The Killers | Webster Hall 9.22.06

How do you know when a band reaches super rockstardom? When your “secret show” seems like a Young Republicans’/greek pep rally (quick someone lock the exit doors and release the gas, just kidding). At least that was how the crowd seemed on Friday at The Killers show. I was pretty lucky to beat out some daytrader with a T100 connection for a $30 ticket.

Now back to the music. This time around, I thought the Killers were fantastic live. Their set was just tight and the band seemed really relaxed. They started off the bat with “Somebody Told Me” and “When You Were Young”, the latter being the first single off the new album Sam’s Town. Either you like it or you don’t, I totally dig it. Sounds like they’re gonna reach some serious multi-platinum selling levels with U2 anthem-like lyrics such as “land of the free ride…”, “…corner of some street”, “When you were young…” and then some more about rock n’ roll. Some Detroit car company is totally gonna be calling to use one of their new songs for a commercial. There was so much fist-pumping during “All These Things That I’ve Done” (you know the song with “I’ve got soul, but I’m not a soldier”), I thought Mr. Brandon Flowers was doing a keg stand or something (the guy’s fist-pumping next to me was so off, I thought he was listening to some other band, was it Franz Ferdinand. wtf?!). There was even a guy and a girl on someone’s shoulders getting hype, now that’s festive. And of course they ended the night with Mr. Brightside. No room to do one of my patented kicks in the air.

People will say how crappy the new album is when it comes out, but isn’t the goal of most bands to make it big? The whole carnival, dusty western town art direction wasn’t too bad either. The dirty moustaches on Flowers and the drummer are A1 in my book.

More pics and other thoughts at Bao’s flickr, Modern Age, Underrated. The Music Sluts also have the set list.