The Killers - Qudos Bank Arena

 

 

The Killers
Qudos Bank Arena
19 December 2022

 

 

Comparing The Killers to a school speech is a stretch but hear me out.

It takes a certain confidence to start your show like other bands finish theirs. The Killers opened the final show of the Imploding the Mirage tour like most other bands play an encore.  Streamers, confetti, explosions. Most importantly lots of big hits! It was an impressive opening.

The Killers are one of those bands that span generations.  In fact they’re one of the last of the big bands. Around 2005 when streaming started to take over as the medium of choice the number of bands that were able to make a mark across the wider culture seemed to diminish. That’s not to say that there weren’t great bands that came after this date, but bands like Coldplay, Arctic Monkey and The Killers were some of the last bands that had a cultural impact beyond just music fans. Not many bands since have been able to do that.  

The Killers, at their best, are a mix of U2 and the Smiths, with a dash of Depeche Mode and the Cure thrown in. You can see why I like them. It’s no surprise that I’ve indoctrinated my children into liking the band and they were (more or less) willing participants in attending the concert. I guess it goes to my main point that the Killers are one of the last intergenerational bands. The crowd was full of people of all ages. Sometimes I feel that it is more important who you go to a concert with than who you go to see.
 
If, after such an impressive start, the show flagged in the middle I guess that was understandable. But as my wise companions said, how else do you get to know the new songs if they don’t play them? They had a fair point.

However, when you’ve got songs like Human (given a new electro treatment), Somebody Told Me and main set closer All These Things That I’ve Done in your kit bag things were never really in doubt.

The actual encore of Spaceman and Mr Brightside was enough to make the crowd go wild and have me reminded by my children of some advice that I gave them "when giving a speech as long as you start well and finish well, it doesn’t really matter if you get a bit lost in the middle”. That kind of summed up the show.   

There was something great about sharing this gig with my newest gig buddies. As the Mastercard ad goes, ticket price = hundreds of dollars.  Going with your adult children = priceless.