The Seeker of Good Songs
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Killers rip through Town with flashy but empty set
Frontman Flowers lacked charisma, and band missing the juice to slay this crowd
Sandra Sperounes, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Thursday, May 24, 2007
The Killers
When: Wednesday night
Where: Rexall Place
EDMONTON - Welcome to Sam's Town -- population 12,000.
It's a dark, flashy place, run by four Killers armed with disco-rock tempos, bombastic guitar riffs and lyrics about redemption.
Incompetent sound guys are welcome, but not photographers.
Hence, no pictures of Wednesday's strobe and confetti extravaganza at Rexall Place.
Cellphones, however, were allowed, so there's bound to be a few clips of When You Were Young, Read My Mind or Smile Like You Mean It on YouTube.com.
I'm not sure why the Las Vegas rockers shunned photographers -- and most newspaper interviews.
It wasn't as if frontman Brandon Flowers gained 300 pounds or sounded like a man suffering from bronchitis.
(The Killers were forced to cancel three shows last week due to the singer's sickness.)
His voice, which ranged from deep and devilish to a quivering Roy Orbison, was the least of their worries.
The sound mix in Rexall was horrendous -- the equivalent of listening to songs through a muffler -- thereby burying most of the group's wonderful little nuances. (Such as the horns on Bones.)
Even Dave Keuning's serrated, Johnny Marr-style guitars on Jenny Was A Friend of Mine and Uncle Jonny -- seemed duller than usual, coated with layers of garbled noise.
While those two songs are reminscent of The Smiths, The Killers so desperately want to be U2 and Depeche Mode, going as far as using the same producers on their latest album, Sam's Town.
Their disc is a solid, four-star affair, but Flowers still has a lot of work to do if he wants to be compared to U2's Bono or Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan.
As is stands, Flowers doesn't possess much charisma.
He went through all the motions, but he didn't try to build a connection with the crowd.
At least not during the first 45 minutes of the show, which saw the foursome rip through most of their biggest songs -- which were often interspersed with awkward pauses as the stage lights dimmed and the Killers readied themselves for their next number.
Due to deadlines, I had to leave after their eighth song -- Read My Mind -- but it didn't feel like the Killers had much left in the tank to slay the crowd.
(Except, perhaps, for Mr. Brightside, All These Things That I've Done and some more glittery confetti.)
Victoria's Hot Hot Heat were competent, but not compelling, openers.
Frontman Steve Bays tried his best while performing some of the group's older dance-rock numbers -- Bandages and Talk To Me, Dance With Me -- but he was stuck behind his keyboards for much of the group's 40-minute set.
His bandmates didn't offer much help, nor did Hot Hot Heat's latest batch of songs, from their next record, Happiness Ltd., due in September.
Ever since 2005's Elevator, Bays is trying to prove himself as a singer, ditching his trademark herky-jerky, half-talking vocal stylings.
It's a bad move.
His yelps and intricate wordplay are what sets Bays and Hot Hot Heat apart.
All they really need is a keyboard player to give their frontman room to roam.
[email protected]
© The Edmonton Journal 2007
Killers rip through Town with flashy but empty set
Frontman Flowers lacked charisma, and band missing the juice to slay this crowd
Sandra Sperounes, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Thursday, May 24, 2007
The Killers
When: Wednesday night
Where: Rexall Place
EDMONTON - Welcome to Sam's Town -- population 12,000.
It's a dark, flashy place, run by four Killers armed with disco-rock tempos, bombastic guitar riffs and lyrics about redemption.
Incompetent sound guys are welcome, but not photographers.
Hence, no pictures of Wednesday's strobe and confetti extravaganza at Rexall Place.
Cellphones, however, were allowed, so there's bound to be a few clips of When You Were Young, Read My Mind or Smile Like You Mean It on YouTube.com.
I'm not sure why the Las Vegas rockers shunned photographers -- and most newspaper interviews.
It wasn't as if frontman Brandon Flowers gained 300 pounds or sounded like a man suffering from bronchitis.
(The Killers were forced to cancel three shows last week due to the singer's sickness.)
His voice, which ranged from deep and devilish to a quivering Roy Orbison, was the least of their worries.
The sound mix in Rexall was horrendous -- the equivalent of listening to songs through a muffler -- thereby burying most of the group's wonderful little nuances. (Such as the horns on Bones.)
Even Dave Keuning's serrated, Johnny Marr-style guitars on Jenny Was A Friend of Mine and Uncle Jonny -- seemed duller than usual, coated with layers of garbled noise.
While those two songs are reminscent of The Smiths, The Killers so desperately want to be U2 and Depeche Mode, going as far as using the same producers on their latest album, Sam's Town.
Their disc is a solid, four-star affair, but Flowers still has a lot of work to do if he wants to be compared to U2's Bono or Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan.
As is stands, Flowers doesn't possess much charisma.
He went through all the motions, but he didn't try to build a connection with the crowd.
At least not during the first 45 minutes of the show, which saw the foursome rip through most of their biggest songs -- which were often interspersed with awkward pauses as the stage lights dimmed and the Killers readied themselves for their next number.
Due to deadlines, I had to leave after their eighth song -- Read My Mind -- but it didn't feel like the Killers had much left in the tank to slay the crowd.
(Except, perhaps, for Mr. Brightside, All These Things That I've Done and some more glittery confetti.)
Victoria's Hot Hot Heat were competent, but not compelling, openers.
Frontman Steve Bays tried his best while performing some of the group's older dance-rock numbers -- Bandages and Talk To Me, Dance With Me -- but he was stuck behind his keyboards for much of the group's 40-minute set.
His bandmates didn't offer much help, nor did Hot Hot Heat's latest batch of songs, from their next record, Happiness Ltd., due in September.
Ever since 2005's Elevator, Bays is trying to prove himself as a singer, ditching his trademark herky-jerky, half-talking vocal stylings.
It's a bad move.
His yelps and intricate wordplay are what sets Bays and Hot Hot Heat apart.
All they really need is a keyboard player to give their frontman room to roam.
[email protected]
© The Edmonton Journal 2007
