Out with the old for Kings of Leon

Kings of Leon is one of the hottest bands around, and it shouldn’t come as any surprise that it would be one of the headliners for this year’s Bonnaroo festival. However, that doesn’t mean donating such a large chunk of time to them was a good thing.

From the first seconds of its performance, it was obvious the group considers itself the next Big Important Rock Band. Rather than doing anything to acknowledge the audience, the band suddenly appeared on stage and started playing, with lead singer Caleb Followill finally addressing the crowd a few songs in.

Much of their most recent album, “Only By Night,” was performed during the show. Those songs got the biggest response from the crowd, which was somewhat reserved. Curiously, a Pixies cover was included among the original tracks. I would love to hear what Black Francis has to say about that.

Very little of Kings of Leon’s performance betrayed its southern rock roots, instead focusing on its more recent U2-inspired grandiosity and cleanliness. Though very crisp-sounding, many songs seemed cold and antiseptic. Those that rose above the fray rocked out the most; “Crawl” and “Closer” received solid treatments but were dragged down by an abundance of songs that seemed predestined to grace a “Grey’s Anatomy” episode.

An interesting addition to the set was the inclusion of four new songs; unfortunately, they just melted into the rest of the proceedings without really distinguishing themselves.

For the final blow, Kings of Leon saved its hit single “Use Somebody” for the last encore. A cliched move, it was as if the band were forcing casual listeners to wade through muck for the final payoff.

No, thanks.