Kasabian, the Music do it loud

Pop music tribes never die. They only fade away just long enough to come back again. The newest resurrection in England comes in the form of Kasabian and the Music, which played the Henry Fonda Theatre on Saturday. These young bands have embraced ‘90s Britpop and the danceable late-’80s psychedelia of “Madchester” to sometimes stirring, often mixed results.

Kasabian is this season’s darling of the U.K. music press, and it might indeed have greatness within its grasp, but it isn’t there yet. The quintet from Leicester performed a fully realized, swirling, roaring wall of sound at the Fonda. All that was missing were memorable songs.

Kasabian plays with an epic flair and arrived onstage with the swagger of headliners for its 40-minute opening set as spotlights cut through the blue fog and singer Tom Meighan stepped out with his hands held high.

Kasabian was polished and eager to please American ears at the Fonda (“Thank you, Los Angeles!”). And the band has indeed mastered a powerful new interpretation of such key influences as the Stone Roses and Primal Scream, with “Cutt Off” fueled by big beats, a storm of guitar sound and Meighan’s near-rapping. But there was too little the band could truly call its own.

Headliner the Music shares many of the same influences, with a sharper guitar focus and an extra-heavy helping of epic Led Zeppelin bombast on “Bleed From Within.” Equally big and noisy was “The Truth Is No Words.” It may be derivative but so was Coverdale-Page.