Live Review: Kings of Leon at the 3Arena

Kings of Leon return to their adoring Irish fans at Dublin’s 3 Arena with a display of muscular, workmanlike resolve and deft pop craftsmanship, a performance which would have the most cynical, casual, or fair-weather of attendees warming to them beyond the hits.

It’s to their credit as songwriters that – like millennial contemporaries and fellow indie disco linchpins The Killers – the Kings’ setlist feels like a greatest hits compendium, despite plugging tracks from 2016 album WALLS, which are peppered throughout and received with fervour normally reserved for the familiar. “Waste a Moment” an immediate classic of their canon, while “Around the World” provides the limber funk guitar, nimble bass, and dance-floor stomp many are here to revel in.

While the thoughts of hearing “Sex on Fire” is about as welcome to your correspondent as an acute middle-ear infection, the strange truth is it comes and goes minus the hype one would have assumed would accompany its performance. Sure, the pub favourite is kept as the penultimate track of the evening in recognition of its pop clout, but in comparison to a euphoric “Use Somebody”, joyful “Eyes on You”, and majestic renditions of “King of the Rodeo” and “On Call”, the crowd seem stilted in comparison for the massively overplayed hit.

The stage is modified in accordance with the night’s delineated structure, the second act of which sees a ruffled red velvet curtain drawn to create an intimate space for Caleb Followill to perform solo some mid-tempo offerings, including “Walls”, an electronica-tinged slow-burn ballad which trudges placidly, its haunting melody recalling Springsteen’s “Secret Garden”, minus that song’s porcelain delicacy. Soon, Caleb is joined by his bandmates, the curtain raised and the rock show theatrics resume, impressively so; the stage production provides spectacle without being all-consuming; the band flanked by screens, arty backdrops and dazzling lighting displays. But, concert’s strength has nothing to do with arena-sized optics, it is the talent and precision of these four musicians respectively, playing note perfect renditions of their popular tunes, powerful and resonant in such a live setting, which makes for a memorable and entertaining evening.