"I can say one thing for Kings of Leon, they sure bring out the beautiful girls." So said Hardeep as he joined me at the Garden last night. Flash forward to the end of the gig when Keith, Christian and I stood chatting before the aftershow (I voiced my disdain for the lack of "True Love Way" - AGAIN, I might add; they shafted me at Brixton as well - to which Keith replied that I must've imagined the song's existence because he's never heard of it and the Kings hadn't played it at all when their bands toured together). We stood in one of the Garden tunnels as throngs of people filtered past to various destinations. One such throng consisted entirely of tall, well-dressed, beautiful girls. "Did you just see that? Holy models...." Keith said. It's true. Hot chicks love Kings of Leon almost as much as I imagine Kings of Leon love hot chicks. And it's a phenomenon you can't help but comment on. I remember being in Atlanta for the KOL/BRMC show about a year ago (as part of the best two months of my life, when I was writing that blog for Blender). As I walked down the street towards the venue, the maitre d' of some restaurant called out to me, "Hey! You going to see that rock band?" Yes, I said. "Yeah... all the beautiful ladies seem to be going to see that rock band." Amazing.
The show was great, as always. I mean, the thing about KOL is that their songs - rule. Plain and simple. Every opening chord elicited an "I love this one" from me. It doesn't matter that they rarely change things up (the only glaring alteration last night was subbing "New York City" into the "Charmer" lyrics in place of West Virginia), great tunes make up for dull production. The biggest crowd reactions came for "Sex on Fire" and "Use Somebody," which I suppose is no surprise. I just couldn't believe how sold out it seemed. I mean - it was sold out. I guess I just didn't believe it til I saw it. I knew KOL were massive in the UK, but their build here was a lot more under the radar. Caleb seemed equally incredulous/satisfied when he announced from the stage, "We finally did it, America." He claimed he'd been dreaming of that moment his whole life (which I found a tad amusing considering that at the Brixton gig, he told the crowd that despite their Tennessee roots, the band considered the UK their true home).
The afterparty was at Citrine, nee Snitch. Having blown Merlin's mind pointing that out when we were there for Christian Siriano's birthday party, I decided to try it again - this time on Sam from the Bravery. "Hey dude, you realize where we are, right?" Sam seemed stumped. "This is where Sarah and I put on a gig for you guys during CMJ 2004!" "Holy shit," he said, "It looks completely different." We noted where the stage used to be (and the perilously close DJ booth from which Sar and I were able to count their beads of sweat), and Sam declared that that gig had been one of the most fun he'd ever played. Go team Tarts!
The club opened to the general public some time after 1 am, and Josh was bumped from the DJ decks in favor of some guy with the most vicious case of musical ADD. I remembered him from the night of Christian's party too - one of those DJs who thinks it's okay to play 30 seconds of 30 hits and call it innovation.
A big group of us continued the party at the Rose Bar alongside a few celebrities I could recognize but not name. All in all, twas a lovely way to bookend the week of Garden concert experiences. Massive high fives to Sune for hooking me up with the ticket (and even more massive high tens if he comes through with Metallica ones - Danes love Danes!).
(one other thing that my bberry bold ain't great at - taking sharp sounding video in the world's most famous arena. oh well, i tried. clip of "closer" from last night below)
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