All These Things That They've Done

To put it most simply, the Killers totally rocked the Orpheum tonight ... and then they didn't. Despite two albums' worth of great material, the band only played for about 70 minutes (including one and a half encores) and left the audience wanting more.

Which I hope doesn't overshadow the fact that the Killers did put on a great show. Sure, the sound wasn't clear enough for me to really hear Brandon Flowers singing or talking, but damn, the one-two punch of "When You Were Young" and "Somebody Told Me" truly got the crowd going, as did the band's other hits "Mr. Brightside," "Smile Like You Mean It," and the new single "Bones" (which I totally love). And it was cool that they did "Glamorous Indie Rock and Roll" (off the re-issue of Hot Fuss), and that they closed with "All These Things That I've Done," which left me on a real high. But I really wanted to hear "The River Is Wild" and "Andy, You're a Star," among others, so that was a bummer.

Some other thoughts: Flowers is a fun frontman to watch. He's so straight-laced and earnest in his performance that you're tempted to think he's not enjoying himself, but then he does a variation on what Whitney called "the Dave Matthews jig" and it's pretty fun. With his long sleeve shirt and vest, the guy had to be hot up there on the stage. Also, man, does the mezzanine of the Orpheum shake. We were in row B, and at various times during the show, I stopped bopping and still was vibrating. It's pretty scary. Granted, the Orpheum has probably seen rowdier shows than the Killers, but damn ... one of these days the mezzanine is going to come crashing down. I just hope I'm not there when it does.

So anyway, is it so wrong for a performer to leave its audience wanting more? I suppose that's the mark of a good show, right? Still, I think in this case the concert would have been truly great had it been just 15 minutes and maybe three or four songs longer. Then the band would have truly, ahem, killed.