Friday September 30, 2011. That date will be better recognised as the day the Kings of Leon gave Calgary a visit on the Canadian Tour, with the Sheepdogs. I was fortunate enough to get the chance to go watch one of my favourite bands play live. Believe me, I pounced on the tickets when I heard I had the opportunity to get them. I went with fellow blogger Nico, ’cause us YAA bloggers stick together, and would it be ever-so appropriate that it would be Nico’s first concert ever! Talk about a good time and initiating him to the live concert experience.
First thing we noticed when we sat down into our seats was that there was a massive piece of glass just directly in between us and the band. That’s okay though, the first part of Nico’s initiation was to obviously move seats. And we did, for the majority of the Sheepdog’s show before we decided way too many people were rushing into their seats to remain comfortable sitting in seats that weren’t ours. So we smoothly exited by going to get food and returned to our original seats. Not a single suspicion was raised! By then the Sheepdogs were wrapping up, so it was just in time for the Kings of Leon. It was such a good show, everyone was singing along and there was an unusually high number of people going ballistic with their dancing. A few people even tripped walking down the stairs, (I’m not sure if it was alcohol induced or what) but long story short, it was rowdy.
The thing about the Kings of Leon is, they aren’t really the most verbal band out there, but when they play their music, they are more than just into their music, they pour their souls into it. With their tour coming after their release of Come Around Sundown, the song list probably had to be cut down to fit into their scheduled time! But the Kings picked the right songs, playing a bit of everything, even songs off of their debut album from over eight years ago. This makes the band so well rounded, playing songs for their oldest fans as well as their new, making sure everyone knows exactly what their music sounds like throughout the times. With the entire venue rocking out, the Kings of Leon know how to deliver. I must say they put on a great show, focused mainly on the sound of their music. With a single guitar riff you can recognise the song and you just know that to the Kings of Leon, their music is what drives them. After many great songs, the band walked off stage and instantly I diverted my thoughts to what songs were gonna be played for the encore, (I was right with two out of the three! What were they? You just had to be there to know!)
This being Nico’s first concert, he didn’t know how encores work, but when the band walked off the stage, adrenaline instantly replaced blood in our veins. With it being near pitch black minus the glow of cellphones and such, the crowd grew louder and louder, cheering and clapping and stomping everywhere. The amount of hype created was phenomenal. Of course the crowd was the loudest when Kings of Leon walked back on stage and performed their final songs. Though everybody was starting to lose their voices at this point singing along, the crowd still managed to celebrate the last few songs of such a great show. I was glad to have been there, I gotta thank Kids Up Front for giving me the tickets, it was definitely memorable, awesome, amazing, all of the above.
On a sidenote, Kids Up Front is an incredible organization that gives all kinds of tickets to kids and youth that wouldn’t normally be able to attend. Here’s the reason why we were able to go:
