Kasabian arrived at Wembley with a show that fully reflected their lofty ambitions. The group from Leicester have enjoyed a tremendous year during which they have not only achieved commercial success with their No 1 album West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum but also received critical respect, including a place on the Mercury Music Prize shortlist.

Perhaps encouraged by such unaccustomed deference, the singer Tom Meighan cut his hair for the Mercury show and, having maintained a rock caveman look for most of the group’s career, now looks as if he might pass muster as an arts show panellist. The stage design had similar aspirations. A giant Penguin paperback mock-up of Labyrinths by the Argentinian surrealist Jorge Luis Borges stood incongruously next to the keyboard equipment. The road crew were dressed in institutional white coats and during the performance portentous slogans were flashed up, such as “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori”, which underlined a thunderous rendition of Empire. The group, meanwhile, stood within a huge picture frame that every so often flickered into electronic life as arcs of light buzzed around it like static interference on a TV.

Despite all these intellectual and artistic pretensions, Kasabian were in no danger of losing the common touch, and their audience even less so. This was as lairy a crowd as Wembley has played host to all year, and when the bean-counters come to look at the venue’s beer sales, there will doubtless be a significant spike midway through November. A substantial amount of this liquid refreshment was sent flying through the air as the band kicked off with the robotic, dancefloor-rock riff of a new song, Julie and the Mothman, followed by the lolloping, post-Oasis anthem Underdog. The guitarist and songwriter Sergio Pizzorno, looking like the villain in a Sherlock Holmes movie in his red cape, steered the band, but as the performance progressed it was the keyboard player Ben Kealey — who is not even a full member of the group — who made the most telling contribution to the overall sound.

Meighan was joined by Lisa Elle from the support group Dark Horses for a duet of West Ryder Silver Bullet, the start of a more reflective sequence of songs during which the band took their foot off the pedal, comparatively speaking. But the crowd were in full body-slamming mode for a string of encores that included a stonking version of Vlad the Impaler in which they were joined by Noel Fielding of the Mighty Boosh brandishing a bloody sword and hurling a succession of severed heads (models, hopefully) into the crowd. Echo Arena, Liverpool, tonight; Trent FM Arena, Nottingham, Weds;

NIA, Birmingham, Thurs; MEN Arena, Manchester, Fri; Cardiff International Arena, Sun; Sheffield Arena, Nov 23

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