The Features
Given The Kings of Leon straightforward approach to Rock N Roll, it comes as no surprise to see The Features as their support act. With their 1970's edged rock songs, lumberjack shirts and a keyboard player looking suspiciously like Mike Love from The Beach Boys, The Features quickly have the crowd involved for the evening.
From the first track onwards, it is apparent that The Features sound is heavily underpinned by the drums; allowing the other instruments to interplay safe in the knowledge the songs beat is consistent. Given that the crowd were quickly indulging in hand clapping and head banging, it seemed to be a confident start marred only by a varying sound level.
Aware of the limited time a support act has to wow a crowd, the first half of the set was frenetic with fast song followed by fast song and the majority of communication from band to crowd kept to a minimum. About halfway through the set, "Foundations Cracked" slowed the tempo down and it featured a repetitive keyboard riff with a great vocal melody. After this, the flow of the set altered a little and showcased more depth to the bands song writing quality.
In a set of relatively new tracks (the bands debut album has been in stores for less than a month), the second to last song "Me and The Skirts" got the best crowd reaction and at the end of the gig, the Academy crowd appeared satisfied with the support act for the evening.