Gig review: Kings of Leon at First Direct Arena, Leeds
'Thank you very much, we're Kings Of Leon,' says Caleb Followill, five songs into a fine performance and their first in Leeds since a headline performance at Leeds Festival back in 2009.
At the time, the Nashville band had just reached new, dizzying heights on the back of Sex On Fire, but much water has passed under the bridge since then.
In the years leading up to the release of 2013’s Mechanical Bull, the band came close to splitting, the never-ending ego clash that comes with being a hugely successful band of brothers taking its toll on lead singer Caleb Followill.
Luckily for the near capacity crowd inside the First Direct Arena on Sunday evening, Caleb, Nathan, Jared and Matthew have patched things up and certainly appeared to be enjoying being in each other’s company again during their latest UK tour.
They kicked things off with The End and and followed it with Slow Night, So Long, McFearlerss, Four Kicks, Muchaco, Molly’s Chambers and Eyes On You.
There was a mixture of old and new material including some of the aforementioned classics which had plenty of fans off their seats.
Sex on Fire, Use Somebody and Notion were without doubt some of the best songs from the Only by the Night album, Sex On Fire of course being a mainstream hit for KOL fans and the generic chart listeners.
This is was no surprise that Sex On Fire had the crowd in raptures approaching the midway point in the show.
The Runner, Comeback Story and Walls were performed acoustically and these nice slower numbers went down well.
Then saw a return to some of their upbeat and feel-good tracks such as Waste a Moment, Find Me and Around the World, which then saw hundreds of thousands of blue and pink confetti pieces blasted into the air.
It was a superb gig and one that left thousands of their adoring fans longing for more.