The Killers. BEC. 29.11.2022

Kicking off the first night of their Imploding the Mirage tour in Australia, the Killers played to a capacity house at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre. Prior to showtime, the anticipation in the room was palpable. 

That energy probably had a lot to do with the tour being delayed previously to Covid. Frontman Brandon Flowers encouraged us to give a big ‘Amen’ to ‘rock n’ roll’ for the tour finally occurring. 

Opening with ‘My Own Soul’s Warning’ – a cannon firing confetti over the first fifty rows was a helluva way to  start a show.

After the clever ‘Enterlude’, the band upped the ante with ‘When You Were Young’ and ‘Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine’. With twenty plus years under their belt, the Killers have got enough bangers to deliver an arena show that few contemporary rocks bands come close to. 

On stage, the band go for a classic sense of 80’s excess. There’s the killer rhythm section (no pun intended), keyboards, a twin guitar attack and a trio of backing singers. 

Out front Brandon Flowers roams the stage like the Las Vegas born bastard offspring of Bono and Bruce Springsteen. Occasionally the music bears similar comparisons. Those chiming guitars owe a debt to the Edge, and there’s no secret regarding the band’s love of Springsteen’s sense of wide-screen rock n’ rock symphony. 

To be a great frontman you need at least two of these three things. 

1. Possess great hair 

2. Be razor thin

3. Have a voice that is distinctly ‘yours’.           

Brandon has all of these – and so much more. 

The other star of the show is the stage/set itself. We’ll keep the spoilers to a minimum. The visual effects are superb. Expect to see a stunning laser show and an evolving backdrop that will take you from the back streets of Las Vegas to the desert to the stock room at the Lourve. 

Highlights included some serious shredding on ‘Dying Breed’ from Ted Sablay, the powerhouse that is Ronnie Vannucci Jnr on the drum kit,  a beautiful stripped back cover of Ewan MacColl’s ‘First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’ and crowd sing-a-long to ‘All These Things That I’ve Done’. 

Neither Flowers energy, or his voice, lagged for a nanosecond. Midway through proceedings the Killers dropped the most infectious rock song of the last twenty five years ‘Somebody Told Me’. It was so acutely brilliant that hearing it would suggest there’s no other place, on a Tuesday night in Brisbane, you would rather be for those magic four minutes.

A sea of cell phones greeted the band for the encore which was ‘The Man’ and the non-negotiable ‘Mr Brightside’. 

The Killers rocked. This is not a tour to be missed. 

Sean Sennett

Photo: Chris Phelps