... McFearless

Last night Dawn and I went to see Kings of Leon at the Air Canada Centre. This was our third Kings of Leon show, and the first in a big venue. I remember first reading about KoL (as all the cool kids be calling them) when we were in Paris when their first album came out. It was a review in Entertainment Weekly of them and My Mourning Jacket, mostly about how there was a new brand of Southern Rock and how it tied in with the vowel bands (that actually was the term used to describe bands like The White Stripes, The Strokes, The Vines...all because of the long vowel sounds in them. Even I couldn't make this up).

So KoL were on our periphery for a while, and then my friend He Who Shares a Name With a Part of The City (you know who you are!) said that if we liked the music, we should check them out live. We've heard that about a lot of bands, and some have been better than others (I'm looking at you, Muse), but decided to give them a chance.

The First Time
It was the tour to support Because of the Times, one of the best album titles of the past few years, and they were playing Kool Haus, one of the worst club names of the past few years. We didn't have tickets, so we walked right up to the door and were able to get them. That was part of the thrill. The other part was seeing a band that is HUGE in England in such a small venue.

The show was all that was promised. They played straight ahead, with great ferocity, and stage chatter was kept to a minimum. I think it was pretty much "We're Kings of Leon" and "Thanks". The set might only be an hour long, but they could play an insane amount of songs in that time.

The Second Time
There were rumours of them coming back to town to play a twin bill with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, but that never materialized. But we kept out ear to the ground and when we knew that Because of Only by the Night was going to be released that a tour would soon follow. And it did, and they played the same venue again. This time tickets sold out in minutes, but we were able to score a pair.

The interesting thing about this show was that KoL was being primed for a big breakthrough in North America. "Sex on Fire" was becoming a big radio hit, and the band had appeared on SNL. So while the first crowd was a mix of Anglophiles and True Believers, this crowd was full of, well, tourists. I went over the show in an earlier post. The show itself was great, the band was tight, but the experience in the trenches was much different.

The Third Time
We actually debated going to this show: ACC means big arena rock, and while KoL plays big arenas all over the UK, it seemed a little much for a band we'd seen in friendlier confines. When we found out that The Walkmen were opening, that sealed the deal.

The Walkmen are not, shall we say, a conventional band. They're kinda like The Velvet Underground had a baby with a lot of late 90s bands: their sound is idiosyncratic to put it mildly. They played a great, shambolic set for the few people who stayed around to listen to them. While they do have a soaring sound, a place like the ACC is not the best for them, especially when it's only about 1/3 full.

KoL came on afterwards, and played their typical, loud, tight set. There was a little more stage patter, and the show was augmented by a series of video screens that showed the band (more on that in another post). The set list was good, though some of my favorite older songs didn't get played, and "Slow Night, So Long" to me is always the show closer, not the first set closer.

What was interesting was the crowd. Because of the larger venue and increased exposure, it would be safe to say that there were a lot of tourists or newer fans who were more familiar with the new material. Whenever something from Because of Only by the Night was played, he crowd went wild, loud, exuberant. When they played "Sex on Fire" you could see the crowd on the floor jumping along, but for songs like "Pistol" the reaction overall was just...smaller.

Don't get me wrong: the show was great, the sound was amazing, and the Followill boys can rock the arena with the best of them. Their sound is still intimate, though, even if the experience is now.

ed note: I shouldn't write late at night. I mistakenly called Only by the Night Because of the Night. Thanks to a certain eagle eyed reader for picking up on that.