Kings of Leon Take Manhattan

"Today is going to be a long, shitty day," says Kings of Leon singer Caleb Followill, hanging out in the band's cramped dressing room at the Ed Sullivan Theater. The Kings — Caleb, his brothers Jared (bass) and Nathan (drums), and cousin Matthew (guitar) — are celebrating the release of their fourth album, Only by the Night, with a Late Show performance — and later a gig at the downtown club Webster Hall. But the band is running on fumes as it winds down an intense four-day trip to New York that included a Saturday Night Live gig and a lot of late nights. Matthew finds his second wind in a can of Red Bull, Nathan is nursing a Michelob Ultra, Caleb is protecting his voice with water, and Jared is searching for a hangover cure. "I need a beer, three Advil and a stool sample," he says, gelling his hair into a neopompadour.

But after blasting through their killer new single, "Sex on Fire," the Kings begin to perk up. (It doesn't hurt that their publicist tells them that first-day U.K. sales rival Coldplay's.) Racing through traffic to Webster Hall, they pass Rosie O'Grady's steakhouse. "That's where me and Nathan had our first meal in New York, when we came up to meet with RCA," remembers Caleb. The van conversation veers from porn ("That girl sucked a dick like a dolphin on sardines") to the Manhattan landscape ("There was a twig coming out of the sidewalk — a state park!") to puzzling out kosher dietary rules ("Fish and beef can't be on the same plate?").

Arriving at the club, the Kings launch into an intense hour-long rehearsal, ripping through a dozen tunes — including "Molly's Chambers" and "Crawl" — to the delight of the go-go-booted bartenders setting up shop. "We were worried about tonight," says Nathan, "but I just got a text from my mom that said we were gonna be awesome. Thank God!"

The Kings' 21-song set, which taps gems from each album, draws heavily from 2005's Aha Shake Heartbreak — with renditions of "Taper Jean Girl," "Milk" and "The Bucket." The amped crowd, which paid as much as $250 each for scalped tickets online, sings along to brand-new songs like "Use Somebody," "Revelry" and "Closer." During "McFearless," a fan who flew in from Scotland for the show goes ballistic in the front row. "Best band in the world," he says. "I couldn't miss this." With an encore that includes "Knocked Up" and "Slow Night, So Long," Caleb raises his glass to the packed house: "I'll see you at the bar."

Backstage after the show, Chrissie Hynde professes her love to Caleb and Nathan, before the Kings hit the Lower East Side club the Bowery Electric for the afterparty. (Spotted: Drew Barrymore and Gossip Girl dude Ed Westwick.) Well after 2 a.m., sitting with his girlfriend, Lily, and gazing out into a sea of drunk friends, Caleb is satisfied: "It was a hard day's work, but it turned into one hell of a party."

[From Issue 1064 — October 30, 2008]