Kasabian // Reading Festival, 2017 – Gabriela Page
The increasing heart rate sound echoing from speakers imitated what was going on in everyone’s own chests as the final build-up to the headliners began. Once the flatlining tone sounded, it was like the blaring horn signalling the start of the race to see who could be the last man standing as Kasabian took to the stage.
Patriotic red and blue lights glowing, the smell of a smoke machine emitting its mist, and guitarist Serge sending booming bass lines erupting from speakers catapulted crowds into a utopia of rock anthems. Funky chords and rockstar shredding propelled the music. Frontman Tom Meighan, like a conductor instructing his orchestra, commanded the thousands gathered into such simultaneous jumping and follow-the-leader style moves, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was rehearsed.
From crashing onto stage with a flurry of energy, to a Dracula-dressed Noel Fielding bounding on halfway through, it was a surreal yet ridiculously fun show. Being blinded and hit by the heat of the striking fluorescent flares rising for the aptly named finale, ‘Fire’, in front of signs glaring ‘No Flares Allowed Under Any Circumstances’ really cemented the laissez-faire attitude of security in the moment, as everyone was so engulfed in the euphoric bubble.