Good times and guitars.
The Kings of Leon are always going to be strongly linked to T in the Park. At the end of the week when their debut album was released in the UK the poor poor boys took the second stage by storm. Now with three albums down the line, a late main stage appearance indicated how far they have come. They may have less facial hair than that previous sunny day but the additional tunes more than make up for the reduced hair. Its funny to think now that the band courted controversy in their early days with debate and conjecture over the origins of their songs but nowadays none of that matters as the band have became a major player. So much so that it was a bit of a farce that the Scissor Sisters and Snow Patrol were above the band on the bill, these two acts may shift more units but they're bland and lowest common denominator, the Kings may be basic rock n roll but they are one of the best rock n roll acts of today. So with all that in mind, there is very little that could stop the band but the sound problems at T certainly tried their best.
Perhaps this reviewer is getting old or maybe this years weather has played havoc with the sound system but the sound never really came across as being loud enough. Which was a shame as the Kings of Leon excel when their sleazy brand of striding guitar music is played at full volume. 'Mollys Chambers' retains a heart of gold and a riff that rolls around the early evening sunshine and is one of the many tracks that the band manage to rock the crowd with.
'On Call' has a striking simplicity, with the verses being pared back to the bare minimum before crackling to life for the choruses which features one of this years best howling melodies and should cement the bands place in modern rock n roll tapestry, and if that doesnt do the trick, then new single 'Fans' should just about seal the deal.
It was nearing the end of a long weekend and with the crowd having lived through quite a lot of different weather states and witnessed a whole lot of mud, there may have been a tiredness around the festival goers but the KOL still managed to inject some life into proceedings and reminded everyone how good a rock n roll band can be.