Kings Of Leon, Glasvegas - Brixton Academy, London - Thursday 14th August 2008

Last time I saw Kings Of Leon, I said that it might be the last time to see them in a comparatively small place. Headline slots at Glastonbury and T In The Park already under their belts this year, plus V Festival and a date at the O2 coming up, probably proves the point that they are deservedly now playing massive dates. All the better then to get a chance to see them in the comparatively intimate surroundings of Brixton Academy - and there aren't many bands you can describe Brixton as "intimate" for. This was a warmup gig for the V Festival, and as well as playing their fantastic live set for us, they were good enough to bring Glasvegas along to support them as well.

Glasvegas played what seemed like quite a short set, but looking at a watch, it did in fact last for half an hour. Most of the songs they were playing at Glastonbury were played again, in pretty much the same order, and with the same incredible guitar noise. Sadly, they were playing to a pretty empty venue, and many of those that were there either seemed not to care, or to be more curious than anything else. I guess that given the hype surrounding them recently (and the lack of London gigs from them), that was to be expected. Still, the noise was again fantastic, even if the novelty of that is starting to wear off on me now - Glasvegas are a "must see" live, but I'm not sure I'd want to do it every day.

Kings Of Leon's set started with new song Crawl, which was unfamiliar to many - so when it gave way to Black Thumbnail, that was when the gig really kicked off in earnest. The full setlist is in the NME Review of the gig, but it was striking during the show how thick and fast the brilliant songs kept coming. One after another, from their 3 previous albums and from their new album (I think that new single Sex On Fire could well be their best song ever, and it was a real highlight of the set for me), the top tunes kept on coming. When you thought they might be about to run out, along came songs like California Waiting and The Bucket - incredible stuff. And of course, for the whole set of almost 2 hours, the band looked as cool as can be on stage, said little to the crowd, and seemed at many points to be playing a blinding festival headlining set inside a relatively small concert hall. Truly fantastic.

I have written before that Kings Of Leon are a quite amazing live band - probably the coolest band in the world when you are standing and watching them play their songs. The guitars sound loud and dirty, they don't talk to the crowd, and it all just sounds utterly incredible (and goes far too quickly) whilst they are on stage. This was more of the same - a great show by a band that just defy words when they are playing live and on top of their game. The new album promises to make them even bigger, and they deserve every bit of it.