Concert Review: The Killers

If I was not able to be wildly enthusiastic about their openers, I am indeed about The Killers. As I posted yesterday, the audience was pretty into M83 and Tegan and Sarah. Some people stood at times, or danced. They definiitely clapped. It was just nothing compared to when the headliner took to the stage.

The excitement had been building. We knew they were coming. Then the house lights went down, and they came out, and with one accord we all rose to our feet and cheered.

It’s you! We’ve been waiting for you! We love you! You’re the reason we shelled out $50 a piece!
$50? We only charged $38.
Ticketmaster is evil, but we’ll put up with it because we love you!

And they received our love, and played a great show.

The funny thing about this, is that just before they came on, Karen and I had been talking. Now, Karen is the reason I go to Killers concerts. I have been to three with her. It’s not that I don’t like the band, but I don’t get passionate about them. In terms of the lamest thing I could possibly say, exposing myself as a total poseur, I love “Mister Brightside”, and play it often, but otherwise I am usually only listening to other songs of theirs when it is time for another concert and I am prepping. Oh, and I always play “Please Don’t Shoot Me Santa” a few times around Christmas. I love that one.

(This is similar to Duran Duran. My sisters love them, and I like them but just don’t normally think about them, but they put on great shows, and I am personally fond of the members, as I am of the Killers.)

Anyway, Karen was kind of complaining to me about how they just kept repeating the theme of “Dustland Fairytale”, where over and over it was about young lovers who became jaded, and that was all of Day & Age and half of Battle Born, I guess, and coincidentally this part of the conversation happened right before they went on, and suddenly she is standing and screaming and glowing, just like the rest of us.

Obviously, I had to tease her in as the most immature way possible. Since we had been talking about the songwriting issue mostly in regards to Brandon Flowers, who had said in an interview that he is most proud of “Dustland Fairytale”, I went with “You love him. You want to marry him and have millions of babies.” (Even though I know that she is quite happy with her husband and two children.)

In relation to the songs, my first thought was to wonder if Brandon’s marriage was in trouble, and I hope not. If only half of Battle Born is that theme, maybe they are okay. I may be being too literal there.

Seriously, I have been paying more attention to comments now, and so many people were thrilled with the “Miss Atomic Bomb” release, and others have been liking Battle Born less, and others have said they only liked the first album, Hot Fuss.

I have been listening to them more now, and I sort of get where everyone is coming from, and I understand more now what music critics mean by “irresistible pop hooks”. There are songs on Hot Fuss that have them, but off hand I would say that is only about half of the songs.

A lot of Killers songs aren’t really poppy at all. I almost feel like they are more of an adult band, and the playfulness of some of their early songs made them look like that was not the case, but that really they are about mature themes with an Old West sensibility. I do feel the Nevada desert and sweet Mojave rain when I am listening to them.

There may indeed be a rut there. It was around this time that I listened to the Smodcast with Kevin Smith and the Way brothers, and Smith talked about needing to be revitalized at one point, even though he had his dream job, or perhaps because he already had his dream job. It can be legitimate for a band to make gradual progression down one road, or to have sudden shifts and reinvent themselves, and if it’s working for that band, that’s okay.

That being said, while I do believe Karen sincerely felt that was the case, no, it’s not. There are similar themes on the album before, Sawdust, but come on, “Human” and “Spaceman” are on Day & Age. That some themes pop up frequently is, I think, fairly common, but they aren’t mired in it, and the other thing that I think is really important is that the music changes around quite a bit, regardless of what the lyrics are saying. There is a lot of variety.

Okay, my love for “Mr. Brightside” and “All These Things I’ve Done” could mark me as pretty pedestrian, but “Tranquilize” is an amazing song, and I am overall enjoying listening to them, though I feel like there is still a lot to discover.

For Battle Born specifically, which I got for my birthday, so far I really love “From Here On Out”, which may be a good example of both the band’s range and the Western influence. “Be Still” is beautiful and comforting. It’s not exactly spiritual, but it feels like its underpinnings are. I think “The Way It Was” is pretty good too. What’s interesting to me is that there are references to the last and title track, “Battle Born” in the first track, “Flesh and Bone”, and I feel like there are overarching themes that I just haven’t picked up on yet, and that I want to.

Okay, there are songs and bands that touch you in an immediate and powerful way—musical soulmates, if you will –and those are important, and it would be easy to listen to nothing else, and that has kind of been my pattern. However, you can miss out on a lot that way.

That’s why I feel that this branching out that I have been doing is good for me. I may find other soulmates, but I may also build kinships that are different but still rich, which is my way of saying that I will be listening to the Killers more, even if there are other bands that I still must and will listen to every day. There’s still room for new heights and new depths.

Perhaps that is why I found it such a joy to watch Ronnie Vanucci Jr. drum. I kind of doubt he changed the way he is doing it, but I love it and I’d never noticed it before. Probably the change is in me.

For pointless but possibly amusing stories, on our way in the usher was asking who the band was, and the name didn’t ring a bell, but I knew if I sang a bit of the chorus to “Somebody Told Me” she would recognize it, and she did. Karen had tried that with someone earlier in the day, and they looked at her like she was a total freak. I just knew it would work. Also, by the end I was getting really thirsty, and as they sang and showed video clips of “All These Things That I’ve Done”, where Brandon has his face in the puddle, I know it’s not the intended reaction but I was really jealous. It looked much cleaner and more delightful than your average desert puddle.