The Killers – Live (April 27th, 2009)

When you’re headlining a show at an arena like Rexall Place you need some sort of memorable quality to the show. The stage and space is massive, making the band look small – particularly to those sitting a bit further back then they probably want to be sitting. There’s (normally) an intense lack of intimacy and it’s often harder to fully connect to the band when you, as a concert goer, is sitting a hundred feet away. So you need something unique and compelling to help bridge that spacious gap and create the connection. Last night, The Killers used a wall of lights to create that compelling attraction.

Standing in front of fake palm trees and a sheet of lights as big as a house, The Killers played a ninety minute set featuring tracks from all four of their albums and used the mass amounts of lights to help convey the emotion and vibe of the songs. The bass drum of Humans were emphasized by pulsating speakers in the background while a lit up sign of Sam’s Town stood in the backdrop for the song of the same name. Skeletal bodies danced behind the quartet throughout Bones while scenes from the Joy Division bio-pic were used for their cover of Shawdowplay.

The heavier songs pulsated with accented strobe lights; spotlights were used for guitar solos or piano introductions like Dustland Fairytale and the danicer indie-pop tunes like Spaceman, Somebody Told Me or Jenny Was A Friend of Mine used lights that were lighter, more energetic and slightly spastic. The only song that really felt out place was Mr. Brightside – which sounded great but used a weird combination of moving red and orange lines.

All of the light shows made up for the slightly disappointing stage presence of half the band. Both bassist Mark Stoermer and guitarist Dave Keuning seemed bored and distant the entire set, staying in the same place and rarely ever moving. The sound was good, but they had no energy or emotion something that vocalist Brandon Flowers tried to make up for but it still fell short a bit.

Everything was forgiven by the time they played All These Things That I’ve Done. Crafted with a perfect arena rock anthem, the song got the most reaction out of any of the night. Lyrics flashed across the lights to help everyone sing along and it all cumulated with confetti and explosions. It was the perfect way to end the set which made the encore of Bones, Jenny Was A Friend of Mine and When We Were Young pale in comparison – but the fire for When We Were Young was still pretty cool.