The last show the Kings of Leon played on their North American tour, frontman Caleb Followill cut the performance short by walking offstage partway through the set.

Citing “vocal issues and exhaustion”, the band was forced to cancel the rest of their summer tour. Media reports later suggested the lead singer was being encouraged to go into rehab.

But the Followill family returned to their tour in fine form Wednesday (September 28), offering up a full set of arena rock songs that had the Vancouver crowd cheering with approval.

The Tennessee band’s set featured songs from their latest release Come Around Sundown, including their homeland homage “Back Down South” and “Mi amigo”, as well as other hits from throughout their five-album repertoire, like “Notion” and “Crawl” from their 2008 record Only by the Night and “On-call” and “Knocked Up” from Because of the Times.

While the southern rockers stayed close to their recorded sound with solid performances, they offered little in the way of stage presence, with most of the band members locked into a similar position for the duration of the set. Dressed in skinny jeans, a plaid shirt and with his hair slicked back, Caleb paused only to drink periodically from a bottle of water.

But the band’s energy level didn’t seem to phase KOL fans in the arena, who sang along, pumped their fists, and waved their arms in unison when prompted by the frontman.

The crowd reaction led to a rare moment of between-song banter from Caleb, who thanked the audience and told them “you’re one of the best crowds we’ve had in a long time”.

During a couple of moments throughout the set, the singer seemed to glance up through the stadium seating to soak in the reactions of dancing, singing fans.

In another occasional moment of interaction with the crowd, the lead singer remarked he was “having a great time with you beautiful people”, and that he wished the band had another show the next night. (The last time Kings of Leon came to Vancouver, they headlined two shows in a row at the arena.)

As if the band gained confidence as they moved through the set, the Followills seemed energized by the time they finished off the main set with the crowd-pleasing “Sex is on Fire” and came back with a three-song encore.

Returning to the stage with “The Bucket”, the band then had most of the audience singing along to “Use Somebody”, and finished off with a lively performance of the loud “Black Thumbnail”.

As Caleb moved around the stage during the final number, bucked his head along to the guitar riffs and propped his leg up on a monitor, he took on far more of a dynamic frontman persona than he had during the whole show.

The band punctuated the set with pyrotechnics, as bursts of flame and fireworks accompanied the final notes.

With Wednesday night’s performance, the southern rockers likely reassured both themselves and their fans that they’re ready to take on the next leg of their tour.

Or, as band member Jared Followill put it in a Twitter post following the show: “The Kings are back in business.”