The Killers @ Download Festival

 
Photo Credit: Not Me. We weren't aloud to shoot The Killers. Oh darn.

Sometimes, you have to take one to the team. I'm not a fan of The Killers, but I don't hate them at all. The music just doesn't do much for me. I'm not their target audience. I think they make great hits, but they don't make great albums. If you want something that's easy-to-digest, has some artistic integrity, that's inoffensive and catchy to the masses, than The Killers is your band.

With that said, I had the option to stay, so I figure that I see the Las Vegas superstars at least once just to see how they are live. You know what gang, color me impressed. I may be a music snob, but I can appreciate a fantastic live rock show with fancy lighting and rock start theatrics.

Good news for all. Brandon Flowers got rid of the pornstache.

The setlist:

• For Reason's Unknown
• Somebody Told Me
• Shadowplay
• Sweet Talk
• Jenny Was a Friend of Mine
• *New Song* (Spaceman?)
• Tranquilize
• When We Were Young
• Tell Me Now
• Smile Like You Mean It
• Read My Mind
• Mr. Brightside
• Bones
• All the Things That I've Done

All I wanted to hear was All the Things That I've Done. After that, I left and didn't stay for the encore. That will probably be the best song they'll ever make. That is an amazing, amazing song.

While I wasn't screaming Brandon's name like a maniac or claping along to every song, just from a rock show stand point, it was intense to be a part of. People were going nuts and rightful so.

By the time they went on at 10pm, I was pretty beat. No jumping around for me. So I just watched them from my seat and was looking around to see the fan's reaction. Damn, these guys know what they are doing. If Brandon Flowers wasn't born to be a rock star, than nobody is. He knows how to hit all the right notes and do the right things to extract screams from his fans. He jumps around on the light boxes in front of him while crooning his hits. He's like the straight-Morrissey if he was born in Las Vegas and not the Northern U.K..

Flowers even does that cool rock star thing where he turns his stage banter into the next song. He said something, "Philadelphia, don't you want to see me. Don't you want to see my ... booooonnnneeeeesss." WHOOOO WHOOOOO. That's bad ass.

The whole stage had no backdrop for the whole day until Killers' crew put their forest Sawdust album as the background. Then to play up the fact that they are from Vegas, the whole stage is bathed in marque lighting. It's not often I get to see such an elaborate stage setup, so I was impressed. Preeeetttty lighting. It might have been the four super sweet lemonades I had that was talking.

Even though I don't listen to their music, I think the big stage setting suits their music perfectly. I know they get compared to Duran Duran because it's dancey, poppy and over-the-top glammy. Like I said, they have inoffensive hits on Hot Fuss, that you can't deny. With Sam's Town, I don't know what they heck they were doing there. They wanted to completely change their sound, which I'm all for, but that's something you do for a fourth or fifth album. I listen to it once and by the end, I complete forgot what I was listening to -- in one ear and out the other. Apparently, they'll have a new album out by the holidays and they played one new song, which sounded more Hot Fuss like.

Let's face it, it's The Killers of the world that keeps the mainstream music industry somewhat alive and makes millions of people happy. I can't player hate on a band just because I can't identify with the music and it's not "indie". Sure, they are easy targets for a music snob like me because it's Top 40 radio, but their live show gave me somewhat a better appreciation of what they do and how they make people feel.

Again, I didn't take these photos. This what was given to me to use. *sigh*

More coverage tomorrow, including IGGY IGGY IGGY.

Comments

[Christel]

The Killers were great. Everyone went nuts when they came on. However, we waited all day in like 90+ degrees listening to mediocre bands and the Killers didn't even do an encore. That was the only disappointment.

[Cesar]

Kinda makes you wonder why aynone should pay for an "education." After all, given enough time in life to develop a proper perspective, it becomes obvious that anything which is theorized or even "proven" by our esteemed intelligentsia, is usually disproven within a decade... and a decade after that, the proof that disproved the previous truth, is also proven false...It kinda seems that going to university means that you are paying GOBS of money while learning from a bunch of idiots who learned their nonsense from another bunch of idiots, and so on... and so on...It also seems to me that the mechanic's rule of "tighty righty, lefty loosy" holds far more wisdom that ought to be passed on than the volumes of nonsense a modern university seems capable of teaching. Btw. If witnessing violence on TV, or playing violent video games could make one violent... well, one wonders how people like my parents, who grew up as children/adolescents in Nazi Occupied Europe, could manage to live out their lives without killing aynone - and yet, they were exposed to much REAL violence during their formative years, as were millions and millions of other children who did not turn into crackpot murderers...But, I guess the answer to that is similar to the academic answer of why parents should not spank misbehaved children in the modern day... BECAUSE THINGS ARE DIFFERENT TODAY THEN THEY WERE BACK THEN! Now there is some academic logic for you! Of course a smacking on the bottom worked back then, because children were so different back then that they were born with green skin and six arms... pulleeze! Thanks for the brains, Academia. Where would everone be today without your dumbing them down?

[Miljana]

REALLY bad back pain peoird?Okay, so, when I get my peoird I get extremely bad lower back pain. It's not anywhere else, just my lower back. I'm not really interested in how to fix it as much as what is wrong with me. A lot of girls I've talked to about it say they don't get that much pain. When I get mine I can barely move or function because the pain is so severe. It feels like someone has a sledge hammer and hit me in the bone that's there or whatever (right above my a$$ crack I guess). Or maybe it feels like someone has cut me down my back, yanked my spine or w/e that bone is and started to shave on it with a vegetetable shaver you seen in As Seen On TV IDK if it matters but:It lasts about six days, I've never missed a month, It's somewhere between regular and heavy (ew so disgusting, but w/e)Thanks, pls halp. I'm trying to find an OB/GYN that's open on weekends D=

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