Kings Of Leon at the Dublin O2

THE KINGS OF LEON (O2, DUBLIN)

The last time Hot Press saw Kings Of Leon play an “intimate” Dublin gig was six years ago in the Temple Bar Music Centre.
There were 600 people there in July 2004 compared to the 14,000 who got out of bed early enough with their credit cards last month to get tickets for tonight’s holy communion.
Fittingly given their southern bible-belt upbringing, the Followills have this year joined the likes of U2, AC/DC, Coldplay and Arcade Fire in the ranks of ginormodome-filling bands who inspire almost religious devotion among their fans who are only too happy to throw their 75 yo-yos into the live collection tray.
Kicking off with recent single ‘Radioactive’, the Kings are as tight and CD-perfect sounding as any act who’s graced the North Wall in 2010. What they don’t do though until the late double-whammy of ‘Knocked Up’ and ‘Use Somebody’ is generate much in the way of visceral thrills.
Laid back to the point of almost being horizontal, Caleb Followill’s between song raps are strictly of the drawled “Dublin, how you guys doing?” variety. Matthew performing guitar-fellatio during ‘Closer’ aside, there’s also precious little in the way of shape-throwing, working the stage or anything else that might require the taking of a shower after they’ve finished.
Some people might deem this never venturing more than three feet away from their mic stands to be the epitome of rock star cool, I just think it’s plain lazy.
While no one’s suggesting that they suddenly morph into Muse, there’s also something rather underwhelming about their stage show, which looks like a cross between an auto scrapyard and the inside of a Borg Cube spaceship.
If Kings Of Leon aren’t to be a major Slane letdown next year, they’ll have to conjure up more moments like ‘Four Kicks’ (a thrilling exercise in ZZ Top-style boogie); ‘On Call’ (a slowbuilding epic that reaches all the way out to Row Z); and ‘Sex On Fire’ (no amount of dodgy X Factor renditions can steal away its soaring majesty).
Maybe they're just knackered from six months of non-stop touring, but the Followills' New Year resolution has to be to ditch the autopilot when playing live.

STUART CLARK