Working All Points West Music and Arts Festival this past weekend was arguably one of the worst experiences of my life (and I took microeconomics my freshman year). After selling approximately eight billion ferry tickets to every Radiohead fan on the island of Manhattan Saturday, I hopped the boat myself and got to Liberty State Park in Jersey City just in time to see the Followill boys hit the stage Saturday night as my knights in super skinny jeans.
Kings of Leon opened the set with newbie jam "Crawl," recently available for free download on their website. Live, the song reinforced the transition toward a more arena-rock sound the band made with Because of the Times. If you were one of the opponents of this change, hold on to your copy of Holy Roller Novocain because based on the performance of this song, it looks like the band is going to stick with the new sound. The song was flawlessly played and energetic, despite the fact that the first thirty rows of crowd were taken by aforementioned crazed Radiohead fans securing their spots for the headlining band.
(Side note: Will someone please explain the fascination with Radiohead to me because I don't get it.)
In a show highlight, the band played "Sex on Fire" live for the first time as noted by frontman Caleb who wore his signature white v-neck tee, black jeans and tan snakeskin boots. Throughout the song his vocals straddled the thin line between sexy wail and squeaky crack, a combination so irresistible to some festival goers that various undergarments hit the stage throughout the song. Check it out for yourself:
I have to give major props to lead guitarist Matthew for shredding during the few guitar solos he played. The overall stage presence was very musically mechanical and the band very rarely deviated from the CD versions of songs. When they did mix it up, however, it was with Matthew taking the lead. "McFearless" was especially powerful. The rest of the set was very balanced with material from all the band's releases being played. "Charmer" and "The Bucket" were standouts and "Ragoo" was noticeably missing.
Bottom line: the new album is going to be amazing so get your tickets to the fall tour already. And for the record, the KOL do list is still as follow(ill)s:
1. Jared (duh)
2. Caleb
3. Nacho (yes he was there, yes he was working the ramp party)
4. Matthew
5. Nathan
3 comments:
very nice review.
i would have worn a bra and panties just so i could have thrown em up there.
why people are obsessed with radiohead...... because their amazing
Post a Comment