The Killers  Cologne 2007

Details: Written by: Jörg Uhlenbruch; Published: 18 March 2007

Palladium, Cologne, Germany
09th March 2007
The Killers, Mumm-Ra

With only two albums, THE KILLERS are already among the big Indie heroes of the new century. Although their second long-player ‘Sam’s Town’ got mixed reviews the success speaks for itself. As the demand for THE KILLERS increased since their last tour in autumn, the band decided to meet this with another European leg this March. Time for us to check out THE KILLERS live for the first time…

Mumm-Ra

THE KILLERS could have hardly made a better choice for the support act of their current tour as MUMM-RA, as the British band does not only fit the headlining act perfectly but MUMM-RA are also perhaps at a point in their career where THE KILLERS were back in 2002 – the next big thing, if we believe the British music press. http://www.mumm-ra.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/mummra

Music
MUMM-RA are Niall Buckler (bass, vocals), James Arguile (guitar), James "Noo" New (vocals), Oli Frost (guitar, vocals), and Gareth Jennings (drums) from Bexhill on the Sea, UK. They rose to public attention first when they performed with the NME awards tour alongside THE AUTOMATIC, THE VIEW and THE HORRORS. They received further acclaim and publicity thanks to NME, who many argue they owe much of their success to after being featured in the January 2007 edition of the magazine as one of ten bands who were "guaranteed to soundtrack" 2007. They have been quoted that music was their only way to escape from the closed community of Bexhill on Sea, an increasingly common scenario with many newly emerging British bands. Despite this, several references to Bexhill on Sea are made in their lyrics and the band seems quietly proud of their heritage. An amusing note is that the band appears relatively casual and almost indifferent when questioned in interviews about the possibility of playing at Glastonbury, but when their hometowns 600 capacity De la Warr pavilion is mentioned, they show a considerable amount more excitement. Their name originates from the main villain of the 1980s cartoon, Thundercats

Performance
MUMM-RA, MUMM-RA, MUMM-RA – when a support band succeeds to let the whole audience bell out the band’s name, then it’s surely quite an achievement. But it was not a Rock star pose but rather a little exercise to make everyone remember the rather complicated and unusual name, initiated by MUMM-RA singer James New. This self-ironic sense of understatement is typical for the stage appearance of the British newcomers - and very congenial. But MUMM-RA also offer musical quality, and catchy Indie-Pop tunes like ‘Song B’, ‘What Would Steve Do’ or ‘Out of the Question’ get their job done. Anyone who likes Indie with great hooks and reminiscences to old British guitar heroes of the 80s, especially THE SMITHS, a little U2 and the Pop moments of THE CURE, will love MUMM-RA. And as you can imagine, at a THE KILLERS concert the place packed with people who love this kind of music. No surprise that the band felt very comfortable on stage, and they delivered a good performance with a lot of fun in-between songs. A band to be reckoned with in the near future!

Setlist
01. Ra! Kill! Am…
02. Now or Never
03. Song B
04. What would Steve do?
05. These Things
06. Song E
07. She’s got enough
08. Clocks tick
09. Out of the question

Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: 7
Total: 7.3

The Killers

Grammy-nominated Rock band THE KILLERS from Las Vegas are Nevadaare Brandon Flowers (vocals, keyboards), Dave Keuning (guitar, vocals), Mark Stoermer (bass guitar, vocals) and Ronnie Vannucci Jr., (drums, percussion). Since their debut album, ‘Hot Fuss’ (2004), they made a remarkable career and catapulted themselves to the absolute top. Although not uncontroversial, the mainstream success continued with ‘Sam’s Town’, released in October 2006, which spawned the huge hit ‘When We Were Young’. http://www.thekillersmusic.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/thekillers

Music
Despite ‘Sam’s Town’ being only THE KILLERS second studio album they have already established a sound of their own. They continue with the same dance-rock feel as on their massive debut ‘Hot Fuss’, but ‘Sam’s Town’ has less Pop appeal to it. ‘Hot Fuss’ had been compared to DURAN DURAN, THE CURE, THE SMITH, "Ziggy"-era BOWIE, T-REX, PSYCHEDELIC FURS, ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN and the group whose music video inspired their name, NEW ORDER. The band itself has also cited as influences THE CARS, TALKING HEADS, THE BEATLES and all-time hero ELVIS PRESLEY.

Performance
THE KILLERS started their show as you could expect from a band from the entertainment capital of the world, Las Vegas. Spectacular! In fact very spectacular! During the instrumental intro (which reminded me oddly enough on IN THE NURSERY!) the huge stage was hidden by a see-through curtain, on which some video footage was being projected. The footage started with a distorted screen (as if it wasn’t working properly – nice trick!) followed by a weird mix of obscure black & white shots of people’s faces, the Nevada desert, the band’s silhouettes, a negative pattern of some beauty queen, and stuff like that. Over the stage there, was huge neon writing which announced “Sam’s Town” in a glaring red color - a very impressive intro which had some sort of a heroic feeling to it. And indeed, the heroes of the fans have arrived, after the intro the curtain fell down and the stage, no, the whole venue was light-colored by the lurid stage lights. The intro music faded into the title track of the recent album, ‘Sam’s Town’ and with a loud bang a flood of tinsel and gold foil came down on the first 20 rows of the audience. In fact, what a start!

The short piano number ‘Enterlude’ induced the first big sing-along, followed by the first single from the recent album, ‘When We Were Young’. A massive hit which got the crowd going wild. So far THE KILLERS played the first three songs from ‘Sam’s Town’ in exactly the same running order as at the studio album, but now they broke this pattern and played the second single from ‘Sam’s Town’, ‘Bones’, and continued with some smash hits from the debut ‘Hot Fuss’ – the driving ‘Somebody Told Me’, the anthem ‘Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine’ and the poppy and melancholy ‘Smile Like You Mean It’. Seven songs in the set and the air was already filled with euphoria and tension like usually only at the end of concerts. After this amazing first half of the show followed what I would call “the rather boring middle part”. ;-) THE KILLERS performed the bulk of their hits and now turned to the “difficult” album tracks. The pace and tone of the music changed, and the level of excitement in the audience dropped significantly. The die-hard fans may disaccord as they love all of THE KILLERS’ stuff but the show suffered from the same problem as the band’s debut, ‘Hot Fuss’ – an excellent, world class first halftime and the rest is rather a mixed bag. The same accounts for ‘Sam’s Town’ although the quality tracks are a bit more shuffled with the suboptimal songs. And one more thing I haven’t mentioned yet – while THE KILLERS put on a spectacular, entertaining show in a true Las Vegas-style, they lack surprisingly any contact or interaction with the audience. A very shy “hello…everybody” and murmuring some jokes to his band mates is all we got to hear from singer and front man Brandon Flowers during the major part of the show. Quite an antithesis to the way THE KILLERS represent themselves otherwise, and as I find this lack of interaction rather incongruous for a band like this I just wish they would be a bit more talkative during their shows.

Anyway, after losing momentum during the middle part of their show THE KILLERS picked up the high spirits towards the end of the show. ‘Indie Rock’n Roll’, though rather mid-tempo, is a fan favorite, and the massive hit ‘Mr. Bright Side’ is of course also a massive crowd pleaser in a live situation. Unfortunately the main set was over with this smasher but being in top party mood again the fans demanded more, and of course got more. ‘My List’ from the recent album opened the encore part, followed by a JOY DIVISION cover version, ‘Shadow Play’, which THE KILLERS produced for the soundtrack of Anton Corbijn’s movie on the music legend. With ‘All these things that I've done’ and ‘For Reasons Unknown’ two more single hits followed, and last but not least the show was ended with ‘Extilude’, a song that was designed to end a THE KILLERS live show. It was all in all a very good concert, with a top-notch first half and the mentioned flaws in the second half. THE KILLERS should really consider re-arranging their setlist to achieve a better flow, and should also dabble in a little more crowd interaction between the songs. But apart from that no complaints! A show worth watching!

Setlist
01. Sam's Town
02. Enterlude
03. When you were young
04. Bones
05. Somebody told me
06. Jenny was a friend of mine
07. Smile like you mean it
08. Uncle Jonny
09. Read my mind
10. On top
11. Bling
12. Indie Rock’n Roll
13. Why do I keep counting
14. Mr. Brightside
---
15. My list
16. Shadowplay
17. For reasons unknown
18. All these things that I've done
19. Exitlude

Rating
Music: 7
Performance: 7
Sound: 9
Light: 10
Total: 7.8