The first day of Belfast's Tennents Vital Festival, August 14th 2013, brought with it a fantastic line up, Northern accents and shoddy, shoddy weather. The bill consisted of Dublin band 'The Minutes', legendary Derry boys 'The Undertones', the old reliable supporting band 'The Vaccines', and our eponymous legends, 'Kings of Leon'.
The grounds were glorious; littered with Tennents pint glasses and plastic Bulmers bottles. (They call it Magners up there, typically complicated of them). As the name suggests, the festival is sponsered by Tennents lager, a beer that tastes mainly of poo and barley, but they put on a good enough fest so I won't be too hard on them.
The festival generally caters to all tastes, and consists of three days, each headlined by (and I'm being hugely stereotypical here) a popular band that have been shoehorned into satisfying a wider target market. A rock/alternative day (KOL), soft pop/indie(Snow Patrol), and lastly a bit of techno(Avicii)- for the diehards like. See where I'm going with this? As a whole package, it lacked personality. Not to mention the OUTRAGEOUS downgrade in quality of acts from 2012 to 2013. 2012 saw the Foo Fighters, The Black Keys, The Stone Roses and Florence & the Machine headlining- the lineups are barely comparable.
LUCKILY, I am an extremist KOL fan. Therefore the day was going to be the best of my life regardless of what happened. The rain, the portaloos- the discovery of the "she-wee" (don't get me started), my boyfriend drunkenly trying to end partition- NOTHING could have ruined this day for me.
The Minutes kicked off. Nothing groundbreaking, the crowd was sparse, we sat with pints on the grass feeling like something was on it's way; the calm (The Minutes aren't calm, at all, but the 'metophorical' calm) before the show.
Next, The Undertones had us all on our feet. The crowd was starting to fill out a bit, and nothing spreads the love more than a couple of rounds of "I WANNA HOLD YA- WANNA HOLD YOU TIGHT, AND GET TEENAGE KICKS RIGHT THROUGH THE NIGHT-" and god love him, Paul McLoone does his name justice.
The Vaccines, a band I've seen a lot live over the last few years, really are influenced by the crowds interest. When the crush is on their side; they can be electric. Alas, it just wasn't working out for them that day in Belfast; wrong crowd (bad craics), and people were really only waiting for the big boys to start performing.
Finally, Kings of Leon hit the stage; and, my gosh; it was a sight to behold. They sound even better live (if that's possible). The set was top class, and the setlist was gorgeous. It seemed as though it had been planned in accordance with intervals of the rain getting torrential. The heavens opened as 'Radioactive' osciallated through the grounds- and I doubt I'll ever again feel so completely necessary amongst a crowd of 13,000 people ever again.
I have heard people say that KOL are a disappointment to see live because of their lack of interaction with the crowd. Well, I can tell you that that is absolute cadswallop- I bet Caleb even knew my eye colour by the end the gig.
They were spectacular. Honestly.
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