The Killers“There's some fine tennis happening out there, and we also watched Django Unchained.” But Brandon Flowers probably knows that every single person in the tightly packed Palace is not thinking about anything else right now. Everyone has been hanging on for close to three hours for him, Dave, Mark and Ronnie to step on stage. And when they finally do, the crowd nearly brings the balconies down. Not that the crowd aren't already pumped up. Supporting act Steve Smyth, armed only with an electric guitar and a sidekick drummer, is impressive with commanding vocals and original songwriting.
The Killers file on stage after a long interval, all dressed in black with famed lead singer Flowers taut and charged in a leather jacket. In the flesh, he is diminutive in stature alongside his bandmates but he definitely crackles with the most energy and charisma, his face beaming with a delicious grin. They kick off with their most successful track, Mr Brightside, which sounds surprisingly tinny. It is a never-fail crowd pleaser, however, and not a soul seems to mind.
The playlist intersperses selections from their most recent album Battle Born (2012) – including the poignant Runaways and Miss Atomic Bomb – with tracks from their previous three albums, and the fans eagerly fill in every word to Read My Mind, Spaceman, Smile Like You Mean It and All These Things That I've Done.
Laser lights and dry ice are employed for the stellar Somebody Told Me and Human. Even without the amplification of Flowers' vocals that makes him the stand out in the audio version, the audience is drawn to his energetic skipping across the length of the stage and nimble footwork atop the foldbacks at climatic moments. Clearly what is sorely lacking here is a larger venue to allow him to cut loose with his trademark showman flamboyance.
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A truncated rendition of Crowded House's Don't Dream It's Over is greeted warmly, and some in the audience would have probably sprung on stage and tearfully wrapped Flowers in an Aussie flag if they had one on hand. As a prelude to the last song in their encore, Flowers modestly explains how they unexpectedly hit it big with their first album – “We were so shocked, we had to get passports and cellphones and go on tour, and when we got back, we were scared because we didn't have anything for our second album; but when we got this song, I just knew we would get our album.” When We Were Young closes off a night worth the long anticipation. Here's hoping we don't have to wait that long again for their next return.
