KOL May 7, 2009 Concert Review

As the lights dimmed over the audience, eventually to complete darkness, the clapping got louder and the cheering turned to screams. After a minute of having the audience wait anxiously in the dark, four young men, dressed in ordinary street clothes and sporting overgrown hair, walked out and each took a place underneath a golden spotlight. They picked up their instruments, and calmly looked out into the crowd. Then, just before starting their first song, Caleb Followill, the vocalist in the band, spoke, “Good evening, we are The Kings of Leon.”

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On Thursday May 7^th, The Kings of Leon performed at The Bank United Center in the city of Miami. This performance was part of their 2009 tour, triggered after releasing their fourth and most successful album yet “Only by the Night”, which includes the international hit, “Sex on Fire.”

When the band of three brothers and one cousin, Caleb, Nathan, Matthew, and Jared Followill, started playing their first song “Crawl,” the audience was instantly captivated by the hard guitar riffs, the powerful drum beats, the slamming base, and Caleb’s soul-filled voice. They’re songs described by MTV as sounding like “bar-band, country-garage, Allman Brothers-meet-Strokes music,” kept the audience’s arms in the air and their feet always dancing.

What seemed more captivating at times was the interaction of the band onstage. At times the brothers would look around at one another and grin as they heard the music they were making pour out of the five foot speakers lined behind them. At other times they would watch as Caleb’s eyes shut, voice crack with emotion, and teeth clench; then seconds later his head would violently shake, as if bringing himself back to reality, shaking off sweat droplets at the same time.

As the concert eventually drew to an end, Caleb turned to the massive South Florida audience cheering him on, and said, “We've been trying to build a fan base in Florida. I think tonight we did.”

One word to describe the concert: unforgettable. I can't wait till their next concert in September!