Live Review: Kings of Leon

Kings of Leon
The Warfield
San Francisco, CA
10.18.08

It's Saturday night at the recently refurbished Warfield Theater in San Francisco, CA., and the Kings of Leon are playing the second night of a sold out two night stand in the Bay Area.

Touring in support of their recently released album, Only By The Night, KOL overcame illness to give their growing legion of fans a heavy, rocking set that showcased material off the new album and left no doubt of the band's aspirations to be as big in America as they are across the pond in Europe.

Right out of the gate, KOL set the tone for the evening with a loud, rocking version of current single "Sex on Fire". The song's driving rhythm primed both the band and the crowd to converge and sing the song's soaring anthemic chorus to the delight of everyone in the theater. If there is a Saturday night call to arms, this song is the sound of that call.


KOL stoked the crowd's fire by following the opener with the one-two combination of "My Party" off 2007's Because of the Times, and "Razz" off of 2005's Aha Shake Heartbreak, keeping the pace of the show Ramones-esque with a rapid fire succession of songs with little-to-no pauses between them.

Playing against a bare-bones backdrop, KOL's new direction into bigger, anthemic rock connected with fans on songs like "Use Somebody", "On Call" and the drifty "Revelery", but the band's past was not abondoned: classic songs off Aha Shake Heartbreak like "Taper Jean Girl", "Slow Night So Long" and "Milk" blended seamlessly with the newer material.

Performing with the tight finesse of a seasoned road band, KOL's confident stage presence and delivery made one forget how young the guys in the band are age-wise. Battling a flu bug, frontman Caleb Followill shrugged off the illness to make that important emotional connection with the audience and was careful not to shred his already marbled vocals, while babyfaced guitarist and flat iron enthusiast Matthew Followill focused on playing some haunting, ethereal lead guitar that would have made The Edge smile in approval.


Songs off Only by the Night, showed the band continuing to mine the atmospherics of early U2 and merge that style with their earlier indie rock take on southern blues boogie. But where U2 were looking for God on the streets of Las Vegas, KOL stay focused on the complexities of getting laid and the dreaded politics of the morning after.

Drummer Nathan Followill was the MVP of the night, with his heavy, driving back beat that anchored songs like "Knocked Up" (a show highlight) and "The Bucket" among others. Bassist Jared Followill locked into some serious grooves with fellow brother Nathan and continued to explore his recent interest in fuzzed out basslines on newer songs like "Charmer" and "Crawl".

If there was anything to gripe about, it was the band's short set. 90 minutes later and the crowd found itself back on the sidewalk of Market Street before 11 PM. With four albums to pull from, the band should be able to give fans a meatier setlist. Where was "Be Somebody" off the new album (one of the newer, more dynamic songs begging for a spot in the live show)? Where was fan favorite "Trani" or "McFearless"?

Perhaps it was frontman Caleb's mystery illness that shortened the show, but if KOL want to continue to expand it's fanbase and graduate to larger venues, it needs the musical muscle to make each show unique in its own right.

Setlist complaints aside, Kings of Leon gave longtime fans and new converts a great musical primer to their Saturday night exploits in the city.

Setlist:

Sex on Fire
My Party
Razz
Molly’s Chambers
Taper Jean Girl
King of the Rodeo
Fans
Revelry
Milk
Four Kicks
The Bucket
Use Somebody
On Call
Closer
Cold Desert
Charmer
Slow Night, So Long

-encore-

Knocked Up
Manhattan
Crawl

YouTube videos courtesy of a fan and used without permission.

Live Review: My Morning Jacket

My Morning Jacket
Greek Theater
Berkeley, California
9.19.08

You know a band is special when they can control the weather.

Just prior to taking the stage, My Morning Jacket was able to convince Mother Nature to stop the rainy mist that had enveloped the Greek Theater in Berkeley for much of the past hour and allow the band to play a stunning 3 hour rock show for it's ever growing legion of fans.

Touring in support of 2008's fan-dividing Evil Urges album, My Morning Jacket ripped the studio sheen off the new songs and exposed each song's raw rock 'n roll nerve as well as treated fans to early-career gems like "Phone Went West" and "War Begun".

After an overture blast of loud feedback and crashing percussion, the band locked into the proggish reggae rhythm of"Evil Urges" followed by the electronic pulses of "Touch Me I'm Going to Scream Pt. 1". Like Radiohead did with the electronic leanings of Kid A, MMJ applied their manic stage energy to each electronic bleep and beat from songs off the new album, revealing a band that has added some new colors to their already colorful musical palette.

These new musical textures that began to appear on 2005's Z have taken full bloom in concert: Reggae, Prog, 80s R&B, and Psychedelia have joined MMJ's trademark brand of celestial southern rock to create the BIG rock show. Combined with an impressive light show, MMJ made a case for being one of the most ferocious live bands out on the road today.

Expertly controlling the pace of the show with a nice balance of rockers like "Aluminum Park" and "Off the Record" and drifty songs like "Librarian" and "Golden", My Morning Jacket took the Bay Area crowd on a rollercoaster ride through their musical discography.

Songs are now epic hurricanes of sound and emotion. "Smokin from Shootin" "Run Thru" and "Dondante" filled the amphitheater with swirls of guitar, piano and percussion. And the bass. The BASS. Like medievil cannons firing on the hillside, sub-sonic booms from bassist Two Tone Tomm rattled the concrete slabs of the Greek all night.

"The Bay Area looks like a glossy, misty Scottish battlefield." said lead singer Jim James, referring to the rainy mist from earlier. Through out the night, James often donned a black cape while singing his R&B inflected falsetto vocals on songs like "Wordless Chorus" and the electro-funk of "Highly Suspicious", before grabbing his Flying V guitar and ripping into a guitar shredding dual with fellow guitarist Carl Broemel.

The years on the road have transformed MMJ into a finely tuned musical engine. It's indescribable how effortless things appear to be when watching the band perform. Drummer Patrick Hallahan's Keith Moon like energy, keyboardist Bo Koster's electronic symphony of beats and sounds, Carol Bromemels saxophone and pedal steel flourishes on songs like "Dondante" and "Cobra" and Jim James control of his otherworldly vocal reverb are reasons why this band's following continues to grow while the music business falls further and further apart.

Ending with the one-two punch of "Anytime" and the epic "One Big Holiday", MMJ sent fans and new converts out into the streets of Berkeley with big wide grins and a beautiful ringing in the ears.

Ignore the mixed reactions to Evil Urges and get out there and see these guys live.


set list
evil urges
touch me pt 1
off the record
aluminum park
way that he sings
im amazed
wonderful man
sec walkin
war begun
dancefloors
thank you too
mahgeetah
golden
librarian
phone went west
gideon
dondante
smoking from shootin
touch me pt 2
run thru
---------
wordless chorus
highly suspicious
cobra
rollinback
laylow
anytime
one big holiday

Download a live recording of this show from Archive.org

Photos courtesy of MyMorningJacket.com