The Music/Kasabian Thurs. Feb. 18th 2005 Irving Plaza, NYC Despite my intense desire to “Leave Them All behind”, the 90’s are still alive and well as evidenced by Thurs. night’s show at Irving Plaza where Kasabian and The Music did their best to recreate the heady festival days of the last decade. Unfortunately…I’m all sorted out for E’s and whiz thank you. The buzz on Kasabian is at its peak here in the states just now. Even though they are the opening band, the crowd is clearly here to see them. They burst onto the stage with their brand of tight, soaring dance rock that while not offensive, is derivative to a fault. Their similarity to late period Primal Scream borders on the ridiculous, and singer, Tom Meigahan’s tendency to emulate Richard Ashcroft’s “’scuse me while I kiss the sky” stage antics can wear thin after 10 minutes or so. All that having been said, they are all in all, a fun watch. The fact of the matter is, the groove put across by the rhythm section of this band, literally dares you to try to stand still. From the jump I find myself foot tapping and by “Processed Beats” pretty early on in the set I am clearly dancing. “L.S.F.’s” poppy-white-boy-rap-funk-with-football-chant chorus actually works well live and the set ends with a blazing rendition of the hit “Club Foot” that damned near burns the house down. At which point I am completely swept away which is made clear by my po-going and chanting. There can be a bright future for this band when they shed their current tendency for hero worship. Let’s keep our fingers crossed. The Music on this evening are in an un-enviable position. Firstly, Kasabian have run over, I’m sure band management (if not band proper) are not happy about that. Secondly, the crowd has visibly thinned out. Conservatively I’d have to say 1/3rd of Irving Plaza has left the building (presumably rushing home to catch the “Survivor: Palau” premier…*sigh* often I am so sad for my fellow countrymen.) As a result they open the set with their 3 strongest tracks. Now this is a chancy endeavor. The pitfalls are obvious and they fall into them right away. Hitting the stage seemingly kind of rusty, the latest album’s title track “Welcome To The North” falls well short of its power on the record. 2002’s “The Truth is No Words” suffers a similar fate and prompts this reviewer to suggest a second guitarist for touring. The wonderful riff that drives this song is completely lost in axeman Adam Nutter’s inability to recreate it alongside the rhythm that’s needed to fill out the live sound…crash and burn there then. After “Freedom Fighters” (used the entire 2003 season as wrap-around music for the NFL on Fox…really, I’m not kidding.) the crowd is left with a set of what can only be described as Happy Mondays on steroids with Geddy Plant on vocals. This is simply not enough to satiate. So while the future of rock and roll does not seem to be predicated on the ability of either of these bands, what does seem apparent is that they both have enough talent to continue, and with a little confidence may just be able to turn things around. Tonight, however is not the night that happens.