I've been a Killers fan since their debut in 2005, however until last night I had not seen them live in concert. Perhaps the most bizarre part of the concert, was when I was walking in, they had just taken the stage and were playing "Mr. Brightside" as their first song with the lights on. Never seen that before.
After that, the lights went down as is normal and the show proceeded. The band sounded great all across the board - They played with a lot of energy, and I was very impressed with Bradon Flowers stage presence, he was able to keep the crowd engaged and really seemed to enjoy performing and not there just to cash his quite large paycheck.
The set list had 19 songs. The inclusion of "Jenny was a Friend of Mine" as the first encore was a pleasant surprise. I was sort of expecting "All these Things That I've Done" to be an encore (it was the last song of the main set) largely because it has an "encore-ish" feel to it - I can't really explain what an "encore-ish" feel is except to analogize to my many Depeche Mode concerts.
To the best of my knowledge "Everything Counts" has been the final encore for the vast majority of Depeche Mode concerts since the Music for the Masses tour. While it is a great song, it doesn't crack my top ten list of any DM song list, perhaps not even top 20. It does however have sort of an "epic" (maybe the more appropriate musical term is anthemic) feel both in its pace, arrangement and lyrics. The chorus especially is great to sing a long to. So I think it makes sense to end a concert with an energetic song like that, where the entire crowd can sing "The grabbing hands, grab all they can, all for themselves afterall, Everything Counts in Large Amounts......" And since they have been doing it for so long, it is pretty much expected by the fan base (Cure is similar with the Forest, though I would not categorize the Forest as anthemic).
"All These Things....." has they same sort of feel in its pace, arrangement and lyrics - And almost anyone remotely familar with pop music over the past 10 years can sing "I've got soul, but I'm not a Soldier...." Perhaps, the Killers plan their set list to be a little unexecpted like that and if so, good for them, it is always good to mix up the songs a bit - though in my opinion, I do not really like a slow paced song to end a show, I like to go out with a bang.
Anyhow, I'd have like to seen "Sam's Town" included in the set list, I think it is one of their very best songs, and would play very well live. I perused their most recent set lists from previous shows and they appear to have played it a few times on this tour - perhaps next time. Also, it appears they have been mixing in a cover song or two per show - at this concert, it was "I Think We Are Alone Now" - Props to shopping malls and Tiffany. I liked it.
All in all very good show and I look forward to seeing the Killers in concert next go around - only slight negative is that when the songs from the new album are played alongside the past songs, it is pretty obvious that Battle Born is inferior to their previous efforts, so hopefully this is just a result of the obvious fact that it can be difficult to make every album excellent.
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