“Welcome to the better-late-than-never portion of the Imploding the Mirage Tour!” The Killers frontman Brandon Flowers told the crowd at Chaifetz Arena yesterday after a three-song opening that included a cinematic build-up and a massive confetti explosion.
Flowers is referencing the six-month delay for the St. Louis concert originally scheduled for September of last year. “We may have changed the date on you, but one thing that hasn’t changed — if you are looking for rock and roll, you came to the right place!” he promised.
The middle-aged crowd filled the arena, standing the entirety of The Killers’ high-energy two-hour set.
By “The Killers,” I mean Flowers and drummer Ronnie Vannucci, Jr., augmented by a team of hired guns after original guitarist Dave Keuning and bassist Mark Stoermer stepped away from touring with the band.
No matter. All eyes were on Flowers anyway. Preserving teeny-waisted movie-idol looks into his forties, Flowers was a smiling, fist-pumping, stalking, crouching, purple-blazer-sporting force of enthusiasm all night. His voice has gotten stronger over time, and he pushed that bright, clean tenor to maximum power throughout, mining the silver at the top of his range.
It was a hit-packed night in old-school arena-rock fashion, a relentless run of crowd singalongs and high-end production with seize-worthy lights, lasers, gold-spark showers and immense video backdrops.
The lighting designs embellished early highlights like “Jenny Was a Friend of Mine” (green) and “Smile Like You Mean It” (red), and the band hit its stride with “Shot at the Night,” with Flowers evangelistically leading a sea of swinging arms in the crowd, and “Running Toward a Place,” featuring a triple-guitar wash of Edge-style echoing chimes.
An electro-heavy version of “Human,” asking the grammatically dubious question, “Are we human or are we dancer?” had fans confirming that they were not only dancer but also singer, jumper and beer-spiller.
The Killers touted Vegas roots all evening with video backdrops of the desert and the Strip and Flowers striking Elvis poses in front of his two backup singers. New single “boy,” was given a deep synth-driven house throb complemented by 20-foot letters of the song title tickling Gen Z’s gratuitous lowercase-letter fetish.
The audience ignored the title command of “Be Still” as the lighter-hoisting ballad was the night’s most conspicuous beer and bathroom run, a shame since the song was also one of Flowers’ best vocal showcases.
Still, Flowers is an expert at local-color pandering, claiming, “We never thought we would be in the Gateway to the West,” and that “we take a little Missouri with us everywhere we go,” referring to burly touring bassist Jake Blanton though when Flowers revealed Blanton’s hometown as Kansas City, the crowd gave him mixed reviews.
Flowers has replaced the old giant “K” on the front of his center-stage keyboards with an infinity symbol that glows when Flowers plays it, which isn’t often, seemingly to illustrate that time doesn't catch up to him.
“Runaway Horses” was a nice pace change as the only nod to the Killers’ fine but overlooked 2022 album Pressure Machine with its acoustic fingerpicking and small-town narrative. But the band was all firework fountains and confetti cannons from then on, ending with a delirious three-song encore of “Spaceman,” “Run for Cover'' and “Mr. Brightside.”
“Was it worth the wait?” Flowers asked as a way of saying goodbye. The big Wednesday-night crowd gave him the answer he was looking for.
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