NOTE: Ted Sablay, Lemon Twigs, and crowd shots are copyright Howard Shiau Photography 2023. The Killers photos are copyright Chris Phelps | @chrisphelps
Las Vegas rockers The Killers hit Pittsburgh on March 19th (a re-scheduled show from last October) in a continuation of their 2022 “Imploding the Mirage” Tour. The record, released in 2020, is exactly what you’d expect a Killer’s album to sound like: big soaring anthemic choruses, keyboard driven melodies, Ronnie Vannucci’a thunderous kick drum and Brandon Flowers’ unique vocals. Due to the pandemic, their expected tour supporting the record was delayed for two years. During that time, sitting around often in isolation, Flowers wrote much of their 2021 record “Pressure Machine”, which is much more quiet and thoughtful, reflecting those times. However, the band decided to tour behind their 2020 record instead and the audiences seem to have been thrilled.
The first opener is Ted Sablay, also the current touring lead guitarist for the Killers! He did release one record, “You’ll Be Back Here Soon”, in 2022 and a fan at the barricade had one of twenty-two copies of that vinyl! He played a quick twenty minute set and was off before many in the audience had even found their seats.
Next up were The Lemon Twigs, a rock band out of Long Island, New York. Formed when the D’Addario brothers were teenagers, they’ve been playing music since they were kids. Their new album “Everything Harmony” is set to drop on May 5th. They kicked off their set with “The One” from their last record, transitioning straight into “In My Head”, released just four days ago! The combination of Brian and Michael D’Addario and bassist/keyboardist Danny Ayala made for some great harmonies. Younger brother Brian took the bulk of the lead vocals for the first half of the set and, with his long hair and bell bottoms, he looked the classic part of a 70s melodic rock frontman. Meanwhile lanky older brother Michael has a harder rock voice and reminds me of Joey Ramone’s with his leg kicks and jumps but much better guitar playing. They have a headlining tour coming up so definitely try to catch them when they’re in your area!
With dark clouds and lightning flashing on the screen behind them, the Killers brought the energy as soon as they took the stage with “My Own Soul’s Warning”! After the quiet “Exterlude” with Brandon on keyboard, they brought it right back up with “When You Were Young”, the finale from the previous show! What?!?! Previous setlists were thrown right out the window! Ok, not really. The setlist was pretty much exactly like Atlantic City but different from Mohegan Sun. I guess we’ll see which was more special after the next few shows!
While Flowers’ keyboard (with the infinite symbol) stood center stage, he spent very little time behind it and was very active back and forth constantly, probably giving the videographer fits even though the camera was on a rail! It was a little disappointing that neither Dave Keuning nor Mark Stoermer, although both officially with the band, aren’t on tour. This isn’t to say that the members of the touring band aren’t great…they are…but it’s not the same. But it hasn’t been the same for awhile. At least Ronnie Vannucci was still pounding behind the drumkit!
The stage show was top notch, with confetti and streamers shooting into the crowd several times, beautiful images and video from the back screen, and an incredible laser light show! Brandon Flowers was the frontman that everyone expected, constantly on the move and engaging with the audience. The set contained all their big hits but oddly enough only three songs from “Imploding the Mirage” and two from “Pressure Machine”. The encore was just two songs rather than three as in other shows, starting with “The Man”! Then they began with what sounded like a really subdued version of “Mr. Brightside”. After a pause halfway, they went full tilt and brought the venue together on a deafening sing-along! What a finish!
Photo Credit – Chris Phelps | @chrisphelps
It’s still a bit weird to me that the name of the tour was “Imploding the Mirage” rather than their latest album “Pressure Machine”. I understand that their most recent album was not written with arenas in mind but it’s odd nonetheless. Will each tour run one studio record behind? Perhaps we might have an acoustic small venue “Pressure Machine” tour in 2024? I can feel the Killers’ fans getting excited already!
Setlist
1. My Own Soul’s Warning
2. Exterlude
3. When You Were Young
4. Jenny Was a Friend of Mine
5. Smile Like You Mean It
6. Shot at the Night
7. Running Towards a Place
8. Human
9. Spaceman
10. Somebody Told Me
11. Be Still
12. The Way It Was (with band introduction)
13. Boy
14. The Getting By II
15. A Dustland Fairytale
16. Runaway Horses
17. Runaways
18. Read My Mind (with a segue into a verse of Lean on Me)
19. Dying Breed
20. Rut (segue into..)
21. Caution
22. All These Things That I Have Done
Encore
The Man
Mr. Brightside
