Kings Of Leon Are Stadium Rockers

Air Canada Centre

Toronto, ON

on Apr 21 2009

Stephanie Joudrey (CHARTattack)

04/22/2009 4:43pm

If you were anywhere near Union Station, it was impossible not to notice the frat boys all heading in the same direction, and there were lineups of people hoping to get a last minute ticket to this sold-out show. Or maybe everyone milling around just didn't want to witness opening band The Walkmen.

It may have been for the best because The Walkmen looked and felt out of their element. The band are better suited to ripping up dingy clubs, and here they were plopped on to a big stage in a huge venue. They didn't know how to use it right, their sound wasn't made for the arena, and the crowd was so busy getting drunk that barely anyone noticed they were playing.

Seeing The Walkmen get lost in the space of the ACC, I was apprehensive that Kings Of Leon, another bar-band-made-good, would suffer the same fate. It was apparent from their first song that I had nothing to worry about. This was a cleaner version. The Kings are fully on their way to becoming a stadium band with big vocals and sounds to match the large venue. Even their on-stage drinks were coming from wine glasses as opposed to the lower rent swigs from the bottle.

When they opened up with "Crawl" from their latest album, Only By The Night, fans rushed from the hallways where they were drinking into the arena proper from every entryway. They should have a warning for those stuck in the never-ending beer lines.

Although the group started with a new song, longtime fans were still well-served by their set list, and I'm pretty sure huge pockets of people in the crowd were being schooled on the fact that these guys actually have more than one album. Still, as old song after old song was played, it was clear the crowd was getting restless.

Kings Of Leon should've been rewarded with a bit more patience, as the band wove a cohesive setlist from their four albums. It wasn't until "Fans" that I realized how brilliantly "stadium" they've truly become. With an acoustic guitar leading the way, it was surprising that they could pull this song out to sound so big, and singer Caleb Followill's soaring vocal performance was far more potent than anything found on an old album.

"Four Kicks" was probably the first song that really had that rough, dirty sound of KOL's past, and it was one of the few times when the band moved around the stage.

Fans were entertained by a big projection screen hovering high over the stage, which made up for the lack of band movement. The screen mostly alternated between flashing lights, static and close-ups of band members, though a picture of a screaming woman flashed on the screen every time Caleb screamed into his mic during "Charmer."

The dive through the back catalogue and multimedia flash was all appetizer, though.

Caleb asked the crowd if it would like to sing along mid-set, and the band burst into the song most of these people were waiting for: "Sex On Fire." When that song was done, the guy behind me, who had been entertaining himself by throwing gum at people, asked his friends if they wanted to leave now that they'd heard "the song."

Fortunately for the rest of us, the remainder of the set still yielded rewards. Newer songs "Notion" and "Cold Desert" seemed purposefully engineered for stadiums, and it was clear that "Use Somebody" is their biggest song right now. The volume that fans sang along to these songs was astonishing.

The band left the stage modestly after "Slow Night, So Long," but returned with drinks in hand for their encore. "Closer" was the best song they could have come back with. Its atmosphere worked to bring us back into it and let them play with lights for the first time. It tapered off after that, with fans getting restless during the seven-plus minutes of "Knocked Up" — though that time did give one girl a chance to toss her bra on stage. They finished up with "Black Thumbnail."

What KOL did with their time was smart. They didn't give us a rundown of new songs like some would have wanted, but instead schooled these new fans in Kings Of Leon history.

Caleb claimed Toronto was the best crowd on the tour so far. Considering how tame huge pockets of the floor sections were, I doubt it. Either way, Kings Of Leon were solid regardless.

Here's what Kings Of Leon played:

"Crawl"
"Taper Jean Girl"
"My Party"
"Molly's Chambers"
"Red Morning Light"
"California Waiting"
"Fans"
"Milk"
"Four Kicks"
"Charmer"
"Sex On Fire"
"The Bucket"
"Notion"
"On Call"
"Cold Desert"
"Use Somebody"
"Slow Night, So Long"

Encore:
"Closer"
"Knocked Up"
"Manhattan"
"Black Thumbnail"