The Kings of Leon, the multi-grammy winning Followill family foursome consisting of 3 brothers and 1 cousin, have a sound that is a mixture of Southern rock, blues and alternative/arena rock.
After
a solid decade of album releases and touring, the band took a
well-needed hiatus from touring for almost two years but only
actually took a few months off before working on their 6th
album “Mechanical Bull”. While they took that time to recuperate
physically, it also gave them the opportunity to get back to their
roots musically and not just put out an album for the sake of putting
out an album.
Now
they're back with a vengeance with an astounding 24-song setlist with
a 3-song encore performing for a solid 2 hours. For the diehard fans
that know all the Kings of Leon songs they were loving every minute
of it but for the uninitiated it was perhaps a bit long-winded.
Although the band members seemed to be off doing their own thing and
not really interacting, musically it was on point and still
enjoyable, especially if you're a fan of Caleb's voice as lead
singer. You wouldn't even know he'd had a cold for several days if he
hadn't mentioned it although halfway through, his speaking voice was
pretty raspy.
Visually
stunning, the show went from opening with an interesting use of a
gauze curtain to background videos depicting everything from old-tyme
burlesque dancers, a muscle car doing doughnuts, suggestive and
almost anatomical imagery to beautifully colourful flowers opening.
All this mixed with artistic live cam shots of each member and a
laser/light show to rival any heavy rock band. It's definitely like
nothing I've seen before.
SETLIST:
Charmer
Rock
City
My
Party
Temple
Notion
*
On
Call
Family
Tree
Closer
The
Immortals
Back
Down South
Wait
For Me
Supersoaker
Milk
Pyro
Tonight
Don't
Matter
Radioactive
The
Bucket
Molly's
Chambers
Four
Kicks
Be
Somebody
Cold
Desert
Use
Somebody *
Trani
ENCORE:
Crawl
Black
Thumbnail
Sex
On Fire *
(songs
used in movies) *
If
you particularly like epic guitar solos, mixed in with some awesome
vocals, then you'll love Gary Clark Jr. Described as a guitar
virtuoso, he began playing guitar at the ripe old age of 12. A few
short years later at the age of 17, the Mayor of Austin, TX
proclaimed May 3rd, 2001 as Gary Clark Jr.
Day. At the age of 20 his first album was released in 2004 but it
wasn't until 2012 when his album "Blak and Blu" was released that
people around the world started to hear more about him and his music.
Also in 2012 he won an award for performing in more major North
American Music Festivals than any other musician on the planet. He
has won a multitude of Austin Music Awards, was nominated for a
Grammy Award for Best Rock Song “Ain't Messin' Round” in 2013,
and won the Grammy for Best Traditional R&B performance in 2014
for his song “Please Come Home”. His songs have been used in
movies, TV shows and even video games. *
His
recent show in Toronto, opening for Kings of Leon, was a visually
subdued, unflashy 45-minute set backed by three musicians and was
just about pure music. No fancy backdrop or lightshow, just gritty
music that took elements from different eras, mixed with genres like
blues, soul, R&B, doowop, rockabilly and bluegrass but all of it
with a modern twist. Some of his 7 song set included:
Ain't
Messin' Round
Nextdoor
Neighbor Blues
Please
Come Home *
Don't
Owe You A Thang *
Bright
Lights *
No comments:
Post a Comment