Kings of Leon & The Whigs @ MSG - 1/29/09

Last night I took the short walk up to Madison Square Garden to see Kings of Leon and The Whigs perform. The first time I actually saw Kings of Leon was about five years ago at MSG....... except it was at the much smaller theater in an opening slot for The Strokes. I remember not knowing a lot of their material at the time but I was really impressed with their show and made sure to pick up some of their stuff when I got home. Kind of amazing to think five years later they'd be headlining the sold out Garden.



I got to the show during The Whigs' set because I wanted to catch a few of their songs. I'd say the Garden was maybe a tenth full but those that were there were respectful and enthusiastic, applauding after each song and definitely giving the band some love. I thought they sounded really good and was pretty impressed that they could hold their own on the Garden stage. I'm sure their show at the Bowery Ballroom in a few weeks will be great.



As for the Kings, they were really, really good. I've seen them in a variety of venues over the last few years and I wasn't sure if they were going to pull off MSG, but they absolutely did. I was really impressed by the crowd too, they were into the show right from the first notes and you could tell people were familiar with a lot of the material (old & new). I loved "Aha Shake Heartbreak", "Slow Night, So Long", "Manhattan" and the "Cold Desert"/"Trani" combo to finish off the first set. Here's the complete setlist, a good mix of material.

Crawl
Aha Shake Heartbreak
My Party
Molly's Chambers
Closer
Fans
Revelry
Milk
Four Kicks
Wasted Time
Sex on Fire
Slow Night, So Long
The Bucket
Notion
McFearless
On Call
Use Somebody
Cold Desert
Trani

Encore:

Knocked Up
Manhattan
Charmer
Black Thumbnail



Walking out, it seemed like the general sentiment was that people really enjoyed the show. I give Kings of Leon credit, they totally delivered and at the same time came across as a humble and appreciative group of guys. Extremely well done.