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August 03, 2007

Kings of Leon: The Paradise, Boston MA 7.31.07

Kingsofleon3

I discovered Kings of Leon a few months ago, and they have since become one of my new favorite bands. They sound like they’re an edgy Brit-rock band, but I was surprised to find out that the quartet is from Nashville. The band was supposed to be one of the headliners in local radio mini-festival about a month ago, but cancelled their appearance at the last minute; I had been thisclose to buying tickets just to see them at this show, but luckily I didn’t. To make it up to the fans that missed them, they played a free show at the Paradise this past week that only radio contest winners could get tickets to. I didn’t win, but I did find a generous free ticket donor on Craigslist.

After waiting an hour over the scheduled start time, the opening band finally took the stage – Cassavettes. Although their vocals were sometimes drowned out by the volume of their instruments (which may be skewed by the fact that my ears were about half an inch away from the speakers), this Boston alt-country quartet put on a lively show. There were a couple slower, more country-sounding songs in their set, but most of the music was upbeat with more of a rock edge. The drummer, decked out in a cowboy hat, was one of the most energetic drummers I have ever seen, and two of the guitarists traded lead vocal responsibilities throughout their set. I really liked the band’s sound, and I’ll hopefully be seeing them live again in the near future.

Cassavettes1

Cassavettes2

When Kings of Leon finally took the stage, the crowd was noticeably relieved and very excited. Personally, I was disoriented – I had never seen a live performance of theirs before, and I had apparently always thought that the wrong member was the lead singer, so I was shocked when the band came out and someone other than who I had pictured was singing. They wasted no time and went right into their set, starting off with “Four Kicks” from one of their older albums. The rest of the set consisted mostly of the following:

“Black Thumbnail”
“Taper Jean Girl”
“Pistol of Fire”
“King of the Rodeo”
“Razz”
“My Party”
“Soft”
“Fans”
“Molly’s Chambers”
“The Bucket”
“Milk”

They played a couple more songs before heading offstage for the encore. Their apparent dissatisfaction with the audience was painfully obvious as they left the stage, since the frontman, Caleb, spit into the audience and flashed a middle finger before walking off. Still, everyone was expecting the encore to be earth-shatteringly amazing, since they hadn’t played quite a few of their more popular songs yet. Shockingly, a minute or so of applause went by before the lights were turned back on. There was a short period of collective confusion among the crowd, followed immediately by cursing and booing. Kings of Leon had played a decent amount of songs, but their set amounted to less than an hour in length because they never really stopped to interact with the audience or take any breaks, except to address problems with their equipment.

Kingsofleon4

Kingsofleon6

Kingsofleon5

If you didn’t know the lyrics to their songs, you weren’t going to figure them out from hearing them live, but most of the audience was singing along the entire time. Caleb has an extremely unique voice that suits the band’s overall sound perfectly, but tends to slur a lot of the words. The band’s edgy rock-and-roll sound was in full force during the time they actually played, and they sounded great. However, it was completely disappointing to see so many big fans of the band let down; when Kings of Leon come back to Boston in a few months, hopefully they will try to make it up to them… again.

 

 

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Comments

glenn

this is glenn from cassavettes. thanks for the kind words! we appreciate it!

Sharon

Glad to see that you call 'm as you see 'm. Bands aren't always there for their audience as you saw with Kings of Leon. It's totally disappointing. But Cassavettes sound worth looking into! Keep up the good work!

Fool For Real Rock

Ha, I thought that Nathan sang originally. I bought Aha Shake Heartbreak first and the picture of them on the album led me to believe that Nathan fit that voice better, I was also surprised to find Caleb as the singer. Now it seems perfect however.
That is disappointing to hear about their lack of enthusiasm toward the crowd and no encore. Really sucks, yeah hopefully they can redeem themselves!
Can't believe Caleb got his hair cut! It was nice before, but change is always good.

Michael

to bad about the kinds of leon but thats awesome thats cassavettes put on a good show! ill have to check them out!

David

don't think i'd bother to see the kings if they come back to boston, or anywhere. not very professional

DiZ

Heard thery were a downer that night, boo to the kings, agree with david, but if you do go again or i do, i hope they have some better personality and energy!

Marcus

Yeah I saw them in NYC same attitude good music bad not exciting to see!!

Michael

Even if not a great show, great pictures!! Are you a professional photographer?

dee

great introduction to the kings of leon!!! good writing & great review

jake

the paradise is such a tight venue i bet the show was great

lauren

geez you were soo close!! great job.

RaYmOnD

Kings of Leon are awesome! To bad they put on a bad show give them another chance!!

RaYmOnD

Kings of Leon are awesome! To bad they put on a bad show give them another chance!!

Michael

Sweet PicS!! Sorry to hear they where the best performers

Michael

Sweet PicS!! Sorry to hear they where the best performers

chris

still cant believe theyre from Nashville

Marcus

Thought these guys were from england~!

Marcus

Thought these guys were from england~!

RaYmOnD

agreed thought these guys were english

RaYmOnD

agreed thought these guys were english

Marie

Glad to find out about Cassavettes. Too bad the kings don't rule!

Susan

Glad I missed this one.

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