I'm writing this whilst watching Kasabian close the festival with their headline slot on the Pyramid stage so I may as well start with them. Essentially Kasabian are built for this kind of show. Headlining Glastonbury is a really big gig both symbolically and physically. Symbolically, this slot is coated in a huge amount of "literally the biggest thing ever" and "historic landmark" rhetoric by the British music press. You don't have to go much further than any issue of NME in the last 5 years to see proof of this. Kasabian also drown themselves in this kind of talk daily. Once again, you don't have to go much further than any issue of NME in the last 5 years to see proof of this. This rhetoric has been amplified farcically this year with the release of 48:13. Serge Pizzorno has been coming out with endless "modern rock is rubbish" statements, evidenced right here http://tinyurl.com/ntdl9pq. Physically, this is a huge gig watched by thousands of people at the Pyramid stage, potentially millions at home and millions retrospectively on iplayer and youtube. Physically, everything about Kasabian is huge. Their ego, their swagger and most importantly, their tunes. Tracks like Underdog, Club Foot and biggest of all Fire always have the power to make me want to jump about stupidly. These are testosterone-heavy, power anthems that often frequent sports montages and adverts. They're perfect crowd pleasers.
Intellectually these are not challenging songs at all and it's really easy to sneer at their lad-rock, Oasisish macho aesthetic. The stuff that Tom Meighan comes out with is sometimes hilariously stupid and the Spinal Tap comparisons from Billy Bragg are pretty astute http://tinyurl.com/kudsphd. The lyrics from 48:13 are also atrocious, but anyway that's really not the point. The beauty of Kasabian is how they embrace the more ridiculous nature of rock n roll and channel that into helping people lose their shit in a field in the British countryside. Needless to say, this was a pretty safe headline booking. It's quite impressive when a band gives me a slight adrenaline rush, even though I'm watching from the sofa. The previously mentioned big tunes went down a treat, as expected. Newer songs go down alright but their best stuff really comes out of West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum etc. Mind you, I did enjoy the rave beats of Treat and the crashing Bumblebeee quite a lot. Other highlights include the Black Skinheads reference before Shoot The Runner and Tom Meighan getting the crowd to sing happy birthday for their roadie (which was a bit like when Alex Turner did that with his mum last year, but a lot more macho). Oh and Noel Fielding's appearance for Vlad The Impaler was just awesome. Actually the whole of Vlad The Impaler was awesome. It just summed up what Kasabian are about. Noel being there made it fun and the chorus managed to make thousands of people lose their shit.
A couple of things were slightly annoying in my opinion. I'm sorry but it's going to have to take a lot of convincing to get me to like eez-eh whilst sober. It's just a bit too PS2-rally-game-music for me. Meighan also said "GLAS-TON-BU-REEE" far too much. These are minor points though and both in some ways add massively to the live experience. Closing with Praise You and LSF ended the festival perfectly, just as predicted. They're not a band who disappoint much when it comes to their live show. When they were booked to headline Sunday night, it was with the knowledge that they wouldn't fail. This was a slot that meant a lot to the band and that was visible throughout the set. I would say that it was a career-defining performance if it weren't for the fact that they'll probably say it in NME next week.
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