Kasabian
Echo Arena, Liverpool
16/11/2009

Kasabian turn the Echo Arena into a 10,000 capacity loony bin as they draw a close to Liverpool Music Week, raising themselves above the lad-rock label they have been unfairly given.

Giant screens project several quite disturbing case notes of insane asylum patients which sets an unsettling mood. A man in a white jacket walks on stage as a huge bell chimes. The curtain pulls back and Tom Meighan and co. enter and start with ‘Julie & The Mothman’, a b-side to the next song, the mammoth ‘Underdog’. The insane asylum gimmick runs throughout the show as the road crew’s white jackets have the word ‘sane’ printed on the back, suggesting that the band are perhaps the inmates. If insanity looks as effortlessly cool as Serge Pizzorno, The Fly is going to put on luminous dungarees and climb Snowdon whilst playing the penny whistle tomorrow.

The theme of insanity continues as the band give space to their new album, ‘West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum’. Songs like ‘Vlad The Impaler’ ‘Fast Fuse’ and ‘Swarfiga’ have a touch of hypnotic madness about them, but nothing like the stuff school kids might write in their GCSE English exams; this is well researched lunacy.

In this set that lasts nearly two hours, we’re reminded just how many fantastic tunes the band have in their back catalogue. ‘Cutt Off’, ‘Shoot The Runner’ and ‘Processed Beats’ sound incredible and as the final refrain of ‘L.S.F.’ is chanted by the crowd, Meighan stands back with his arms folded and watches the madness unfold.

Mike Doherty