Brandon Flowers’ seamless melding of rock influences guided the Killers through their Red Rocks set on Wednesday night. Photos by .
At 9:15 p.m., an hour after the had finished their set, took the stage at . The restless audience had packed themselves to the uppermost general admission rows, coming within a few hundred seats of selling out the 9,450 seat capacity venue. I was ready to see anything at that point other than the group of mid-20s revelers sitting next to me drink more beer, take more pictures of themselves and continually scream, “Letap get it on!” in my ear.
The Las Vegas band, named after an obscure reference to the bass drum of a fictional band in a New Order music video, opened with “Human,” from their 2008 release, “Day and Age.” The monotone stage production looked crisp and clean, and the band lived up to the inspiration of its name.
Incredibly bright lights flashed and strobed from the zebra rug-covered stage. Unsettling animation in the style of Ray Harryhausen flashed onscreen behind the stage. One sequence during “Bones” depicted the classic scene on the beach between Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in “From Here to Eternity,” the actors morphing into skeletons when the waves crashed over them.
The Killers are synth-pop chameleons. Though possessing their own sound in lead singer Brandon Flowers’ powerful voice, they wear their influences proudly as devotees of the Cars, Morrissey, Bowie, the Beatles, Pet Shop Boys, U2 and Queen. Bowie, in fact, was quoted after seeing them live as “…having just witnessed the history of rock and roll in one show.” A compliment — however, embedded in it may have been a jab at the Killers’ mastery of incorporating influences into their sound.
Flowers took a few minutes to catch his breath, exclaiming, “We’ve been spending time at sea level, I’m feeling it up here!” He proceeded to climb a large rock next to the stage to serenade us with “Bling (Confession of a King).” It was easy to forget about how long it took the band to come onstage during “Somebody Told Me” and “Change Your Mind.” Flowers hit his stride, seemingly adjusting to the altitude on “Mr. Brightside.”
He moved like a boxer, sparring between the microphone stand and the keyboards. During “Help Me Out” “All These Things That I’ve Done,” with the crowd chanting the lyrics, “I’ve got soul but I’m not a soldier,” confetti cannons exploded from the stage, glitter showering over the heads of the first 20 rows. At 10:45 they came back for an encore with “Jenny Was a Friend of Mine.”
Hot off the Lollapalooza tour, the Killers were at the top of their game at Red Rocks, a venue that grants magic for some and rips away the veil to reveal the mediocrity of others. Watching the orange half-moon rise above the stage halfway through the show, it was clear the Killers were among the former.
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Sean Kennedy is a Denver-based writer and a regular contributor to Reverb.
is a Denver photographer and a regular contributor to Reverb.
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