Live Review: Kings Of Leon

                                                                             Photo credit: Ken Leanfore

07 November 2011

by Poppy Reid

Friday November 4
AllphonesArena, Sydney, NSW

The opening concert of King Of Leon’s postponed return to Australia needed to be a cascading, triumphant exhibition - and that’s exactly what it was.

Emerging onto a red haze of dry ice following fellow Southern American soft-rockers Band Of Horses (who really ought to be headlining their next visit), Kings Of Leon were met with deafening appreciation by fans at AllphonesArena on Friday night.

They opened with Radioactive, the first single from their recent fifth album, Come Around Sundown; its intense chords carried the catchy upward swirl of frontman Caleb Followill’s grainy vocals, the spiral settled only for the wandering ‘ooh ooh’s’ from rear-stage songbird and drumming brother, Nathan Followill.

Reaching back to their second album Aha Shake Heartbreak for following track Four Kicks, Caleb resumed the generic power-stance as he strummed with rapid authority, strobe lights endeavoured to keep up but fell short, exacerbating his precision. Switching to acoustic guitar for Fans brought Caleb’s vocal nuances to the forefront, perhaps the fact he sipped on water while fellow guitarists Matthew and Jared drank from red paper cups contributed to his articulate agility; although some seemed disappointed that this set wouldn’t see a repeat of their July gig in Texas.

:: View all the live shots from the night here.

Throwing guitar picks into the crowd every few tracks, the excitement surged across the arena through early track Back Down South where touring member Christopher Coleman played two of his five instruments simultaneously to the set’s first immaculate sing-along, Revelry, introduced by Caleb with a: “thanks a lot for coming back.” 

Each track built gloriously onto the last, the audience even cheered when lead guitarist Matthew spat on the stage at the end of My Party and smoked a cigarette through Knocked Up. He was the band’s hilarious rockstar, the racing track Closer saw him play the intro with his teeth while Nathan played his bass outward from his chest like a shot gun.

“Has everybody had a good time tonight?” Caleb asked the obligatory question knowing full well they had executed Sydney. “I want everybody to scream.”

They finished the main set with a roaring rendition of their mainstream hit Sex On Fire and after the traditional interval ritual the band re-emerged for a four-track encore. The Bucket, Manhattan, Use Somebody and Black Thumbnail were celebrated with a slow-building blur of smoke, fireworks and Caleb’s long-awaited antics as he kicked over his mic stand. The encore was the gig highlight, the band teased us with slow-burning tension which erupted just when we anticipated it most. Similar to their set, Kings Of Leon have been quietly cementing their place in the wall of greats through subtle tenacity and performances such as this.