Travel tales: Kings of Leon in New Orleans

I bought a ticket to last night’s New Orleans Kings of Leon concert at last minute. It was a resale and it meant I got a front row seat. I sat in the massive arena and it was the most at home I’d felt in New Orleans (I found it really tough in that city).

I think Kings Of Leon seemed like they enjoyed playing last night’s concert more than they did when I saw them almost three years ago in Melbourne. There was some stage banter from Caleb, funny anecdotes (Caleb said that he first sang live at the Cat’s Meow in New Orleans. It was karaoke with Nathan when he was 18. And when a woman flashed her boobs at them from the front row, he said to Nathan “we’re onto a good thing!”. Something has healed between them. They look happier.

While they didn’t play my three absolute favourites (Fans, Knocked Up and Manhattan) they did play a huge amount of older material which was pleasing. I really loved Bucket, Milk, Radioactive, and their newish hit Supersoaker. Other notables were On Call, Crawl, Black Thumbnail, Charmer and My Party. I love dancing to Kings of Leon live.

The security team were fantastic – both the KOL staff and the arena staff. Friendly, polite, safety conscious and encouraging concertgoers to have a good time – unlike at many large Australian concerts I’ve been to. Two of the KOL staff remembered me from Melbourne and we had a chat. One called me to the VIP pit in front of the seated area, and also passed me a guitar plectrum.

The arena security staff had plenty of set lists to give to fans. The band also threw lots of plectrums and drumsticks out.

The 20 minute walk back to the city showed unity in fandom – it wasn’t a rowdy or drunk crowd like I’ve been in during my time here. It reminded me of the walk back from Rod Laver to Flinders St Station.