the killers

the killers

Holy crap I got to meet The Killers! Due to my occupation I was able to sweet talk an A&R dude to sneak me and my friend backstage at their Pacific Coliseum concert. We stuck out like sore thumbs among the radio contest winner super fans. Don't these people dress up when meeting the one and only Brandon Flowers? I mean, fanny packs?! I know you have to store your digicam and autograph/sticker book, but put in some effort next time.

Anyhoo... got to meet all of the boys. They weren't too chatty as expected. Brandon barely cracked a smile, the big afro dude would have preferred to be somewhere else I'm sure, the not so hot blond Jesus guy was quiet but polite, and my favourite by far was the drummer - Ronnie. He has enough personality for all of them. He gave my buddy a piece of sour gum and actually talked to us like we were people! Brandon's shoes would have looked nice with a puffy shirt a la Kramer.

The concert was excellent. The stage was all glitter-and-glam-rocky, complete with a huge foil backdrop. Brandon's keyboards bedazzled to the max. Blond Jesus didn't really put on much of a show. Ronnie the drummer was full of vim and vigor. The afro guy and Brandon kept looking like they were going to make out, then afro guy decided to lie down in front of Ronnie's drums and had to be helped back up by some stage hands. Guess he's getting old? Brandon was a great performer and lived up to his stuck up rep with such lines as "just when you think this couldn't get any better..." Yeah, ok you're good, we get it.

The only part that I was kinda blah about was when they did a cover of a David Bowie song, can't remember the name but I'm sure the mostly-sweet-sixteen audience didn't get it either. The energy kind of died at that point.

After a short intermission, they played a song that apparently they don't play at all shows - the final track on their album Hot Fuss. That makes 12 songs in total. It was, after all, the very last show date on their world tour. A grand finale.

I managed to score tickets to their official world tour wrap party at Crush Lounge. The place was packed with high brow socialite hipsters who had come out of their secret bat caves for this exclusive event. The Killers actually showed up and Brandon shook my hand and said 'hi, how are you?' as he walked by me! The band bee-lined straight to the VIP room. Hot girls only! What a pathetic display of pushing and shoving and bouncers picking out the aesthetically acceptable groupies to admit into the back room to rub shoulders with the band. I snuck in for a second but the overflowing pretentiousness made it more desireable to go back to partying with the commoners.

I still love those pretentious bastards, they're damn good musicians!