I saw Kings of Leon rock Co-op Live in Manchester and even they know it's coming home at the Euros

Before getting into the Followills’ performances, The Vaccines? Wow. They were absolutely incredible. They made it look effortless on stage with ‘If You Wanna’ proving to be a personal highlight for myself and it is safe to say they were the perfect appetiser before Kings of Leon stepped onto the stage.

I’ve often made reference to the quality of the acoustics inside Co-op Live, but last night felt like it was on another level. Listening to Caleb belt out hits such as ‘Revelry’ and ‘Molly’s Chambers’ there was a crispness to his voice. It almost felt like you were in the studio with him. Honestly if you played audio clips of a live performance inside the Co-Op Live and a studio recording you would have great difficulty telling the difference. 

The Followills kept their set simple, but sometimes less is more and so it proved at the Co-op Live. There was no theatrics, no choreography and no advanced pyrotechnics. It was merely four musicians who have mastered their craft over a period of over two decades and they allowed their music to do the talking. Needless to say, it worked a treat. 

The band has also seemingly become a good luck charm for English sportsmen. Whilst performing at Hyde Park, England defeated Slovakia to progress to the quarter-finals of Euro 2024. They performed at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone and Lewis Hamilton broke his winless race run, they performed in Dublin on the July 6 and the Three Lions beat Switzerland and then of course there was Wednesday night.  

With England playing the Netherlands in the Euro 2024 semi-finals at the same time, Nathan Followill came onto the stage wearing an England shirt and was met with a huge roar from the crowd. After Ollie Watkins scored the Three Lions winner during ‘Nowhere to Run’, the Tennessee four-piece were met with almighty chants of ‘Football’s Coming Home’ to which Caleb asked “it’s coming home? Is that right?” to a huge ovation. 

The Tennessee four-piece performed a nice blend of classic tracks such as ‘Pyro’ and ‘Taper Jean Girl’ and newer songs including eight songs from their newly-released ‘Can We Please Have Fun’ album with ‘Ballerina Radio’ opening the night. The band followed it up with a barrage of crowd-pleasing hits in ‘On Call’, ‘The Bucket’ and the aforementioned ‘Taper Jean Girl’ to get the crowd rocking. 

An early rendition of ‘Sex on Fire’ got the crowd singing in unison and they never let up from there. The hits kept on coming throughout the night from ‘Mustang’ to ‘Back Down South’ to ‘Milk’ to ‘Wait for Me’ to ‘The Bandit’ and ‘Seen’ before they briefly exited the stage ahead of the encore.

As they returned to the stage, the band performed ‘Rainbow Bell’, ‘Waste A Moment’ and ‘Knocked Up’ in quick succession before closing the night in perfect fashion as they performed ‘Use Somebody’ with the audience singing in unison to wrap the set up. 

As the Followills soaked up the adoration and the applause from the audience, Neil Diamond’s ‘Sweet Caroline’ was belted out in the background with the band taking the atmosphere in before exiting the stage.

Kings of Leon Manchester Co-op Live setlist

• Ballerina Radio
• On Call
• The Bucket
• Taper Jean Girl
• Revelry
• Nothing to Do
• My Party
• Sex on Fire
• Don’t Stop the Bleeding
• Comeback Story
• Pyro
• Mustang
• Molly's Chambers
• Milk
• Fans
• Back Down South
• Nowhere to Run
• King of the Rodeo
• Wait for Me
• Split Screen
• The Bandit
• Find Me
• Closer
• Seen

Encore

• Rainbow Ball
• Waste a Moment
• Knocked Up
• Use Somebody