Review | Kings of Leon at the Santa Barbara Bowl

In one of the most anticipated shows of the 2024 Bowl concert season, Monday night’s Kings of Leon show was pretty good, but not quite great. I guess I wanted a little more reckless abandon from the so-called “masters of the restrained anthem.”

Don’t get me wrong, they sounded good, they played their hits. There were lots of lights and screens and bells and whistles, and the crowd was bopping along for much of the show, which started out with the dystopian sounds of the 2024 song “Ballerina Radio,” followed by their 2004 hit “The Bucket,” with the lyrics reflecting on the challenges of dealing with fame at a young age. 

But I kept yearning for more of a connection and a bit more passion from this family band consisting of brothers Caleb, Nathan, and Jared Follwill and their cousin Matthew Followill. These southern rockers have been playing together for at least 25 years, and have evolved to embrace a more indie sound that now sells out large arenas like the Kia Forum in Los Angeles (17,505 seats) and Forest Hills Stadium in New York (13,000). So the 4,500 seat Santa Barbara Bowl was perhaps a more intimate space than they’re used to.

Again, it was good, but it wasn’t quite great. 

Lead singer Caleb Followill’s voice was beautiful — particularly on the one-two punch of the 2007 song “On Call” and 2008’s “Manhattan.” He sounds really beautiful live. It sounds just like it does on the radio. 

And I think that was a little bit of a problem.

With the tour and album named “Can We Please Have Fun,” I just really wanted a bit more energy and joy than I was getting from them. To me, and I know others will disagree, the show lacked some excitement, that feeling of wow, anything can happen with a live event spontaneity was missing onstage. It just felt kind of flat. Even the undoubtedly great 2008 song “Sex on Fire,” which, at Caleb’s urging, got the crowd up on its feet and singing along, wasn’t quite as smoking hot as I wished it was. It was all just a little bit more controlled than a rock concert should be. 

Maybe it was the burden of high expectations finally withering away on my part, but it felt like the last few songs amped it up quite a bit in terms of energy and authenticity — especially the encore of 2024’s “Rainbow Ball,” 2007’s “Knocked Up,” and 2008’s  “Use Somebody,” which is probably one of Kings of Leon’s best known songs. They ended the night with the familiar lyrics “I’ve been roamin’ around, always lookin’ down at all I see / Painted faces fill the places I can’t reach /You know that I could use somebody” — and I ended the night with a smile on my face, even if it wasn’t the huge grin I’d been hoping would be there.