Kings of Leon
Main Stage, Electric Picnic
★★★☆☆
Once exciting southern gothic revivalists, Kings of Leon are now reliable festival headliners whose hit songs have become international anthems. At Electric Picnic on Sunday night they deliver what their reputation suggested they would: a polished, confident and stately performance. Also what it tends to lack: spontaneity and true connection.
The visuals are carefully curated. Pastel psychedelia gives way to close-ups of the band drenched in threshold and lightburn effects, intercut with vague, atmospheric Christian imagery.
The set list leans heavily on the familiar. Use Somebody and Back Down South are greeted with open-throated energy. Between them come newer tracks, largely from last year’s Can We Please Have Fun album. On record these songs hint at a return to urgency. Live, they play more like well-placed bridges than headline moments.
At one point, during the intro to a new number, a group of teenagers near me begin chanting the Killers song Mr Brightside. Others join in, either joking or confused. It’s a telling slip: for many in the audience, Kings of Leon’s hits are so ubiquitous they’ve become interchangeable. They just sound like the 2000s.
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Musically, though, there is little fault to find. The band are tight, assured and perfectly balanced. Caleb Followill’s voice in particular remains a striking instrument, weathered but sure, capable of carrying a range of styles, from chilled psychedelia to rough country. The sound mix is strong, the pacing careful, the execution nearly flawless.
Yet the show never quite opens up. Kings of Leon are not a band inclined to banter. Apart from a perfunctory, “We’re Kings of Leon,” and a few instances of “How y’all doing tonight?” they offer little to bridge the gap between stage and field. At the end they do throw a few towels into the crowd, although it seems unwarranted given that neither they nor the audience look to have worked up much of a sweat. For a festival crowd, especially one primed by more interactive sets, that restraint can feel distancing.
The biggest misstep comes with sequencing. Sex on Fire, which the band perform as their penultimate song, produces the set’s peak eruption. But as the band move into their actual closer, a portion of the crowd begins to stream out. The energy, having peaked, simply dissipates. For all their catalogue’s strength, some songs are too dominant to follow.
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Still, judged on its own terms, this is a fairly successful show. Kings of Leon remain consummate professionals. They may not seem to be having much fun, but they deliver what people come for: sweeping, familiar anthems performed with authority and polish. If the set lacks risk or intimacy, it makes up for it with consistency and confidence.
What they offer at Electric Picnic is less a communion than a presentation, but it’s a presentation of songs that continue to resonate. For many, hearing the hits rendered with such precision is a reminder of why the band’s star endures.
