LIVE REPORT: Kasabian @ Studio 104 (Album De La Semaine)

"Can you feel it coming?" Five words taken from Switchblade Smiles, first single of the new Kasabian album and that undoubtedly define de frenzy surrounding the release of Velociraptor! as well as the concert in the pretty intimist but perspiring Studio 104 this last Wednesday.

Coming back to France and promoting their fourth opus, the Leicester band had chosen the ultra-fashionable rock show L'Album De La Semaine and its dozens of priviledged guests to present the follow-up to West Ryder Pauper Asylum. It's with the first chords from Velociraptor! that the gig started. Flagship tune that had already been experimented during this summer's festivals, the song tenfolds its power between the four walls of a very small venue. Tom Meighan, singer emeritus and stage animal, hammers the chorus like a biblical truth. The audience, quite heterogeneous but composed of some fans from the French website Kasabian's Paradise , knows what to expect and offers the band the atmosphere that measures up to the killer riffs of Sergio Pizzorno and Jay Mehler.

Alternating new songs - four tonight- and top-ten hits that are now in the rock pantheon, the band allows themselves to be cheerful, charmingly-joking, convinced to be the best. Days Are Forgotten, with a chorus worthy of the soundtrack of a James Bond movie, is extremely well-received. Keeping on with Shoot The Runner and Underdog, not allowing the audience any break- thanks to the brilliant drumming of Ian Matthews- Kasabian gives a preview of Rewired. The very first chords definitely prove the efficiency of this new song, that owes as much to The Rolling Stones as to Prodigy- a huge surprise compared to the album version. With Fast Fuse and Switchblade Smiles, the band convinces everybody and nails the set with Fire. The audience even forgets that they're standing in a pretty unstable position to start dancing and jumping as if the studio had turned into a moshpit.

Giving out his tambourine, maracas, and a few kisses to the girls in the front row, Tom Meighan leaves the venue as the true rock n' roll star he now is while the rest of the band gets warmly applauded. Tonight, Kasabian have proved they belong to history. Next episode November 22nd at Le Zenith.

French version on Sound Of Violence