The Global Citizen festival is now in full swing after a roaring start last night (Saturday, September 28,) courtesy of Kings Of Leon. The band played to an enthusiastic crowd of some 60,000 people, with the gig being dedicated to ending world poverty. The band kicked off the charity concert with their latest single Supersoaker, a bright, uptempo guitar track perfect for the occasion.

Kings of Leon, V Festival
It was a solid festival set from the Kings, featuring a lot of fan favorites.

They soon dialed it back, however, with an earlier hit – The Bucket. Things got even more electrifying when the band had gotten warmed up and powered straight through Don’t Matter and a nice mix of old and new power anthems like Family Tree, Beautiful War and that classic Sex on Fire got turned into a crowd pleasing sing-along. KoL ended the set with another fan favorite – Use Somebody, before clearing the stage for John Mayer, followed by Alicia Keys and Stevie Wonder. It was a solid, if ever so slightly predictable set from the band, however many reviewers noted that the Kings sounded surer than they have in previous years.

Kings of Leon, V Festival
The uptempo, rounded sound of Mechanical Bull also featured heavily.

KoL were introduced by Gerard Butler (of all people) and he was far from the only famous face at the festival, set to coincide with the United Nations General Assembly. Olivia Wilde, Jason Sudeikis and Katy Holmes were some of the other non-musician celebrities, who showed up to support the cause.

Gerard Butler, Novak Djokovic Foundation Event
Gerard Butler was on hand to introduce the band.