Kings of Leon: seize the moment
++ Update: If you are passing through and like Russell Brand, you can watch a film of him doing his best Britpop impression, singing Furry Walls from his new film Infant Sorrow exclusively on the Hive ++
It’s been nearly two years since the Only By The Night album catapulted Kings of Leon into the stadium-filling league, so it was good news for nearly 65,000 fans at Hyde Park that the headline band chose to debut a taste of their new material.
It comes halfway through a set that began with Crawl and featured all the highlights from the band’s decade long career. Singer Caleb Followill told the crowd: “Since we saw you guys last we all went and made a record. That’s what we do, we work a lot.”
Explaining that the band had just presented them to Sony UK executives, who may not have wanted them aired to thousands of iPhones, they played a handful of songs anyway.
One sounded like a glam rock stomp. Another could be a singalong, festival favourite in the making and a lot more impressive than the first YouTube fan airing:
The working titles for the new songs are Southbound, Immortals and Radioactive.
Despite attracting Chris Martin, Gwyneth and Orlando Bloom to the VIP area, the Nashville hirsute rockers are no live U2-style spectacular.
They keep the crowd chat to a minimum of genuine thanks that so many had turned out to see them and keeping the big screen visuals to a flattering black and white following camera.
With hits like “Molly’s Chambers” and “The Bucket” to rattle out before an inevitable Sex On Fire brought the stragglers at the back into the sweaty throng, they seized their Hyde Park moment.
A note-perfect cover of Pixies’ Where Is My Mind paid due homage to the band’s influences and left those only there for the “hit” wonderfully confused.
Caleb: On Fire
A more experienced, stadium-oriented band would have elongated Sex On Fire to give the crowd a little more involvement but the KoL tend to please themselves, and with night falling as they surged to Use Somebody and an encore, most left delighted with another sun-kissed day in the park.
After selling 6 million copies of Only By The Night, the next move from the band, expected to be released in the Autumn, will be one of the most highly anticipated albums of the year.
The Kings thanked their support groups who produced an unusually all-US line-up for a Brit crowd. The Drums feared the worst, taking the mid-afternoon slot before a more rawk-oriented crowd but their precious Smiths-relocated to Brooklyn indie fared well, despite some fey tambourine action.
The Black Keys did their Akron, Ohio garage soul-blues act and proved that with The White Stripes in downtime, they can perform the drums and guitar double act with no less pizazz and an increasing melodic sophistication.
So the Kings have had their day and now Hyde Park awaits the kids-influx frenzy of the weekend Wireless festival, featuring P!nk, Lily Allen and the mighty Jay-Z.
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