In case you hadn’t heard, earlier in the summer the Kings of Leon stopped their show because they were being pooped on. To make it up to their fans, the Kings scheduled a second (presumably pigeon-free) show. The tickets were only $10, and Chris did the dirty work of ordering them for us and her friend Kari as well.
What started out as a beautiful and warm day took a turn to the cold and rainy by showtime. Thankfully, I went and bought some ponchos to protect us from the elements. Fashionable, no?
The opening bands, The Features and The Whigs were both great. I’m definitely interested in hearing more from these bands. But of course, we were all there to see the Kings of Leon.
The Kings opened with Crawl, Molly’s Chamber and My Party, breaking after that to thank the crowd for coming back and giving them another chance. That gratefulness was pretty much the theme of the night. I’m sure many will say that there are few bands that worry about their image as much as the Kings of Leon, but this felt sincere, for sure. The crowd ate it up and the band reciprocated with a tight, electric show. Their main set ended with Trani, probably my favorite song of theirs, and it was great. In fact, their older songs really came alive in person. A little slower, with a little more swing and a little more sex than the recorded versions, Four Kicks, Molly’s Chambers and Trani have grown into anthems worthy of a venue the size of Riverport.
In the encore, Use Somebody was the obvious closer with its sing-along chorus, but the Kings did us one better with a raucous version of Black Thumbnail, complete with pyrotechnics. It was a great show, a return to form, and only the most jaded a-holes will hold the first aborted performance against them. Click here for all the pictures.