On Thursday the sixth of October two thousand and sixteen the notable band Kings of Leon made a pit stop to play a hometown (the four brothers are originally from Tennessee) show in Nashville, Tennessee. Initially, when my girlfriend informed me that they were coming to play in Nashville it was only two weeks away from the actual concert date so I quickly searched tickets.
I found seats in the GA Pit for a decent price and immediately purchased them as a surprise gift to celebrate my two-year anniversary with my girlfriend. Little did I know there were many more surprises to be had at the impromptu show that night.
My girlfriend, Merin, and I left our house in Clarksville roughly around 6:30 after I got off work, and we arrived at Ascend Amphitheater in Nashville around 7:15. After finding parking and entering the venue we walked towards the general admission pit area to find a spot to stand. We were surprised at actually how close we were able to stand on the stage, and the excitement was quickly building.
As we stood next to the stage watching the crew rapidly scurry across the stage like church mice checking the instruments, the mics, the lights, and the fog machines (that's right, you better believe Kings of Leon had fog machines) we realized how amazing this intimate show was going to be. Around 8:05 the band walked onto the perfectly fogged stage, and my heart was pounding in my chest.
As Caleb Followill assumed the lead singer position on the stage he got the crowd excited by informing us that "tonight is a special night" because they were to debut their entire new album WALLS for us tonight despite the fact that their album does not publicly debut until October the 14th in its entirety! It was amazing, to say the least.
As Merin and I were dancing and enjoying the live music, Merin whipped her head around. After scanning the people standing DIRECTLY behind us she quickly whispered to me that Connie Britton (the Nashville and American Horror Story star) was behind us with her Nashville co-star posse! Talk about star-struck.
After about an hour of playing the new music, they played a handful of old crowd pleasers, and the show ended at around 9:50 p.m. The show had captivating background images to compliment each piece of music they played, as well as a hell of a light crew that made the show a visual smorgasbord. The temperature was cool, around the seventies, and all of these components made this show one for the books. Way to go Kings of Leon!
