Situated right in the heart of Leicester city centre, is a small venue, The Cookie. Hidden by its café and bar upstairs, the underground room has hosted a number of up and coming artists over the years including Wolf Alice and Jaws. It’s modern but vintage look paired with speakers that only play alternative tunes are a great environment for any teenager wanting to get into live music. The Cookie would be host to local band Casino Empire tonight, as well as their enthusiastic fans.

Casino Empire are a band of 18 and under, and are currently one of few young bands from Leicestershire working hard to make their music heard. They have recently supported Trampolene and Catfish and The Bottlemen to a full audience in an Academy sized venue. They have played numerous This Feeling club nights and recorded their first EP earlier this year, which is set for release soon. It is very easy and at times lazy to label a band as ‘the next…’ when referring to successes that have come before them, so I would think it wrong to say that Casino Empire are the next Kasabian. Instead it’s much more truthful to say that they have their own individual sound, best heard live, which is the reason that it is difficult to put them into the box of a specific genre. Tonight, at The Cookie they proved that they need not be anybody’s juniors.

Walking on stage after a countdown and the hype of an instrumental, it was clear from the off that the already sauna like room, was about to get even more sweaty. Their set consisted of all originals apart form a nod to one of their inspirations, Oasis, in the form of a cover of ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Star’. Normally bands fall into the trap of trying to sound like a Gallagher brother when playing an Oasis song, but Casino Empire managed to brave the heat of packed room to get everyone jumping along. It won’t be long until they are able to shunt this one cover out of their set, as each original song was either recognised by the audience or happily moshed along to.

Casino Empire really show off their original songs, especially crowd favourite ‘Iguana’. Lead singer Tommy Cobley’s Jagger-esque moves, Jack Hall’s relentless crafted bass and the punchy beat produced by Ollie Dennis’ drum kit, give this song the potential of being a festival hit. You can’t over-look either guitarist, the lead guitarist especially is a skilled musician. The only criticism would be that at times the stage looked too crowded. ‘I Ain’t Coming Back’ had a Roses like ending, whilst the cleverly names ‘LE9’ came after a long line of football chants.

The low swung ceiling and cramped space wasn’t going to deter the band’s friends from starting a mosh pit during the first tune and continuing all the way until their last. Even frontman Cobley joined in during one song, being hoisted into the air by an ever vocal audience during another.

At the end of October, Casino Empire will be gracing the same venue whilst supporting glam rockers, The Struts. Although, for the band to progress further, they need to start playing shows outside of Leicestershire. It seems the next logical step for them as they have performed and outgrown every venue in the city. And if they can perfect their stage craft outside their hometown? Who knows what they can do…

Rachel Young