South Coast Entertainment Kings Of Leon Review

Initial thoughts for the evening are of tremendous anticipation for the band at number one in the single and album charts. The inclusion of Anthony Gonzalez's M83 would initially have confused the knowledgable music fans of the audience. The soulful, Digital Shades and Saturdays = Youth albums are excellent in there precision and easy listening qualities but was it going to be a good warm up for the cut and thrust of the Kings of Leon?

Two songs in and from initially a crowd being possibly confused (football chants of "who are ya?" resonate) it was now a crowd mesmerised by the catchy, atmospheric delivery of M83. No dancing was required. It was a hypnotic trance state that meant through tracks like Graveyard Girl, Skin of the Night and the epic We Own The Sky the crowd was in awe. When the set was finished a simple "au revoir" bought about honourable applause from all inside.

But now onto the main attraction. And what an attraction! After a half an hour setting up wait, the lights go out to the by now standard female screams. The crowd claps as Caleb, Jared, Nathan & Matthew wander on stage. Opener Closer taken from recent album Only By The Night produces mass hysteria from the pumped up crowd and unfortunately boils over for some into a small brawl. With passions running high the band continues onto Crawl which with its thumping bass line and slick groove feel is excellent to keep the momentum going.

With the crowd eating out of their hands they move through all of the best tracks from their four albums including Razz, The Bucket and On Call. The two notable moments of course come when firstly they slow down the set with a superbly performed Milk before smashing straight into the fast rocking, indie starlet Four Kicks. By this time the seats are empty and people are having to be told to stop dancing everywhere for probably health and safety reasons! The second highlight in the setlist was, obviously, the sing along for Sex On Fire. Gone are the days when plenty of bands were capable of writing epic anthems, but here was a song sung at the top of their lungs by Caleb and everyone in the crowd in a brilliantly memorable way.

The band chose 4 songs for the encore. Coming out to Because Of The Times opener Knocked Up and straight into Charmer which has all attempting the throat pain inducing scream before each line. The set closer in the past Slow Night, So Long was played with the set finishing this time around on Black Thumbnail.

Kings of Leon have never shyed away from the fact that they speak very little in their sets, concentrating on filling their time with as many songs as possible instead. But here Caleb does manage to mention how he preferred playing to a smaller venue than the previous night at the O2. Make of that what you will but this band needs to get used to larger crowds because following the Glastonbury headline slot and an array of fantastic songs more will surely follow.