All day yesterday, I was on the fence about going to see The Killers. Hot Fuss is quite possibly my favorite album of all time, and Sam’s Town is easily in the Top 50. Part of me was nervous, will they stand up to my imagination of their live show? Can they really sound that good in person?
The answer in short, is They Can, and They Did. Last night’s sold out show at the Patriot Center was an opulent, yet slightly trashy, burst of Las Vegas fueled Rock and Roll that pulsed and throbbed at the right moments, and shone bright like a star when it needed to. It was replete with the glorious rock cliches, like glitter cannons and seizure-inducing light displays, but the heart and soul and urgency of their music was right there at the front of the stage.
Highlights of last night’s show included a slowed-down dirge version of “Uncle Jonny” that was amazing. The intensity of the already-rocky song was clicked up just the extra notch to drive home both the tragedy and ecstacy of drug addiction. The high-tempo version of “Read My Mind” was clearly the band’s favorite song of the night, all their performances were elevated beyond their normal level. Ending the show with “Mr. Brightside,” I wondered what they could possibly have planned for the encore. The crowd was screaming and demanding more before the band had even left the stage.
They came back out, much to the delight of the crowd, to perform “For Reasons Unknown”, Frankie Valli’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You”, a new song that I didn’t recognize, and they finished the encore set with “All These Things That I’ve Done,” that left the crowd exhausted, in post-rockgasmic bliss. Brandon Flowers standing on the blocks on the front of stage, holding out the microphone over the screaming crowd, singing “I’ve got Soul, but I’m not a Soldier” is the image that’s just burned into my consciousness from last night. It comes back unbidden in my sleep, and in my morning routine. That’s the sign of a great concert, the one that bubbles up in your consciousness days later.
Well done, Killers.
This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs
I live and work in the District of Columbia. I write at We Love DC, a blog I helped start, I work at Technolutionary, a company I helped start, and I’m happy doing both. I enjoy watching baseball, cooking, and gardening. I grow a mean pepper, keep a clean scorebook, and wash the dishes when I’m done. Read Why I Love DC.
