Kings of Leon, Glasgow review: 'moderate highs and dull lows'

“I'm going to call it, this is the best crowd on the tour,” declared Kings of Leon’s typically stony-faced frontman Caleb Followill, en route to cracking what might have been a smile. These three sons of a Tennessee preacherman and their cousin are not what you would call demonstrative. Maybe they are celebrating inside but there was little joie de vivre emanating from the stage throughout this set of moderate highs and dull lows.

The title of the Kings’ most recent album, ironically, is Can We Please Have Fun, but its track listing was passed over at this Summer Sessions show in favour of better known material, lapped up by a crowd eager to prove the “no Scotland, no party” adage.

Jared Followill’s basslines reverberated strongly in the mix as the quartet picked up pace through opening numbers such as the grungey rocker Find Me and peppy boogie Taper Jean Girl.

The first big singalong of the set, On Call, rallied the troops, a brief energy burst before they descended into a gurning plodding rock longueur. The anthemic MOR Use Somebody supplied the next boost, again thanks to the choral crowd.

Along the way, there were some low-key pleasures, from slowburn country rocker Arizona to the dub-infused Immortals, and some turbo-charged rockers including their hungry 2003 debut single Molly's Chambers, the glam garage stomp Four Kicks and the powering Pyro but it was harder to love the aggressive My Party, the distended brooding Closer or the good ole boy vibes of Back Down South.

Standard southern rocker Black Thumbnail provided the false ending on a road which inevitably led to the raucous Sex on Fire but the fateful, seven-minute storytelling of Knocked Up, also reserved for the encore, has always been a more eloquent win for this taciturn band.

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