25 August 2005

Kasabian - Astoria, London - Thursday 25th August 2005

Off to see Kasabian in a fantastic venue, the Astoria. Previous Kasabian gigs I've been to have not left a great impression, mainly because they have all been outside, with the wind (and sometimes rain) blowing the sound all over the place. I'm still a fan of many of their songs, so seeing them in such an intimate venue gave them a good opportunity to redeem themselves. This gig was a warmup for their headlining of the second stage at the Reading Festival the following day.

One thing about the Astoria in summer is that it does get extremely hot, and this gig was no exception. Even from the relative safety of the balcony, it was sweltering when Kasabian came on stage, and only got hotter as the gig went on.

From the moment that Kasabian came on, they completely blew the place away - they were incredibly loud, and played a very intense set. The balcony in the Astoria was shaking from the first song onwards, and the band kept the crowd going for the full hour or so.

As the set began to draw to a close, Kasabian started to play some of the classics with which to end a gig. The gig had been excellent up to this point, but when the band played LSF, the place went wild. I have to say that their rendition of LSF was definitely one of the best performances of any song, by any band, that I've ever seen - it blew the roof off the place. My ears were ringing for a few days afterwards, but an awesome gig.

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