I felt a little old shuffling myself over to the Viejas Arena (formally known as the Cox Arena). When the trendiest fashion makes me cringe, maybe I’m just not that cool.  Somehow seeing boys wearing skinnier jeans than girls is a bit disconcerting to me.  Maybe I should flip through an issue of Tiger Beat to properly inform myself (wait, do they still make that magazine?).  But despite having to wade through the Emo kids, my anticipation ran high to see the Kings of Leon.  They’ve been riding the popular wave with their latest album “Only By the Night.” By far their most commercially successful album, Kings of Leon were apparently arena-ready with a full house waiting for them.

            And arena-ready, they were.  The Followill clan opened on a powerful note with “Closer,” “My Party,” and “Molly’s Chambers.” One would think that relativity young bands sound unpolished live, but not with Kings of Leon.  The music was on point, clean, and just as good as if you were listening to their CD.  Caleb’s raspy voice had a rock-sexy swoon on most of the Viejas female population. Of course, that’s if you could actually hear him because every song was a sing-a-long.  “Revelry” (dedicated to all couples), “Crawl,” “Be Somebody,” and "Notion" (my personal favorite) were among the popular hits.  But nothing got the crowd more on their feet than the song that catapulted them to rockstar status “Sex on Fire.”  They did give a four song encore that included “Knocked Up” and “Manhattan.”  But, of course, there was no way that the band was going to close the night without playing their current big hit “Use Somebody.”  Even if you minus out the lighting effects, smoke machines, and scoreboard video, Kings of Leon seemed comfortable as if they were playing in someone’s backyard.

            My feeling of uncoolness was all for nil as the one of the best summer concerts of 2009 wrapped up.  Kings of Leon confessed the last time they played Viejas Arena was when they were openers for a relatively known artist—Bob freakin’ Dylan.  You can’t be too shabby if that guy picks your band to play with.  I do have to admit that after the concert, I wanted to go out and purchase all their CDs. Sorry, is the cool thing supposed to be downloading?  Oh well, I’ll pick up the next Tiger Beat and read up on that later.