Three concerts in three nights. Holy shit. Itís proper gigging again. Last night I checked out Las Vegas boys The Killers as they returned again to Londonís Barfly to show off their wares. Opening for them was The Crimea, the folksy arty rock outfit that spawned from the demise of The Crocketts. Two bands I was very into seeing and two bars to keep my supply of Grolsch high. My kind of night.
After being a bit of a fanboy and meeting Steve Lillywhite, the man who produced both U2 and Morrissey and now heads up Universal Records in the UK, I settled in to check my boys The Crimea. Frontman Davey is still a bit of a loon, as he gurned and jigged his way around the stage during their set. The singles were especially tight this evening, with ìLottery Winners On Acidî and excellent recent offering ìBaby Boomî taking top honors. The latter was exceptionally good, with the guitar parts note perfect, even with use of a slide. All five members were at the top of their game, including the bass player who looked like he was cut from an Alex James of Blur bass mold. Sometimes Stereophonics stand-in drummer Owen Hopkin was on fine form as well, never once falling into the trap of making ìdrummer face.î You know the one: twisted expressions or open mouths or some sort of other awkward looking thing drummers to when theyíre trying to keep count. Not our boy Owen. Nice work.
A few more beers in and The Killers took the stage and the room was packed. People had trouble moving past each other to and from the bar, and sadly, I seemed to be right where everyone wanted to walk. It made no difference, as once the Vegas quartet ripped into their set of ë80s new wave-influenced rock, their music was all that was on my mind. Their first single, ìMr. Brightside,î is one of my five favorite songs of the year and a stellar rendition was given, to my delight. As the set progressed, so did the energy from frontman Brandon ìHenry Thomasî Flowers, often requesting more applause via a repeated motioning of his hand. The set included a huge chunk of new material, much of which sounded very promising. The band has inked to Island Records in the US and are about to enter the studio in London with Alan Moulder to mix the record that was recorded in Oakland and Los Angeles by ex-Green Day manager Jeff Saltzman. If the album is anything like the new live material, 2004 is looking very good for The Killers.
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