Sunday 29 June 2014

Summer Solstice with Kasabian, 21st May 2014

Bumble!

Last Saturday saw us taking a little trip into Leicester to Kasabian's summer solstice event.

We were all really looking forward to this - our daughter Jasmin was joining us, so a nice little family trip to see one of the best live bands out there.

About to board the Mini, tickets at the ready
It was due to all kick off with doors opening at 3pm and the first act on at 5pm. I have to say I was very underwhelmed by the supports, we've seen some great support acts whilst seeing Kasabian in the past - Miles Kane, Reverend and the makers and Temples. This time around it was Beardy Man, Zane Lowe, Jagwar Ma and Rudimental. Come on lads what about some real bands! We decided to leave fairly late on in the afternoon to hopefully avoid most of the support acts, so by 5pm we were off, the sun was shinning and Kasabian was on the iPod blasting through the Mini speakers on the way down the M1..

Anticipation
Arriving in Leicester we began looking for a parking place and saw the 'Park and Stride' now the problem with this was it was a 2 mile walk to the park and somebody decided it was a good idea to not give any directions on how to get to the gig, oh well lucky we headed in the right direction and soon found ourselves among the crowds of fans going into Victoria Park. A quick Mr Whippy ice cream stop and we were into the gig.

Wow, it certainly was heaving, we found a spot to chill out whist we waited, unfortunately we we're unable to miss Rudimental! However they were only on for 30 minutes and once they were off the crowd was greeted to a giant countdown clock, only 45 minutes left to the main event.

Can you feel it coming?
Soon it was close to zero, you could feel the tension and then Kasabian were out to raw emotion from the crowd and it all kicked off with Bumblebeee.

Amazing, we were a fair way back but that enabled us a bit of room for some serious bouncing about and dancing. The band was looking great and sounding awesome. The set list was spot on, Shoot the Runner, Underdog, the fantastic Fast Fuse (wasn't expected that one but was so pleased it was played) then it slowed down briefly for Days Are Forgotten. Soon  all of Victoria Park was chanting Eez-eh from the new album. Processed Beats, Stevie and ID all followed, then the beginning of The Doberman before seguing into Take Aim then the outro of Doberman again.


 Can this evening get any better, it was hot, sweaty and loud. Then onto fan favourite Club Foot, followed by Re-wired, Treat and Empire before ending with the festival anthem Fire. Of course there was an encore the regular Switchblade Smiles, Vlad the Impaler then a bit of Fatboy Slims Praise You, I have to admit that I had goosebumps at this point and then the big ending LSF just like the early days.


The band looked genuinely overwhelmed to be in their home town looking out at the 50,000 fans. An awesome night.

Highlights:

  • Serges' Les-tah t-shirt
  • Serge and Tom being overwhelmed at the presence of Hot Dog and Noodle Bars
  • Fast Fuse and even faster dancing
  • The Doberman, absolute favourite even in the segue
  • Star jumping in front of the boring arses in front of us who had not even wiggled all night.
  • Finishing with LSF
  • Dibs getting to speak - that is a first for us

Such a great feeling to be walking down London Rd with everyone still singing LSF those two miles soon flew by. Lets hope its not too long before we see them again.

Jasmin and Victoria

Victoria and Paul

Paul and Jasmin disturb Victoria's snooze during the Rudimental set

We can feel it coming?

Festival footsie!






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