Two decades in, The Killers still relish the glare of Sin City’s lights. In August, the Las Vegas-formed band are celebrating the 20th anniversary of 2004 debut ‘Hot Fuss’ with a residency in their hometown; for the past month, they’ve embarked on the ‘Rebel Diamonds’ tour throughout the UK and Ireland, a nod to the recently-issued Greatest Hits compilation. Tonight’s (July 5) show at The O2 in London is the second of six sold-out shows at the 20,000-capacity venue, the type of residency reserved for pop titans or heritage acts, categories which do not apply here or are deftly avoided.
Frontman Brandon Flowers is all too aware of the British audience’s commitment to The Killers since the very start. Prior to ‘Dying Breed’, he is genuinely emotional at the fact that these punters first took ownership of the band, and have been showing out ever since. The bluster of ‘Imploding The Mirage’’s studio version is gone, but instead hushed reverence takes over: “there’s nothing better than old friends,” he tells the crowd, “and you don’t make new old friends.”
The tone of the evening remains consistent: a balance of big hits and deep cuts from their entire discography. ‘Smile Like You Mean It’, ‘Spaceman’ and ‘Somebody Told Me’ are performed with bombast and urgency, as Flowers assumes the role of gracious host, reminding the audience that he and his band are in the service industry, gleefully here to facilitate the best of times. The smart staging – diamond-shaped lighting and a garishly-patterned casino carpet – complements the dazzling black number that Flowers sashays and flexes in.
The joy of a residency means an opportunity for setlist substitutions. Even if the crowd energy dips occasionally – most notably ‘Battleborn’’s ‘Be Still’ and ‘Your Side Of Town’ – they attack them with flair. 2004’s ‘On Top’ feels as essential as ‘Hot Fuss’’ bigger singles and ‘The Man’, the sole cut from 2017’s ‘Wonderful Wonderful’, is undoubtedly their latter-day highlight.
A night out on the strip is never complete without a surprise: before the finale of ‘Human’ and ‘Mr Brightside’, Erasure’s Andy Bell joins for a cover of their ‘80s pop gem ‘A Little Respect’. In the chorus, Flowers and Bell first look earnestly into each other’s eyes and then ours: “I’m so in love with you” they coo, aptly summing up Killers’ relationship with their audience. We’ll remain “forever true” to you, too, lads.
The Killers played:
‘Read My Mind’
‘Somebody Told Me’
‘Spaceman’
‘Jenny Was a Friend of Mine’
‘Smile Like You Mean It’
‘Shot at the Night’
‘Running Towards a Place’
‘On Top’
‘The Man’
‘A Dustland Fairytale’
‘Be Still’
‘Runaways’
‘All These Things That I’ve Done’
‘When You Were Young’
‘Caution’
‘Dying Breed’
‘Your Side of Town’
‘Boy’
‘A Little Respect’ (Erasure cover)
‘Human’
‘Mr Brightside’