As if playing their smallest Nashville show in nearly two decades wasn’t enough, Kings of Leon surprised the fans who packed the Basement East by bringing out a country music superstar: Zach Bryan.
There’s long been a mutual respect between the band and the Oklahoma
troubadour: Kings opened several dates on Bryan’s 2025 stadium run and also collaborated on two tracks in the studio. On Thursday night, they played one of them, “Bowery,” as a sea of phones went up to capture the moment.
But even before Bryan’s high-profile cameo at one of Nashville’s best and most intimate rock rooms, Kings of Leon showed the 575 folks in attendance, including Lana Del Rey and Chris Isaak, that nearly three decades into their career they can still be a force onstage.
The band — singer Caleb Followill, brothers Jared Followill on bass and Nathan Followill on drums, and cousin Matthew Followill on lead guitar — announced the pop-up gig just a day earlier, with tickets sold only at the Basement East box office. On Thursday morning, they made another announcement, their forthcoming 10th studio album, O My Beloved, a love letter to the group’s family and fans, and dropped the folksy new single, “My Whole World.” The band debuted the song early into the nearly two-hour set, but it was the only taste of what’s to come on O My Beloved. The rest of the evening leaned hard on the hits: early faves like “Taper Jean Girl” and “King of the Rodeo,” along with the modern-rock smashes, “Use Somebody” and “Sex on Fire,” that made the Followills radio staples.
For locals, seeing Kings of Leon was rolling back the years. Over the past two decades, the band has become a reliable festival headliner and continues to perform in arenas worldwide. Outside of city limits, mostly the diehards know that the Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, natives once plied their craft at Nashville’s Exit/In and at house parties.
This wasn’t lost on the band, and Caleb acknowledged it several times, saying they were pleased to play for “real Nashvillians.” “Always good to play a show here in Nashville,” he told the crowd ahead of a poignant version of “Back Down South.” “There’s nothing as pretty as here.”
The sentimental spirit informed the band’s relaxed, nostalgic set. It was apparent in the easygoing flow that playing in front of a hometown crowd meant something extra. Songs like “Pyro,” with Followill leading a singalong at its conclusion, the revved-up “Supersoaker,” and the frantic Southern punk of “Molly’s Chambers” off the band’s 2003 debut Youth and Young Manhood, were greeted like old friends.
“Use Somebody” and set closer “Sex on Fire” were reminders of the band’s imperial period. The power of those two songs catapulted Kings of Leon from hellraising upstarts who opened for rock giants like U2, the Rolling Stones, and Pearl Jam in the mid-aughts to global stardom. But on this night in East Nashville, they were just a family band more than happy to rock out for their appreciative neighbors.
Set List:
“Find Me”
“Taper Jean Girl”
“King of the Rodeo”
“On Call”
“Fans”
“My Whole World”
“Revelry”
“Manhattan”
“Use Somebody”
“The Bucket”
“Wait for Me”
“Closer”
“Milk”
“Supersoaker”
“Molly’s Chambers”
“My Party”
“Back Down South”
“Arizona”
“Pyro”
“Seen”
“Black Thumbnail”
“Bowery”
“Knocked Up”
“Sex on Fire”
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