Alt-rockers Kings of Leon deliver a regal performance By: Eva Wasney Posted: 11:25 PM CDT Thursday, Sep. 5, 2024 Last Modified: 2:34 PM CDT Friday, Sep. 6, 2024 Updates

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Winnipeg concertgoers had a brush with alt-rock royalty on Thursday night.

Kings of Leon — a prolific, Grammy Award-winning family band made up of brothers Caleb, Nathan and Jared Followill and cousin Matthew Followill — stopped at Canada Life Centre on the tail end of the first half of a world tour supporting the group’s ninth album, Can We Please Have Fun, released earlier this year.

Despite the record’s pleading title, fun came easy at Canada Life Centre during the band’s first local appearance since 2017.

The show started with a bit of whimsy: frontman Caleb walked on stage and silently inserted a tape — presumably a limited release cassette copy of Can We Please Have Fun — and pressed play on the deck before digging into Ballerina Radio, the album’s opening track, as his bandmates trickled onto the stage.

The song was paired with a karaoke-style lyric video featuring burbling goldfish, frenetic street scenes and blooming flowers.

Throughout the concert, the accompanying videos — projected on tall screens behind, beside and wrapping around the on-stage risers — added greatly to the energy and production value. During songs Razz and My Party a trio of camera people joined the band on stage, capturing a shaky, handheld livestream that felt like a ‘90s music video furnished with odd angles and jagged zooms.

However, the stage dressing often brought more energy than the performers. There was little jumping, bounding or dancing — save for a few subdued shimmies and shuffles — to behold between Caleb, Nathan, Jared, Matthew and touring bandmates Liam O’Neil and Timothy Deaux.

Sporting a cream blazer, large cross necklace and Tom Selleck-style moustache, the frontman Caleb, while singing phenomenally, had the measured, wild-eyed look of a preacher during several tight close-ups. A fitting homage considering the band’s roots.

Kings of Leon — the name a nod to their paternal grandfather — was formed in Nashville in 1999. At the time, the band members were in their teens and early 20s, finding their way into the mainstream music industry after a childhood spent in the church as the sons and nephew of a travelling evangelist preacher.

Despite being raised solely on a diet of gospel music, the group leaned into a gritty punk-inspired sound with their 2003 debut record, Youth & Young Manhood.

Their style has smoothed and mellowed over the years with critical mainstream success and age. Kings of Leon is made up of literal dad rockers now, with many of the band members courting middle age with kids and partners at home. Dad rockers who can still throw a pretty good party, mind you.

Thursday’s crowd was keen to sway and sing along to hits from across the band’s extensive catalogue, including Sex on Fire and Revelry.

Throughout the tour, fans have been treated to a one-off, city-specific song with every new setlist. For Winnipeg, the band obliged audience requests for Notion, off the 2008 album Only by the Night. Judging by the false start, it had evidently been a while since they last played it live.

The show opened with a ghost-y, electronica-infused set by New York duo Phantogram. Made up of lifelong friends Sarah Barthel and Josh Carter, the band has four full-length albums under its belt with a fifth, titled Memory of a Day, set to be released next month.

Playing on a simple stage flanked by a pair of artsy, distorted video projections, the band — accompanied by a keyboardist and drummer — played a chilled out 45-minute set as the audience trickled in, featuring the electro-pop ballad Don’t Move and the darkly, epic song When I’m Small.

Phantogram also sounded great but the stage effects provided more distraction than ambiance. Unless you were in the pit, it was near impossible to make out the performers. The show felt like a hazy basement house concert thanks to a wash of colourful floodlights, pulsing strobes and a frequent lack of spotlights. An odd choice for a live concert.

Kings of Leon closed its roughly two-hour set with a slow-building encore — complete with beach balls and strings of lights suspended from the rafters twinkling in time with the music — capped off with the anthemic song Use Somebody.

eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com

X: @evawasney