The Music and Kasabian
Slim's, San Francisco, CA
March 11, 2005

V secured tickets early for March's hot show, the first Bay Area appearance of current NME darlings Kasabian as they opened for fellow brits the Music. We arrived just after the conclusion of the opening band, and worked our way through the crowd to a passable standing point and waited for the lights to go down. I've mentioned that i really dig Kasabian's debut album, but am always suspicious when the hype machine kicks into high gear. No worries here though, the boys from Leicester lived up to all expectations. The set began with the electronic noodling intro to "ID", building into the rolling groove of the main part of the song ("music is my world"). Their performance included all the highlights of the album ... "Processed Beats", "Reason is Treason", "LSF (Lost Souls Forever)", "Cutt Off", plus a few b-sides and other unrecognized but engaging songs. They closed with the primal "Club Foot", with the guitarist and singer shouting "ah aaah haa haaaa ha haaaa" at the top of their lungs during the chorus. The best part about the show was the complete lack of pretension and attitude. As someone on Live 105 remarked the next day, most British bands come to the US after having had their asses kissed continously by the UK music press for a year or so, and react violently to the marked decline in fan and media interest across the pond. None of that from Kasabian, who were at all times very friendly and chatty with the crowd. I told V we should leave at that point since there was no way the Music could compete with their openers, but we stayed for one song. It got me interested, but unfortunately at that point V and our old friend Sean, who we'd run into in the crowd, opted to head to Club ID to see Kevin Anderson (up from LA) so i was taken away.

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