Concert Review | Kings of Leon bring blasting, danceable tracks — and Eddie Vedder — to Paramount show

Concert Review |

When Caleb Followill said Kings of Leon have friends in Seattle, it wasn't just the usual rock-star jive.

Toward the end of the band's set Monday night, Eddie Vedder bounded onstage for a short time, sharing vocals with Followill and — like most everybody else in the packed Paramount — dancing with wild abandon.

"That was completely unplanned," Followill told the audience after the Pearl Jam front man departed to wild applause. "Thanks, Eddie."

Maybe because we need it right now, or maybe because the sound was so powerfully loud and enveloping that it made your body shake even if you didn't want to, the show had a feeling of tension release, of partying like wild in a world gone mad.

It almost felt decadent, especially when Followill spit out dark, nasty tales, like the sexually charged "Molly's Chambers" or the weapon-bristling "Four Kicks," with its references to guns and switchblades at a cock fight.

The Kings blasted things off with their big new hit, "Sex on Fire," which brought everybody to their feet. They kept the music at maximum power through the first half-dozen or so songs, including "Happy Alone," "Razz," "King of the Rodeo" and "Revelry," seguing one into the other until it became a whirlwind of romping, nonstop rock. The mysterious, evocative lyrics, tight, searing guitar interplay and pounding rhythm section kept the crowd supercharged.

The pace slowed now and then to let everybody breathe, especially during "Cold Desert," the ballad from the new "Only By the Night" album. "My voice is shot but I'm gonna do my best," Followill said, but he sounded fine. If he was worried about his voice he didn't show it, blasting out throat-shredders like "Closer," "The Bucket," "Charmer" and "Crawl."

The Kings — Followill and his brothers, Nathan and Jared, and their cousin Matthew Followill — are so big in Europe that they play stadiums and festivals. They sell more records and tickets there than they do here in their own country. You want them to get the popularity they deserve, but it was so fine seeing them in a great theater like the Paramount.

They were preceded by We Are Scientists, a generic New York rock band with '80s disco touches around the edges, via light keyboard accents and easy-rhyming pop lyrics.

Patrick MacDonald: 206-464-2312 or pmacdonald@seattletimes.com