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Kings of Leon's Southern spin gives its pop appeal

By Walter Tunis Herald-Leader music writer

"We've had a hell of a year," commented Caleb Followill after On Call, a blast of cerebral Southern soul that morphed into brawling post-punk pop, wound down Saturday night at Rupp Arena. "Who'd have thought?"

Who indeed? Maybe we can start with the 9,200 very vocal fans at the show. A year ago, few, if any, would have imagined Rupp Arena as a workable performance home for this band of three brothers and their cousin. But things change quickly when you come up with an album that takes its sweet time ascending the pop charts to remain a Top 30 seller 54 weeks after its release.

That recording, Only by the Night, figured prominently in the band's 95-minute performance. The show, as does the album, opened with a one-two punch of Closer and Crawl. The former employed a bass hook by brother Jared that sounded like a synthesized loop to usher in the sweaty, scratchy singing of brother Caleb. The latter set up a serious sonic roar anchored by cousin Matthew's guitar lead — a sort of dissonant, Southern-inflected reflection of early U2 music — and brother Nathan's jackhammer drumming.

That was the elemental thrust of the show right there — four family mates playing with focus and intensity, creating an original spin on Southern music with an anthemic pop appeal.

With Kings of Leon being an arena band now, the stage presentation came with a few bells and whistles. Specifically, video screens projected keenly edited onstage images. The visuals amounted to what was, in essence, a made-to-order music video that nicely augmented the no-frills performance.

There was a touch of humor, as well, when the screens briefly jumped from live action to splice in the silent, split-second screams of a '60s Hollywood vixen (Janet Leigh from her Psycho days seemed to be the inspiration) during Charmer, a tune already ripe with zen mischief ("She stole my karma ... sold it to the farmer").

The U2 references reappeared often as the show progressed, as in the mix of stuttering guitar and militaristic drums during Only by the Night's Be Somebody — not to be confused with the monster radio hit Use Somebody from the same album, which was served as an encore — and Sex on Fire. But this was by no means a show of derivative influences. Kings of Leon has nicely allowed what was once a fairly primal, almost rootsy sound to evolve into something more expansive.

During an encore of Knocked Up, from the band's underrated third album, Because of the Times, a percussive shuffle bled into a simple, roaming bass line — the kind that sticks in your brain for hours. Then a guitar groove emerged, all bright and atmospheric. It sounded like something veteran British guitar pioneer Robert Fripp might create were he from Tennessee.

Ultimately, such a metamorphosis revealed the key to the show's potency and, perhaps, to Kings of Leon's overall appeal — the ability to retain its heritage regardless of how dense, brooding, mysterious or ambient the music became.

The British band White Lies opened the evening with a good-natured set of '80s-inspired pop. True to those times, songs like Farewell to the Fairground were built around efficient guitar and keyboard melodies. The high, winding vocals of Harry McVeigh, which very much brought bands like The Fixx and The Outfield to mind, nicely completed the retro fit.