Kings of Leon hold court

There’s an old music-industry insider idea about U2 and its opening acts. Bono, the theory goes, chooses the most talented bands he can find, then proceeds to destroy their careers by letting them open a massive tour before they are ready -- if only to eliminate competition. PJ Harvey and the Pixies are past players in this scenario. The Kings of Leon are the latest.

Fresh from their stint as the opening act for the World’s Largest Band on the World’s Largest Tour, the Tennessee indie-rockers returned to Los Angeles on Friday night for their first headlining show since undertaking that ominous duty. If anything, the band proved the so-called U2 Curse to be more myth than fact.

Selling out a venue as large as the Wiltern (2,300 capacity) is no small feat for a band with limited radio play, so it’s clear the Kings of Leon benefited from the exposure. (The band received a similar boost -- though mostly in credibility -- from its opening slot on last year’s Strokes tour).

The band, whose members sported long straight hair and tight pants, blazed through a set of uptempo indie rock that borrowed playfully from the Southern tradition and sounded a bit like Lynyrd Skynyrd on speed.

The White Stripes and the Strokes have gained great notoriety and success with the same kind of relationship to Led Zeppelin and the Velvet Underground, respectively, as the Kings of Leon have to, say, the Allman Brothers. What the Kings lack is the songwriting talent of Jack White or the elegant urbanity of the Strokes, which left much of its set a bit muddled -- like a one-note chorus of a band destined to be either a passable opening act for a greater band or a curtain call for a trend that began elsewhere.