Kings of Leon dropped by Saturday Night Live over the weekend, performing two excellent cuts from their recently released LP, Mechanical Bull. With the Followill boys, it’s always a coin-toss as to which band will show up — the world’s best arena-rock band or a sloppy parody of themselves. But ever since frontman Caleb got his shit together and sobered up, the band have been firing on all cylinders, and this SNL performance is a perfect showcase for what they do best.
(By the way, Mechanical Bull is one of the year’s most criminally underrated releases — and their most mature, well-rounded LP to date. I ranked it as the 16th best album of 2013.)
(Also, I hate critics have started hating this band ever since “Sex on Fire.” It’s like they’ve been penalized for writing hooks and tuning their instruments. Sorry if you liked them better when they were the “Southern Strokes,” but the best musicians mature over time — and that’s a good thing.)
Anyway, back to SNL. First, the band played the enormously catchy “Temple,” which — with its quiet-loud dynamic and huge lead guitar hook — is kind of like the raggedy stepchild of “Sex on Fire.” It’s a pretty smooth performance (love those backing vocals on the chorus), and the fashion choices are equally excellent (Caleb donning an awkward pink sweater, cousin Matthew sporting a leather greaser jacket).
(Side note: love Caleb’s fruity hand gesture at 3:08, as he sings, “crossing my fingers.”)
As good as “Temple” may be (and it’s pretty great), “Wait for Me” is truly one of the very best songs they’ve ever written — a tear-jerking, whiskey-coated power-ballad that deserves every last arena lighter wave it’ll eventually earn. Caleb gets a bit iffy on the choruses here, but it’s a fairly flawless performance otherwise. If this track isn’t their setlist closer, that’s a seriously wasted opportunity.
