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Gig review by By Gary Welford of Shiled Gazette

LEICESTER rockers Kasabian warmed up for tonight’s main support slot with Oasis at the Stadium of Light with this sold-out Academy gig.
And if their performance is anything to go by, the Gallagher brothers are going to have to pull out all the stops to avoid being upstaged.

This show simply rocked from first to last, and showcased a band right at the top of their game.
Their third album is out this week, and they are getting better with each one.
It was a new track, the free download single Vlad The Impaler, which kicked off their 70-minute set, and the crowd lapped it up.
More new songs were interspersed with favourites from the first two albums, with Underdog, Fast Fuse and Where Did All The Love Go? going down a storm.
The best reception, though, was afforded to latest single Fire, which sounds much beefier live, and looks set for classic status.
It sat happily among such established favourites as Shoot The Runner, Processed Beats, and L.S.F.

Tom Meighan is a curious but enthralling frontman, with his long hair making him look like Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie.
When he wasn’t whipping up the crowd and feeding off its energy he was crouching beside the drum riser, almost hiding from the spotlight, or sitting watching the crowd.
His eccentricities matter not, because in lead guitarist and main songwriter Serge Pizzorno they have a second figurehead, though he lets his instrument do the talking.

Song of the night was a toss-up between a wonderful Empire, Club Foot and Cutt Off, with the latter pair forming part of a three-song encore.
This was the first time I’d seen Kasabian, and I can’t wait to see them again tonight.