Academy, GlasgowThe fuzzing dance-rockers return strongly after Tom Meighan’s departure, and unite the crowd in hollered vocals
Last July, Tom Meighan was sacked as Kasabian’s
Singer the day before his conviction for assault against his partner, Vikki Ager. The Leicester electronic-rock band have shown no prospect of reconciliation to their former frontman of 23 years, nor at any point looked willing to let his transgressions knock them off their swagger, in part perhaps because Meighan’s obvious successor was always at hand.
At their first gig since 2018, a lean and charged greatest hits set that shakes the Glasgow Academy to its foundations, it’s Kasabian’s co-vocalist, guitarist, songwriter, producer and leader Sergio “Serge” Pizzorno who ascends to centre stage, with a certain air of destiny (the Music’s Rob Harvey joins as backing vocalist and guitarist). He still intermittently straps on a polka-dot Rickenbacker to hog the best riffs – the grizzled fuzztone opening run of Underdog, for instance. But mostly Pizzorno bounds free, mic and occasionally maracas in hand, with a practised air that suggests he might have been secretly rehearsing his moves in front of the mirror his whole life.
Kasabian are touring the
UK until 4 November