The Las Vegas synth rockers called the Killers may take issue with being dubbed this year’s music fashionistas. But how can fans possibly ignore their suaveness when the stage at Tuesday’s sold-out Paramount Theatre show included a raised drum kit
ala “The Ed Sullivan Show,” matching crimson curtain and black- and-red-diamond carpeting, a glowing “KILLERS” sign behind the set and the entire band in dress jackets?
Then there was crush-worthy frontman Brandon Flowers alternating between a mirrored synthesizer and a standing mic for more animated howling, like a cross between John Lydon and Siouxsie Sioux.
Bellowing lyrics along with him, the crowd relished every song from last year’s acclaimed CD “Hot Fuss,” including “Andy, You’re a Star,” “Somebody Told Me” and “All These Things That I’ve Done.” But they were really waiting for the current radio hit “Mr. Brightside.” And they were appeased with sexy, floor-shaking noise.
– Elana Ashanti Jefferson
The Faint and Bright Eyes
As symbiotic as Omaha labelmates The Faint and Bright Eyes seem to be, they sure make for one lousy live double-bill. One band makes you want to fly, the other can make you want to hurl yourself off a cliff.
Even playing a set virtually identical to its November gig, the furious Faint’s sold-out April 29 return to the Ogden may go down as the last time you see the Faint opening for indie-angst darling Conor Oberst. Or it should. These bands need to switch places.
The Faint, again supporting “Wet From Birth,” was polished and pounding in a danceable 16-song set that was far longer and more satisfying than the lackluster, 55-minute headliner to follow. The Faint, also playing liberally from its breakout “Danse Macabre” and “Blank Wave Arcade,” has an infectious, techno-groove club-rock sound. The band didn’t waste a track, except for a neutered Neutral Milk Hotel cover.
But then a bored, Tecate-swilling Oberst sucked the energy right out of the room. He played almost exclusively from his dull, electronic “Digital Ash in a Digital Urn,” with nothing from the superior “I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning” CD he released on the same day earlier this year.
Without a hint of spontaneity, Oberst and a bloated 10-piece backup band reinforced the truth that his unique brand of poignant misery is best savored alone in your bedroom, or perhaps with 20 other loners in the Bluebird. But certainly not as a multimedia indulgence (including two drum kits) in a room packed like a tin of suicidal sardines.
Oberst’s only “Ash”-less tunes were his best two numbers – “Neely O’Hara” (from “Every Day and Every Night”), and “Lover, I Don’t Have to Love” (from “Lifted”). His legions of unstable waif-boy devotees deserved more variety than that.
– John Moore
Maroon 5
It looked like Take Your Daughters to a Concert Day, but the members of Maroon 5 didn’t seem to mind that its show was so family-friendly April 26 at the Pepsi Center.
In fact, this is such a tidy, clean-cut band, you wouldn’t mind if your daughter brought any of its members home. She probably already has the music: The crowd was able to sing every line of the Grammy-winning group’s song “This Love” a cappella from the start.
The 2002 record “Songs About Jane” has accumulated enough of a following to make the venue feel full – it wasn’t – even if the 80-minute show felt more like a first course.
Maroon 5 is so cute that their take on Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall Part II” and the hypnotic “Secret” rang hollow, an attempt to be cool from a group fronted by Adam Levine.
The surprise version of Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” proved that Maroon 5 has real rock potential.
– Kyle Wagner
