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	KINGS OF LEON Shades of the Stones

Try to dope out the musical pedigree of Kings of Leon and you end up with a bewildering variety of ancestors. The Strokes, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Creedence Clearwater Revival, ZZ Top, the Velvet Underground, and many others have been proposed. Pretty soon you realize that the list of ingredients means little, that the band are special because they play some of loosest and most infectious rock and roll around.

If the Kings called anyone to mind at their show last Wednesday downstairs at the Middle East, it was the early-’70s Stones, as they played with a confidence, power, and swagger that belied their youth. Not to mention the fact that frontman Caleb Followill took the stage in a sleeveless T-shirt and black scarf. Combine that with what one audience member described as a "tight mullet" and you have an unholy cross between Mick Jagger and Spinal Tap’s Derek Smalls.

At the Middle East, Followill and his brothers Nathan (drums) and Jared (bass) and cousin Matthew (guitar) offered a set that was short on stage presence but long on musical command. Opening with the menacing tread of "Holy Roller Novocaine," they retraced most of their highly touted debut album, 2003’s Youth and Young Manhood (RCA), and reaffirmed the essential merit of its songs, from the searing power of "Red Morning Light" to the down-and-dirty crunch of "Molly’s Chambers." Caleb’s voice had a rough edge that allowed him to soar above the murky grooves laid down by Nathan and Jared, and Matthew added some excellent slide fills in "Genius."

The show’s only fault was that it was mostly a very good replaying of Youth rather than a real concert. Half of it was over before the Kings seemed to relax in the realization that the audience was on board. "I wish we had three more albums and could keep on playing," Caleb apologized after about an hour of music, "but this is our last song." That turned out to be "Trani," a ballad that built up to a shattering climax full of screams and Velvet Underground–style noise. It was the first time all night that they threw themselves into the music and showed what they’re capable of live. Let’s hope they’ll have those three albums soon and find a way to be the complete package that’s so tantalizingly within their reach.