Forget your T-shirt cannons or pre-set DJ; no tool entertains a crowd quite like a fancam. Raised on sports games and rodeos, Nashville heroes Kings of Leon know its appeal, and have taken the title of their latest album When You See Yourself quite literally, plunging cameras deep into Leeds arena for an easy dose of audience participation. For a good half-hour before they arrive, the room fills with laughter and cheesy grins, creating a warmth around a band that have often been portrayed as impenetrably cold.
You don’t go to a Kings of Leon gig for the chitchat, but as the night’s two-hour opus begins, their stony-faced approach to performance remains their biggest achilles heel. This is music for acolytes of the gospel, but nothing seems to fully stir the congregation: not the heel-tapping Taper Jean Girl, not a gorgeous rendition of Manhattan lit in kaleidoscope rainbows, and not even Fans, written specifically as an ode to England. It is only a good hour in – around the point of Waste a Moment – that there are some stronger signs of life from the crowd: a pint flung during Radioactive, a lone crowd surfer during On Call whose enthusiasm makes lead singer Caleb Followill “feel good”.
