Living Up To The Fuss -- The Killers @ Highline Ballroom 7/29/08

I was a bit of a skeptic going into the Killers' Highline Ballroom performance last night. For one, tickets were unconventionally easy to obtain for a "secret show", and hadn't even sold out even days after they were made available....sketchy. Furthermore, I was a little underwhelmed by Sam's Town -- the band's follow-up to the admittedly brilliant breakout smash Hot Fuss. Let's just say the Killers hadn't exactly been a staple on my iPod since 2004. In any event, I simply couldn't pass up the opportunity to see an arena-sized band play one of New York's most intimate and best-sounding venues. Going in, I was still unsure about what to expect. After a forgettable half-hour warm-up performance from fellow Vegas-based band Halloween Town, the Killers went on at just over 10 PM in front of a packed and screaming fanclub-filled house. From there on in, any reservations I had about this show were put to rest. Sell-outs or not, the Killers really know how to play up to a crowd -- whether it's 700 people or 17,000.

Considering how this was such a random one-off performance, it was only fitting that the guys opened up with an obscure cut off of Sam's Town -- the build-up track "For Reasons Unknown". Looking classy and clean cut as always in his three-piece suit, singer Brandon Flowers traversed the stage time and again while gesturing to the hungry crowd. From then on, it was mostly all well-known hits from the Killers' relatively small ouevre, with a few special surprises sprinkled in. The band played a rousing rendition of their first single "Somebody Told Me," which featured Mark Stoermer's signature thumping bass, and then proceeded into an incindiery cover of Joy Division's "Shadowplay". The night's surprises included the underappreciated Hot Fuss b-side "Under The Gun" and the premiere of two brand new hooky tracks called "Spaceman" and the "Neon Tiger". As far as content is concerned, it appears that these tunes are a return to form -- an early indicator that their as-of-yet titled 3rd album might catapult them back to multi-platinum status. Flowers showed off his piano-playing chops on stripped down versions of "Sam's Town," and "Smile Like You Mean It," while figuratively turning it up to eleven on the anthemic "When You Were Young" and "Jenny Was A Friend of Mine". The singer's showmanship was applauded, as he thanked everyone in attendance for "showing up on such short notice". Before the set ended, the Killers played a double-dose of their new-wavy mainstream singles, "Read My Mind" and "Mr. Brightside".

As the band left the stage, the audience's cheers became wildly deafening -- defying the thinkable noise capacity of the 700 in attendance. Without fail, the boys returned shortly to finish some business. The first song of the encore was the bombastic "The River Is Wild". The band then launched into the synth-heavy confessional pop song "Bones" -- which featured Flowers' infectious crooning chorus, "Don't you want to come with me? Don't you want to feel my bones?" The final song of the night was the customary "All These Things That I've Done," which had everyone in the room singing "I've got soul, but I'm not a soldier". Before I even knew it, 80 minutes had passed and the night was over. Sure, in the past a couple of months I've seen artists play sets twice as long, but if a band packs in as much a concentrated punch as the Killers, there is simply no need. And you know what? After night like this, these guys earned some prime real estate back on the iPod -- Sam's Town and all.

Here's a video of last night's performance of "Spaceman". Much thanks to whoever posted this: