When I got my ticket to see Kings of Leon back in 2003 I hadn’t been as excited about seeing a band for a very long time.
I’d got the debut album for my birthday and their appearance on Later had whetted my appetite even further having been the most incendiary performance I’d seen on a TV show in quite a while.
I went with a couple of guys I worked with at the time in Dave and Jon and was absolutely buzzing on gig day – a cold December evening just before Christmas which should have been the perfect time to see a quality show and then hit the town afterwards.
Boy, was I setting myself up for a fall.
It still ranks as one of the worst concerts I’ve ever seen with a band seemingly caught out by their meteoric rise and still not really ready for shows of this size.
As the setlist comprised most of their debut album bangers you would think they couldn’t go far wrong, but it lacked the fire and intensity I was hoping for – instead replaced by a hesitancy that seemed to hamper their ability to really let rip.
Maybe I had built it up too much in my own mind but it just didn’t deliver the thrills I expected.
As they’ve got bigger and bigger I have’t gone back to see them as their appeal has diminished in relation to the glossier nature of their material, so I consider this to be a massive opportunity lost.
Unfortunately, you can’t win them all.
See you down the front 