Slane review: Kings of Leon. 28th May 2011

80,000 people made the trek to the historic Slane Castle in Co. Meath for the 30th anniversary of the very first concert to take place here, to witness the biggest gig of the year so far.

The excitement was building from all around us from everyone going to Slane, but on a bus full of students, none of us knew where we going… So we just do the logical thing and follow everyone else on the longest walk ever encountered. And I mean, ever. The Whigs started the day off at around 2pm, but I ended up missing them, and I have heard nothing but great things about since then. Up next were Mona - a four piece band from Nashville, and called ‘romantic rockers’, who rose to fame after when they were on the BBC Sound of 2011 poll. Good music, but not at the right time, where the audience was solely waiting for the main event.

Then White Lies, and they gave a great performance, the audience seemed to know more of their songs this time around. Next were the newly reformed Thin Lizzy, 30 years after the band that featured Phil Lynott headlined at the first Slane in 1981. I have to admit I wouldn’t be the biggest Lizzy fan, but they were brilliant, I cannot fault them (even though I thought their set would never end). The tributes that went to Lynott were pretty spectacular, and everyone has to know at least one of their songs, and the crowd went wild for them.

Then it was time for Elbow. Again, it was a time of right music, wrong setting, as even though I thought they were good live, they failed to enthral the crowd well. The singer chugged back Guinness after Guinness, and saying ‘fuck off rain!’ while doing the middle finger salute to the sky. It seemed to work, the 80,000 people there stayed relatively dry, even though we were all expecting floods in our wellies and raincoats.

After Elbow finished, the impatient waiting for Kings Of Leon began, with the crowd going absolutely insane with pushing and shoving from every side there was. I got into the pit for this- I always need the front for a concert. Then it’s time for the main event. The crowd are a bit more focused now. Around 20 minutes later, (I expected a longer wait when front man Caleb Followill said they’d go on stage “whenever they bloody felt like it”).

They received an enthusiastic welcome, as they graced the stage at 8.40pm, and went straight for it, with Four Kicks, which was amazing. They clearly seemed to be enjoying themselves and consider this to be one of the biggest gigs of their career. It was their longest ever set, playing just over two hours. Eventually they got into the flow of things, mashing up songs and flowing ahead with them. The fact that their uncle Cleo had just passed away the night before, they played so good, you couldn’t tell, and neither this or the slight drizzle put a dampener on the day.

Fans, Charmer, Sex on Fire and Pyro were exceptional, with On Call the personal favourite of mine for the night. Any thoughts I had before about them not being good live were crushed. The chants of “ole, ole, ole” rang through the field between songs. At 10:30, they left the stage, and as the usual “one more tune” chant reached out to them, Caleb returned solo shortly later as he played The Runner solo, which he dedicated to his uncle Cleo. It was stunning. They, of course, threw in Use Somebody, the biggest crowd pleaser of the night. They then did two more songs, before ending at 10:50 with a beautiful backdrop, and fireworks filled the sky afterwards.

Definitely a once in a lifetime experience.

Setlist:Four Kicks
Taper Jean Girl
The Bucket
Spiral Staircase
Happy Alone
The Immortals
Revelry
McFearless
Fans
Back Down South
Sex on Fire
Crawl
My Party
No Money
Charmer
Notion
Cold Desert
Closer
Pyro
Mary
Molly’s Chambers
Mi Amigo
Radioactive
On Call
Trani


The Runner [Caleb Solo]
Manhattan
Use Somebody
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