Justin Timberlake watches Kings Of Leon kick off US tour

Justin Timberlake was among the crowd to see Kings Of Leon kick off their North American tour last night (October 11) in Las Vegas, NV.

The jaunt is the band’s biggest headlining outing so far in the US, with last night’s 2,000 capacity show at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel sold out well in advance, thanks to the success of the band’s new record ‘Only By The Night’.

Main support on the tour comes from We Are Scientists, with The Stills and The Whigs splitting opening duties over the six-week stint.

This is the third time as Kings Of Leon’s opening act for The Stills, who raved to NME.COM backstage about the Followills’ gracious nature as touring buddies, something that was made apparent to We Are Scientists when the Kings gifted them a vintage bottle of Irish Whiskey welcoming them to the tour.

Excitement emanated from Kings Of Leon as they kicked off their set with current opening track of choice ‘Crawl’, performing many tracks from their new release, including ‘Revelry’, ‘Closer’ and ‘Sex On Fire’ as well as older songs such as ‘The Bucket’ and ‘McFearless’.

Pausing after ‘Fans’ Caleb Followill made a mini-toast to celebrate the opening night of the tour saying: “It’s the first night of the tour, I hope you don’t mind if I take a shot” before downing a shot of Jameson, washed down with Gatorade.

Following the show, the band were paid a visit by Timberlake who came to their dressing room with girlfriend Jessica Biel to wish the bands well on the tour, which wraps up November 19 in Nashville, TN.

As previously reported, Kings Of Leon recently announced they will headline Madison Square Garden in New York on January 29, 2009.

--By our New York staff.
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