It’s a riff-heavy weekend for north London. Yet where Biffy Clyro and Wolf Alice are bookending N4’s celebrations with their biggest ever London headlines, Kasabian’s Saturday night billing seems like a walk in Finsbury Park for the Leicester band. Established festival headliners for more than a decade, they’ve weathered changing cultural trends, industry 180s, an interpersonal controversy with former frontman Tom Meighan and a line-up shift. Kasabian’s brand of raucous bangers might be a Marmite proposition, but tonight is the only show of the three to sell out in advance - proof that the appetite for Serge Pizzorno and his band isn’t going anywhere.
On a balmy summer’s evening, there’s no messing about when it comes to the setlist. Entering the stage, they’re straight in with the en masse “oosh” of Club Foot, its lairy swagger somehow now more than 20 years old. There’s no meandering deep cuts and only a two song concession to forthcoming LP ‘Act III’ in the wonky slope of Superpowers and Hippie Sunshine - a propulsive, mosh-ready cut that keeps the energy at a premium. Pizzorno is never going to be the type of frontman who prioritises anything other than maximum crowd reaction. Kasabian, essentially, always understand the assignment.
