Photo: Danny Payne
Easily one of the best live bands for so many reasons, Kings of Leon this weekend shut down Milton Keynes on one of the hottest days of the year so far, running through an impressive back catalogue of hits that had 50,000+ fans singing intensely well into the night.
With no sign of the hex that has haunted KOL shows for so long, there were no collapsed roofs, pigeon poops or band breakdowns on show at the National Bowl in Milton Keynes. Instead a very cool, calm and collected four-piece formed in Nashville, Tennessee applauded the huge crowd and thanked them for being a part of one of their biggest ever live shows.
Opening with ‘Supersoaker’, the lead single from latest album Mechanical Bull, the snappy vocals of Caleb Followill meshed perfectly with the punchy feel-good instrumental backdrop and set the scene for fans to be able to drift away into a show built full of hits with reminiscent qualities. Big moments on the night of course included a mega singalong of the band’s marquee smash ‘Sex On Fire’, which sounded as good live as it does on the album, but other key moments included ‘Milk’, which was apparently added to the setlist after support act Haim announced they wanted to hear it, as well as ‘Taper Jean Girl’ and ‘Fans’.
Soaring chants rang out when ‘Use Somebody’, a record made for stadium moments like this, was belted out and surprisingly underwhelming tracks such as ‘The Immortals’ transformed themselves into beautiful moments when performed live.
In fact, the depth of the band’s material showed its might when atmospheric gems like ‘Pyro’ and ‘Knocked Up’ took over the Bowl as if they were the band’s most memorable classics. Let’s be honest. On such a beautiful day, there was never going to be a better soundtrack provider than the Kings of Leon.
Kings Of Leon played:
Supersoaker
Taper Jean Girl
Fans
Family Tree
My Party
Razz
Red Morning Light
Closer
The Immortals
Back Down South
Milk
The Bucket
Temple
McFearless
Knocked Up
Pyro
Tonight
Radioactive
Don't Matter
Molly's Chambers
Four Kicks
Cold Desert
Beautiful War
Use Somebody
Encore:
Crawl
Black Thumbnail
Sex on Fire
Below: Exclusive live photos from Kings of Leon's 2014 UK tour
