The Blizzards are, perhaps, better suited to playing venues smaller than this one. They are also better suited to playing shorter sets. Their entrance is excellent: mood-setting lights and pre-recorded music build a buzz of expectation, before the band emerge for a breezy, confident run through ‘Miss Fantasia Preaches’.
The audience’s interest wanes noticeably as their set progresses – though it is regained during a smart cover of Heaven 17’s ‘Temptation’. Also, while this is a sublime setting for a rock show, the acoustics are far from ideal, and there is a squashed, muffled quality to the sound throughout the band’s set.
To date Kasabian have wrung no more than a handful of killer pop moments from a somewhat one-dimensional sound. But the enthusiastic crowd reaction at Hineken Green Energy has tempered my less than converted position just a little. Kasabian are certainly big and bold enough to pull off more upscale events like this.
Much of the band’s success to date has to do with fortunate timing. They have not transcended their predecessors: rather, they have provided the most satisfactory alternative. Bored of waiting for a Roses reunion tour? Given up hope of Oasis returning to form? Resigned to the fact that Primal Scream are too cussed to realise their full potential? Why not try Kasabian?
The audience response is positive, bordering on jubilant throughout, and on occasion it is genuinely seismic: the trashy swagger of ‘Empire’, the wordless chorus-howl on ‘Cutt Off’, and the irresistible laddish stomp of ‘L.S.F’, all get the collective blood racing. It isn’t enough to win me over completely. But Kasabian seem to have an irresistible forward momentum – and who am I to argue?