In Townsville, Brisbane and Sydney The Killers have been performing the Aussie rock classic ‘Don’t Change’ by INXS but at the first Melbourne show they switched out to Icehouse ‘Electric Blue’ with a guest appearance from Icehouse legend Iva Davies to move things along.
Brandon Flowers told the audience, “We’ve never been shy about our admiration of bands from Australia. We’re going to do a little ‘Electric Blue’ with Iva Davies”.
Iva came out and the Icehouse classic ‘Electric Blue’ was now a Killers song too.
The Icehouse collaboration was certainly the highlight of the evening for me.
I don’t recall the show two years ago being as “Vegasy” as this one. I know, we are talking about a Las Vegas band here but the set for this show featured the name in lights, casino backdrop and that sparking Brandon suit that he may have got at a Liberace garage sale. There were also lots of Jesus mentions in songs, many biblical images and at times it came across as preachy. (And I say that having seen this band many times and never noticing it before).
It all became rather obvious with the out of place audience request of ‘My God’ which they played for the first time on this tour. That cluster of lesser known songs ‘Shot at the Night’ to ‘Dying Breed’, to ‘My God’ to ‘On Top’ rerailed the moment of the first five (all hits) songs. This was the ‘Rebel Diamonds’ show (which alternates with the ‘Hot Fuss’ show) but being labelled ‘Rebel Diamonds’ suggested this show would be the albums hits in that order. It isn’t. It is the songs on shuffle with those two odd non-album choices of ‘My God’ and ‘On Top’ centred in the middle of the set.
The 2022 ‘Imploding the Mirage’ show had real momentum to it. ‘Rebel Diamonds’ felt stop and start. The top and tail clusters worked really well from ‘Read My Mind’ to ‘Smile Like You Mean It’ and ‘Runaways’ to ‘When You Were Young’ with Iva at the end.
At their best, The Killers draw a lot of influence from The E Street bands. As students of Bruce they excel at the condensed four minute or less rock song. ‘Mr Brightside’, ‘Somebody Told Me’, ‘When You Were Young’ and ‘Human’ are amongst the greatest rock songs produced in the 21st century.
The Killers, Melbourne, 12 December 2024
Read My Mind (from Sam’s Town, 2006)
Somebody Told Me (from Hot Fuss, 2004)
Spaceman. (from Day & Age, 2008)
Jenny Was a Friend of Mine (from Hot Fuss, 2004)
Smile Like You Mean It (from Hot Fuss, 2004)
Shot at the Night (from Direct Hits, 2013)
Dying Breed (from Imploding the Mirage, 2020)
My God (from Imploding the Mirage, 2020)
On Top (from Hot Fuss, 2004)
The Man (from Wonderful Wonderful 2017)
A Dustland Fairytale (from Day & Age, 2008)
Be Still (from Battle Born, 2012)
Runaways (from Battle Born, 2012)
All These Things That I’ve Done (from Hot Fuss, 2004)
When You Were Young (from Sam’s Town, 2006)
Caution (from Imploding the Mirage, 2020)
Electric Blue (Icehouse cover) (with Iva Davies)
Encore:
Your Side of Town (from Rebel Diamonds, 2023)
Boy (from Rebel Diamonds, 2023)
Human (from Day & Age, 2008)
Mr. Brightside (from Hot Fuss, 2004)
The Killers remaining Australian dates:
13 December, Melbourne, Rod Laver Arena (Hot Fuss show)
14 December, Melbourne, Rod Laver Arena (Rebel Diamonds show)
https://www.frontiertouring.com/thekillers
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