Well the wait is finally over and the ticket touts of last year a distant but still painful memory as I started my first of two nights of The Killers. Fresh on the back of their Brit Awards appearance this week, The Killers came to Manchester. The question is though: did the crowd come with them?

Faced with a white curtain, the crowd were shown images from Sam’s Town in a very DHARMA Initiative way as ‘Interlude’ played meticulously in the background before the white sheet dropped to expose the band exploding into the full song shortly followed by ‘Sam’s Town,’ and even at this point the crowd showed some familiarity of their current album. The crowd were showered with bright, shiny confetti and it was amazing to watch from the dizzy heights of row P upper stand. They continued the set with another track from the new album, ‘When We Were Young’ followed by ‘Bones’. At this stage, after hearing such bad things about Brandon Flowers’ ability to sing live, I did wonder if he was miming to a backing track as he hit all the right notes and sang faultlessly. After a few seconds to towel down, Brandon, dressed in his uniformed Sam’s Town white shirt, black waistcoat and pants, took the crowd back to the days of Hot Fuss with ‘Somebody Told Me.’ At this point I think the crowd were louder than The Killers and it was excellent.

Clearly out of breath, Brandon thanked ‘Manchester’ which turned out to one of many times he did in the evening. Then told us a story of his friend ‘Jenny,’ into which he put his full vocal range to the test with a few impromptu “Whoa’s” as he asked the crowd to join in. As Brandon worked the stage, he brought the level down a little to play ‘Uncle Jonny’ followed by ‘Read My Mind’, ‘River is Wild’ and ‘Bling.’ Continuing to tell the crowd how he loves Manchester, we were treated to ‘Glamorous Indie Rock n Roll,’ and for the first time ever I was glad I was out of the way as the crowd lifted high in the air while chanting along.

The set was predicable and the tracks just kept coming and despite my earlier observation of how perfect the singing was, it became quite patchy but nowhere near bad for ‘Why do I Keep Counting’ which seemed to be a well-deserved break from the performance they were putting on. Next, we got the track that I truly believe made The Killers and will stand the test of time (well for a few more years at least): ‘Mr Brightside.’ It was then that the little small-town boy from Las Vegas really came into his own as he took to the stage with more strength and purpose than at any other point in the evening.

With a quick shirt change to black, Brandon came on for his first of two encores with ‘My List’ followed by more admiration for Manchester and telling of his love for Joy Division before singing one of their tracks. ‘Shadowplay.’ At this point I couldn’t help feel a little disappointed as I thought he could have chosen a better track and it was rumoured ‘Juliet and Romeo’ from their Abbey Road session. Surprisingly, they pulled it off before I got my favourite song, ‘For Reasons Unknown,’ in which they could do no wrong and reminded me of the delights I had coming in the way of front row tomorrow at the NEC. For the last song of the evening The Killers delivered ‘All These Things’ and Brandon exited stage. Briefly returning ‘Exitlude,’ after taking a bow and waving goodbye to the crowd, drummer MyNameIsEarl™ threw a few drumsticks into the crowd.

Overall, the show was merely good but this was due to my rubbish seat; however, I gained the knowledge to know where to stand at the NEC to get the best view in Birmingham, so come on Killers!

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 25th, 2007 at 11:06 pm by Bricking Chick and is filed under Gig Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.