Kings of Leon — The O2 Arena, London, 2009

Filmed live concert of Kings of Leon at London’s O2 Arena on 30 June 2009, later issued on DVD/Blu-ray as « Live at the O2 London, England ». The Nashville family band — the three Followill brothers and their cousin Matthew — perform here at the peak of their global success, carried by the fourth album Only by the Night and the hits « Sex on Fire » and « Use Somebody ». This full concert delivers a crowd-uniting set that blends the 2008 arena-rock anthems with rawer early material (« Molly’s Chambers », « Four Kicks », « The Bucket »). The staging and image quality, tailored for the video release, make it one of the best-documented live concerts in the band’s catalogue. Caleb Followill’s rasping voice and the group’s tightly wound guitar riffs come through with force before a packed London arena, and the DVD topped the New Zealand music-video chart on release. A full-concert essential for grasping Kings of Leon’s shift from garage-bred Southern rock to full-scale stadium format.