The lobby at Thebarton Theatre was overflowing with people crammed in like sardines waiting to get inside and secure themselves a great dancing spot for Kasabian. There was a slight hold up as the truck with all the gear was held up by an accident on the Nullarbor, so the crowd got to get quite cozy with each other. I was talking to a few ladies that had lined up outside Thebby since 11am and they informed me that if a front row spot was not theirs, there would be blood… There’s some die hard fans right there!
Finally we are all ushered inside, (the momentum of the three women behind me pushing me all the way to the barrier was appreciated) and had a very small wait before the Melbourne 5 piece psychedelic-rock band The Delta Riggs took the stage.
They had very minimal crowd interaction but didn’t need to as their tunes got us swaying along with their laid-back rock too easily. Lead singer Elliott Hammond was one to watch as he showed off his musical talent throughout their set by jumping on the keyboards, strapping on the guitar even busting out the maracas and leaping from the drum kit. The highlight of their set for me was definitely the catchy 'Supersonic Casualties'.
Finally we are all ushered inside, (the momentum of the three women behind me pushing me all the way to the barrier was appreciated) and had a very small wait before the Melbourne 5 piece psychedelic-rock band The Delta Riggs took the stage.
They had very minimal crowd interaction but didn’t need to as their tunes got us swaying along with their laid-back rock too easily. Lead singer Elliott Hammond was one to watch as he showed off his musical talent throughout their set by jumping on the keyboards, strapping on the guitar even busting out the maracas and leaping from the drum kit. The highlight of their set for me was definitely the catchy 'Supersonic Casualties'.
After a quick beer break for me and lots of “check, 1, 2’s” from the stage, the main floor of Thebby refilled pretty quickly and the crowd erupted as the lads from Kasabian wandered on stage in front of a glow of wonderfully red submarine lighting for their ‘48:13’ Australian tour.
Guitarist, part-time singer and music video director Sergio ‘Serge’ Pizzorno and lead singer Tom Meighan both bounce on stage and immediately break into the first song of the night ‘Bumblebee’.
I’d only ever seen these English Rockers once before on an extremely hot afternoon at the 2012 BDO and became an instant fan of theirs, especially when Tom announced our mutual lack of function in daylight hours by saying “We are fucking vampires, we don’t do well during the day”.
They followed Bumblebee with the crowd pleasing ‘Shoot The Runner’ using the start of Kanye West’s “Black Skinhead”. This wasn’t their only hat-tip to rap as later they used a portion of House Of Pain’s ‘Jump Around’ to lead them into their song ‘Processed Beats’ which ended with Serge rapping the famous lines from Grandmaster Flash’s ‘The Message’. They also did a well-received cover of Fatboy Slim’s ‘Praise You’, where their voices were all but lost in the crowd sing-a-long and the now famous (thanks to a certain car commercial) 'Eez Oh'.
Guitarist, part-time singer and music video director Sergio ‘Serge’ Pizzorno and lead singer Tom Meighan both bounce on stage and immediately break into the first song of the night ‘Bumblebee’.
I’d only ever seen these English Rockers once before on an extremely hot afternoon at the 2012 BDO and became an instant fan of theirs, especially when Tom announced our mutual lack of function in daylight hours by saying “We are fucking vampires, we don’t do well during the day”.
They followed Bumblebee with the crowd pleasing ‘Shoot The Runner’ using the start of Kanye West’s “Black Skinhead”. This wasn’t their only hat-tip to rap as later they used a portion of House Of Pain’s ‘Jump Around’ to lead them into their song ‘Processed Beats’ which ended with Serge rapping the famous lines from Grandmaster Flash’s ‘The Message’. They also did a well-received cover of Fatboy Slim’s ‘Praise You’, where their voices were all but lost in the crowd sing-a-long and the now famous (thanks to a certain car commercial) 'Eez Oh'.
After a great set of 14 songs combining greats from all their albums including the latest release and tour title 48:13, they disappeared from stage to much applause, only to magically reappear a few minutes later for the always anticipated encore. They played ‘Switchblade Smiles’, ‘Vlad the Impaler’ (which is one of my personal favorites – GET LOOSE, GET LOOSE!) and last, but by no means least, ‘Fire’ which was belted out by the well-polished band (as well as most of the crowd) to finish their hour and a half on stage.
There was a lot of mutual love in the room as Kasabian showed a lot of appreciation to the crowd during the show and even more to end it and the mixed all ages crowd, gave it all right back.
So many times over the years you hear people declare “Rock’n’Roll is dead” but it’s very clear that those people haven’t been to a Kasabian concert!!
Review by Bradley Bradford
Photos by Melissa Donato. See the full gallery here
There was a lot of mutual love in the room as Kasabian showed a lot of appreciation to the crowd during the show and even more to end it and the mixed all ages crowd, gave it all right back.
So many times over the years you hear people declare “Rock’n’Roll is dead” but it’s very clear that those people haven’t been to a Kasabian concert!!
Review by Bradley Bradford
Photos by Melissa Donato. See the full gallery here
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