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The
Killers @ the Fez Club, Gun St, Reading, 09/06/04
"I
don't know what you people want from me", says a smiling Brandon
Flowers to the writhing sweaty pit of punters.
That the
tousle-haired frontman of The Killers is smiling is something of a
surprise.
With a
style that screams moody eighties new wave electronica, and with debut
album Hot Fuss glistening with attitude, he should surely be too achingly
cool to be so good-natured.
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| Brandon
Flowers |
Perhaps
it's the Las Vegas in him that produces his sparkly-toothed grins,
though you wouldn't think he's American with that fake English accent
of his.
Jenny
Was A Friend Of Mine, first track off Hot Fuss, kicked off the dark
sonic melodrama, with Flowers' strong high vocals ascending over a
funky bass riff and echoey synth.
Spritely
Flowers is without doubt the star of the band, punching the air
when not slamming the keyboards and strutting round the stage with
the best swagger since Mick Jagger.
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| David
Keuning |
After
belting out the album's On Top, Somebody Told Me and Smile Like You
Mean It, the band perform a B-side song called Change that features
the same industrial synth and fuzz guitar combo.
Then it's
the suggestively homo-erotic Andy You're A Star, an adulatory homage
with a slow 'n' seedy bass synth, followed by the nocturnal rocky
Midnight Show and epic Glamorous Indie Rock&Roll.
Their
current single Mr Brightside causes an upsurge of wet bodies with
accompanying screeches as the opening fast-beat drums and taut guitar
strums begin.
With unaffected
arrogance Flowers stomps around the stage in his waistcoat and white
short-sleeved shirt singing and smiling and sweating under the hazy
red lights.
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| Mark
Stoermer |
The band
then stroll off the stage, leaving a squirming crowd clamouring for
more.
The
quartet inevitably return and sing Gun, not on their album, but
end with the larger-than-life All These Things That I've Done, a
lengthy rhapsodic track featuring the incantatory and cheesy lyric
'I got soul but I'm not a soldier'.
But who
cares about cheese when you have before you an immensely powerful
band who look like they're enjoying every minute of performing.
You can
take the boys out of Las Vegas…
Read
an interview with support act The Departure
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