a brick-sized mode of chatting to your nearest and dearest whilst annoying the hell out of anyone on a bus, now it's a camera, a video, a walkman, cooks your cheese toasties and holds your hair back at the end of a heavy one. No-one needs to actually communicate anymore because your faithful mobile phone does it all. Sigh.

Of course, I conveniently forgot all of society's problems when I received the news via text message that Kasabian were performing at a secret venue in their hometown and would I like to go? I promptly forgave them "Live Earth" and their off-their-tits "save the polar bears" shenanigans, exclaimed "God bless Vodafone for setting up such a wonderful idea, they are a truly fabulous phone service provider and much much more" and headed for the bright lights of Leicester's Athena Cinema (extremely glamorous it is too, round the corner from several strip clubs and a highly expensive multi-storey), happily waving my ticket (again received by the medium of high-speed technology- well, only a few hours late due to a busy network, I suspect) at anyone who remotely gave a monkeys.

And did I mention that guitarist, Serge, is phenomenally stunning in the flesh; indeed, truly fit as a Butcher's dog? It was always frontman, Tom, I liked (even though I thought his name was Jim) for his incredible taste in shirts and cheeks you just want to pinch, nay, tug at, but, despite being extremely cute, his Jesus Christ poses are overshadowed this evening by the yet more incredible headwear stage right. It almost makes me forget that myself, the plus-one and what felt like several hundred nodding bald men are being filmed for Channel 4, a fact that I fear most of the crowd are all too aware of as I notice that, apart from those odd few faithful jumping like loons near the front, everyone else just seems a little bland, dare I say a bit fake for apparent die-hard fans?
That said, are Kasabian actually any good anyway or are they merely another gobby albeit generally very good-looking British band living by the seat of their pants? Thankfully, here are four blokes who do live up to the hype and practice what they preach, which seems to be giving the national music scene a well-needed kick up the posterior. The cameramen film a tall bloke clapping in time for the duration as the band storm through a set which begins with a rousing "Shoot the runner" and further includes all the hits, spanning from recent singles "Empire" and "Me Plus One" to my personal favourites "Club Foot" and "L.S.F" yet I remain stunned by what I consider a rather lacklustre reaction to what is a surprisingly amazing live act. The vocals are spot on, the beats and bass are as awesome as the light show and create just the right amount of attitude to justify the arrogance these lads often portray. Just a shame no-one hinted to those assembled apart from us to put the ole dancing shoes on. And we weren't even in the edit. Bastards.


Thanks to Vicky Beercock at Endemol UK for sorting the gig and extra special thanks to Claire and the Escort for getting us there and back in double quick time. Sergi-ohhhh!

Anna C