Brandon Flowers perfects his anguished rock star kneel at Magness Arena on Saturday. Killers photos courtesy of Press Here Publicity. M83 photos by .
The line between art and entertainment is a fine one. Just don’t tell that to Anthony Gonzalez from . In no attempt to pander to the crowd on their tour kickoff with , the Parisians in Denver decided to go the way of art. For those that understood, that was just an added bonus.
The more than half-full arena eagerly awaited the stage arrival of Las Vegas, Nevada’s hottest export (no, I’m not talking about “CSI: Las Vegas”) the Killers. M83 created my favorite album in 2008, “Saturdays=Youth,” and the album also topped on many end of year lists in 2008. That didn’t mean a whole lot because the somewhat ambivalent crowd pounded their beverages wondering why there were these extended synth solos and homages sounding like Vangelis at a rave.
The set list had a mixture of the Frenchies’ repertoire over the last couple of years kicking off the night with “Graveyard Girl,” without the vital samples of a teenage girl talking about “reading poetry to the night” and “being invisible to the night.” The song did lose some meaning because the same solemn girl speaks about being 15 and it being too late to live. The album is dedicated to the scope of ’80s cinema owned by recluse John Hughes and the varied themes of his movies of adolescent survival in high school.
The euphoric “Teen Angst” created a sense of hope and longing with the female backup vocals on the ooohs and ahhhs. The set climaxed with the ode to teenage love, “Kim & Jessie,” with its shoegazed textures and lush synthesizers. A stoic Anthony Gonzales, the lead vocalist, rarely moved unless he was on guitar but seemed a bit uncomfortable in front of the large crowd. The group is best suited in a smaller venue but for the die-hards, a rather full arena would have to suffice. Their set ended with the instrumental “A Guitar and a Heart,” which could be used in any given movie scene where the main character would be on the run creating a sense of apprehensiveness.
How fitting was it that the stage for the Killers was adorned with appropriately-placed palm trees and roses hanging on stage and sent straight from the florist. Brandon Flowers sashayed the stage wearing a blazer with his shoulders decorated in feathers plucked freshly from any bird outside. “Spaceman,” from the latest album “Day and Age,” kicked off the set with the crowd at full capacity by this time. A new element added to the latest album had the group utilizing a horn sound on “Losing Touch.”
Flowers had so much energy that he didn’t know what to do with himself on stage, a veritable ball of energy, if you will. Flowers is usually behind a small keyboard stand but on “For Reasons Unknown” he looked awkward with a bass in hand. It was like watching a millionaire consort with the help. At this point I noticed that the lack of crowd enthusiasm was evident until radio smash “Somebody Told Me” exploded, sending waves of energy throughout the venue. The underappreciacted “Joy Ride” had a David Bowie “Young American” horn vibe that found the group making use of a bubble shooter, sending millions of bubbles into the crowd. I had to make sure I wasn’t at a Flaming Lips show.
Not all of the new material went over well with the crowd, and being that this show was the tour kick-off I’m sure the guys will get it right. “I Can’t Stay” fell into the loungey-sounding songs on the new album — a style the group isn’t known for. At this point I started to gaze at the stage and then it hit me: the setup resembled a Lite-Brite, that old ’80s game loved by “children of all ages.” It was officially confirmed that the new material had not resonated with fans when the guys dropped “The World We Live In” and “Neon Tiger.”
During the latter, the group’s backdrop changed to a tiger print (eye-roll) and Flowers’ anguish could be felt when mouthing the words “I don’t want to be broke, I don’t want to be saved, I don’t want to be S.O.L.” Immediate excitement returned to the crowd when the current chart topper “Human” took on a life of its own with its Erasure-like vibe, only to be followed up by the Springsteen-inspired “Sam’s Town.” Flowers took his place behind a piano on a slowed-down version of “Read My Mind,” breathing new life into one of the many gems on “Sam’s Town.”
Not a huge surprise here, but the crowd pleasers of the night belonged to the first album, “Hot Fuss.” The combination of “Mr. Brightside” and “All These Things I’ve Done” was like giving Viagra to a P.O.W. An interesting fact that I didn’t know about “All These Things I’ve Done” was that it’s the Killers’ attempt at a Velvet Underground impression. It was at this moment that Brandon was baring his soul on stage for the city of Denver to see. The crowd cheered “I’ve got soul but I’m not a soldier.”
I didn’t think the guys had an encore in them but they went back to the crowd-favorite bag ‘o tricks from “Hot Fuss,” playing a supersonic version of “Jenny Was a Friend of Mine.” I also didn’t think it was possible for the group to top this encore, but the triumphant second encore song delved into the hottest single from their second album, “When You Were Young,” a track that successfully makes the listener nostalgic for a time when responsibility was unknown. The Killers nailed the final encore and capped a successful first night (not counting the Boulder date) on their US tour in support of “Day and Age.”
Julio Enriquez is a Denver writer and photographer, editor of the blog and a regular contributor to Reverb.
MORE PHOTOS: M83 by Julio Enriquez
THE KILLERS
