This was a gig that was chock-a with hits. Or non-hit songs that sound ever so familiar that it didn’t take much to recognise them. The Killers have a knack of writing hook-laden ditties that it ain’t surprising they have a bunch of good songs under their belt. I had their current record Battle Born (which was run-of-the-mill Killers but who’s complaining) a couple of months before the show which meant I should know some of the new tunes by then. Actually, it was a no-brainer as a number of the new songs are so likeable that I was looking forward to hear them live.
I missed my chance to catch them when they swung by Sheffield for the Sam’s Town Tour in ’07 so getting the tix was of first priority which was a right bastard, as after 20 minutes, I only managed upper tier tix albeit the one closet to the stage. Support came in the form of the Canadian twins Tegan and Sara which we managed to catch the last couple of tunes as we climbed the non-steep and hand-railed steps (dengar tu, MEN Arena) to our seats high up in the heavens.
The Killers got onstage with Mr. Brightside with the house lights still on. Flowers didn’t have his moustache this time (Movember notwithstanding) flanked by the rambut besar Dave Keuning with his Gibbo Korina Explorer on stage right and the gangly Mark Stoermer with his Fender Jazz on stage left. One of my favs from Battle came on next – The Way It Was, after the house lights came down. The hits then came on one after another with Smile, Spaceman and Bones. Of course, you would get the typical crowd-go-mad when the hits that everyone knows come on. Easy to guess especially when you get otherwise nonchalant members of the audience start to stand up dancing, even in the rafters (read Somebody Told Me). I don’t admit to know of all their material and despite the aforementioned easy-to-recognise nature of their songs, I was kinda lost when they played Bling and For Reasons Unknown (Flowers played bass on this).
My favourite bits from the show include Read My Mind, which I absolutely like. I had my point-and-shoot focusing, panning and zooming for a vid throughout the song only to finally realise that I didn’t press record. D’oh! Here With Me, another song from Battle was a jiwang song which had the entire arena lit up by mobile phones (“Don’t want your picture on my cell phone, I want you here with me“). Runaways was another fav of mine from the current record which was then followed by the eponymous When You Were Young (The Conglomerate covered this at the GIG@Sheffield in ’08!) from Sam’s Town ending the main set.
The band returned for a rocking four-song encore which included two Hot Fuss tunes and ended with the majestic Battle Born from the current record.
Brandon Flowers had said in an interview on Q that they were stoked to play the new material in its entirety but they had to make sure they had the old hits in the set for the fans, which is a difficult thing to do when on one hand as a band you’d want to go forward but at the same please the punters. But as you could see from the list below, haven’t they done well?
Motorpoint Arena, Sheffield set 8.11.12: Mr. Brightside / The Way It Was / Smile Like You Mean It / Spaceman / Bones / Heart Of A Girl / Bling (Confession Of A King) / Miss Atomic Bomb / Human / Somebody Told Me / Here With Me / For Reasons Unknown / From Here On Out / A Dustland Fairytale / Read My Mind / Runaways / When You Were Young // A Matter of Time / Jenny Was a Friend of Mine / All These Things That I’ve Done / Battle Born