The Killers live at the Astoria - 'Capable of Killing ' - Tiscali live music reviews

14/07/2004

A foot-stomping aural cocktail of 80's influences fused with high-tempo new generation indie rock. Get a handful of New Order, The Cure, House of Love and Duran Duran, shove it into a musical blender and serve in a v-shaped high-stemmed cocktail glass. Down in one - you won't be disappointed. The Nevada based band is Las Vegas casino glitz transferred to music.

Tracks
Vocalist/keyboardist Brandon launched into 'Jenny Was a Friend of Mine' before playing a b-side he announced was a 'really good track'. Other than this special b-side the track list was all 11 from Hot Fuss.

Support Band - Sh1te
God does exist. An almost impossibly complex sequence of coincidences delivered me to the Astoria two hours later than I planned so I only caught the last two tracks of the Support. Those two songs alone almost killed me. By the time the real Killers strode on stage the aurally battered crowd were ready to lap up anything they played.

Live sound 7/10

The best indication of this was the crowd. They were up for the big tracks, Mr Brightside and Indie Rock n Roll, but pretty subdued for the rest. Front man Brandon Flowers voice was awesome, scaling the octaves with the energy and style of a totally assured performer. It's the best vocal display I've heard in a long time with more versatility than most front men you'll see. The only crashing symbol was that the drums drowned out too much of the melody to make the blend of sounds what it should have been and Brandon's keyboard was fighting to be heard at times. It did manage to cut through on Smile Like You Mean It to make the song a live classic. Mr Brightside and Indie Rock n Roll were better than good - in fact they were the tracks that make you want to see them again and again.

Mosh Pit 5/10
Didn't seem to make a big impact as indicated by the disappointing number of people fighting their way out of the pit to side-step suffocation, stop their lungs from collapsing and get a t-shirt change. To me the pit was a bit spaced to create any memorable solidarity of movement. This could have been a lack of persuasion from the boys on stage or simply that the sound doesn't lend itself to the kind of altered state of energetic overload required for quality moshing. But something was lacking.