THE KILLERS - BOUCHER ROAD, BELFAST - September 1, 2023
02/09/2023
photo: George Sproule
I first heard The Killers in the summer of 2004. I was in Cape Town, driving my students around in a bus. They all created mix-tapes to entertain their mates as we traveled. John McCartan’s tape had The Killers. Hot Fuss was out a few weeks and like John I fell in love with this band with the big bright smile sound of Las Vegas Nevada.
It took me almost 20 years to see them live. They did not let me down. How could they. The sound was pretty much perfect in the Boucher Road venue, just 4,000 steps from my home and the band filled a Belfast night with a machine gun fire of hit songs that had the crowd bouncing and in the very big hit places singing along.
Brandon Flowers. There’s a front man. I couldn’t help but think that he was part Springsteen, part Bono and if that wasn’t enough a huge dollop of Elvis all mixed into one. From the get go he seems to be coming out of the screens, reigning in the seeming distance of the crowd.
Always on the prowl he comes across as your mate but a mate given a Hollywood or maybe Las Vegas make over. He’s a culturally handsome chap as well as a top singer in front of the rough tough beat and riffs of a magnificent band. Indeed the rest of the band look rock to Brandon’s pop which ends up a Killer combination.
Above all this are these songs. Timeless, catchy beyond belief and deep if anyone is sober enough to hear. When You Were Young, Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine, Smile Like You Mean It, Shot At The Night, Somebody Told Me, Human, Mr. Brightside. As if it is not enough through in a corking version of Northern Ireland’s favourite song Teenage Kicks. Maybe a set list a little heavy on the early albums but hey…
For me though what makes The Killers stand out is Flowers’ ability to dig deep. The opener My Own Soul’s Warning is about spiritual repentance. Human was lost in a drunken night as 40,000 people not only danced as they should have at such a song but missed that being human is about more than hedonistic dancing.
My metaphorical notebook was out when before Caution when he quoted Helen Keller, “The world is full of suffering but the world is also filled with the over coming of suffering”. That is a multilayered thought bomb but it seemed to be lost in the Belfast sky like the early canon of confetti.
A massive shout out to support, guitar legend and Man City fan, Johnny Marr who a number of over 45 year old were there to see and the rest he had a good go at convincing. There Is A Light That Never Goes Out was a great end to his set and when he joined The Killers for Stop It If You've Heard This Before I was looking for a Johnny Marr Sings The Smith's record.
Cain Ducrot the young Irish singer did well too. When he told us he was number 1 album in the UK I was a little surprised. A cross between Ryan McMullen and Dermot Kennedy, my jury is out one whether he is as good as any of those.
Anyway, The Killers. Twenty years. Why so long Steve? Well worth the wait!
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