One Liner: Excellent rock and roll still lives
Poster Position: Headliner
Weekend Two Only.
Friday at 8:15
T-Mobile Stage
Thoughts: The Kings of Leon have been a favorite ever since I bought 2004's Aha Shake Heartbreak at a Best Buy, upwrapped the old cellophane wrapper, slid that disc into my sweet Jetta's soundsystem, and began the process of blaring it while driving around town. That album is great. I went and got Youth and Young Manhood (2003) soon thereafter, and then enjoyed Because of the Times (2007) after that. At first, I wasn't all that hot on Only By the Night (2008), but then I saw these guys at Stubb's and connected much more forcefully with some of those tracks. I love when that happens, you go see someone pour their sweat and fire right into a song, and hear the crowd soaking it up (and firing it right back at the band), and then your feeling and memory of a song is forever transformed. Good stuff. I remember "On Call" that way, just the hymn-like quality and the crowd carrying the vocals to a different place than I'd noticed before. So, I've stuck by these guys as they have continued to release albums through the years, and they've been fine. Nothing as urgent and awesome as those first few albums, but still keeping these guys up there in the conversation for the best (out of very few contenders) rock band left in America. Although, I think the new EP#2 that was released last year sounds fantastic.
Their two biggest songs are ubiquitous as hell, but I'll go ahead and link them here in case you need a refresher. "Sex on Fire" has 2.2 BILLION streams.
And then "Use Somebody" has a paltry 1.3 BILLION streams.
You probably already know the whole backstory here, but let's dig that chestnut out and roll it around on the back of our tongue. Three brothers, Caleb, Nathan, and Jared Followill, and their cousin Matthew, formed the band back in 1999. The brothers' father was a preacher, and as he travelled the south for church and tent revivals, the boys were frequently recruited to make music. They camped out of the back of a purple 1988 Oldsmobile to go wherever Ivan was scheduled to preach. In the late 90's, dad quit his job, the brothers moved to Nashville, and the band was born. Matthew has said that he was kidnapped to become part of the band - they told his mom he would only be gone for a week, but then didn't allow him to move home. Jared is still a teenager, and they are also forcing him how to learn the bass. Pretty funny. The name is after their grandpa Leon.
So, as I mentioned, those first few albums are all classics. Really great rock and roll music. But it was the 2008 album Only By the Night that launched them into true superstardom. "Sex on Fire" helped with that, and it was the #1 album in the UK and the top selling disc in Australia that year. it went platinum here in the States, and then they won three Grammys for Record of the Year, Best Rock Performance, and Best Rock song for "Use Somebody." They also came to ACL that year.
I am sort of surprised that they have not come to ACL since then. We've had The Killers 14 times in the last decade and yet no KOL reunion until now? Odd.
And it looks like they have fallen off of my radar a little bit too, in that I have not been reviewing all of their albums over the past few years. Here are two:
Kings of Leon - Walls. This one keeps that same conversation going. Nothing new or revelatory, but still solid groove-based rock and roll with one of my favorite lead singer voices. Strong, but glitchy enough to be real, and harmonic, but not so fancy that it loses its rock sound. Most of this album is in the 5 million plus range for streams, except for two tracks that both bust through the ten million zone - "Walls" (15 mill.) and "Waste a Moment" (31.5 million). [EDIT, those numbers are very different by now - Walls has 183.1 million, Waste has 280.9 million] Here is the latter.
Weird video. Still don't understand what he is accomplishing with the side-head-jazz-hand whenever the bad guy whips out his comb. Although it appears to be something involving fire and toys. I dunno. But this whole album contains the classic sound of the KOL and works well. I wish this album had more of the rawness on their first few albums, but I get it, they aren't young and raw anymore. They are fully practiced and skilled at using their instruments. But I like it anyway, still hoping the come to ACL again.
Kings of Leon - When You See Yourself (2021). Oh, my sweet brothers of rock and roll. So glad you are back and not doing anything weird or techno-ey or whatever. This is the straight-forward business that sounds just like it should. Slightly whiny vocals, rock solid drumming, slightly funky bass lines, soaring guitars, all wrapped up in that unmistakably KOL sound. "The Bandit" is a great tune - catchy and hits on all cylinders. God, why does "Sex on Fire" have so many streams. 715 million freaking streams for that dumb ass song... Anyway, "The Bandit" is winning the stream wars on this album for now with 14.2 million (now at 50.9 million in 2026).
The introductory music just sounds so quintessentially like this band. Super good. "Must catch the bandit!" The lyrics make no sense to me, but the feel of the track is right on. "Golden Restless Age" keeps sticking it to me as well. As you can see from this review, I'm not talking about any new, groundbreaking direction, but that's not I want from these guys anyway. Loving it.
And then they appear to have released a 2024 album called Can We Please Have Fun, which I very rudely did not review or remember even hearing. No, wait, "Mustang" rings a bell. That tune was on the radio for a while. And I never could quite comprehend the lyrics. "Are you a mustang or a kitty? What are you all about?" Is the mustang a cool guy and the kitty a wuss? I don't really know, and the other lyrics don't help. "I like to watch you eat in front of the camera, and there's a misty morning in your eye." Ah, sure. Of course.
But, that new album, like their most recent EP, is more good stuff. Nothing new or weird or different, just good groovy rock and roll. I don't know if we will be there for the second weekend, but I'd love to get to see them again.
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