Kings Of Leon bring day one of T In The Park to a close

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T in the Park 2009

Friday 10th to Sunday 12th July 2009
Balado, nr Kinross. Scotland, KY13 0NJ, Scotland MAP
weekend £170 - SOLD OUT, day tickets Friday £60, and Saturday or Sunday £72.50

Daily capacity: 80,000

Friday night's Main Stage headliners Kings Of Leon have catapulted themselves from the indie fringes to the centre of the public consciousness in recent years and have become a major globe-striding stadium rock giant. In double-quick time.

The dark, thundering tones of opening song 'Be Somebody' drift out over the sun-burned heads as a chill wind blows in across the site and the band, uniformly wrapped in black, deliver a slightly low-key opening.

The dense, Stonesy, 'Taper Jean Girl' follows, before they up the ante with the funky shuffle of 'My Party'. Tens of thousands of voices howl back the falsetto "Ooooh"s throughout the chorus and there's a huge, joyous dance off in front of the stage.

Earlier material, in the form of 'Molly’s Chamber', with the band bathed in yellow light as the dark sets in, and the thrashy 'Red Morning Light', is equally popular, but it's the excellent feedback-infused 'Fans' that sparkles the most, with it's massive chorus and scratchy guitars.

The ethereal, electronic loop of 'Closer' brings a slower, more thoughtful air to proceedings and showcases Kings Of Leon in all their current stadium-rock finery.

Crawl's dirty, fuzzy intro pounds in against a backdrop of strobes, halogen lights and singer Caleb Followill's face projected onto six big screens, spanning the width of the stage. It's an epic, rock moment.

They then up the tempo to tear through the garage rock of 'Four Kicks' and the striding, Pixies-aping 'Charmer' with it's growling guitars, stabbing bass and yelpy Frank Black-influenced vocals.

'Sex On Fire's chorus sparks another massed arms-in-the-air moment, a red flair ignites in the crowd, billowing out clouds of smoke, and images of the band flash across the screens, flecked with glittering red lights. Things start to resemble a more modest, scaled-down version of U2's Pop Mart tour for a moment.

The excellent, sorrowful, pleading 'Use Somebody' is a moment to savour, with the huge, echoing backing vocal being picked up and raised to the heavens by the crowd.

It's an entertaining set, packed with recognisable anthems and some great songs, but there's little charisma or thrill and few surprises or changes in direction. The Kings Of Leon do what they say on the tin – big, accessible, stadium-filling music and they do it well.