Brandon Flowers, the frontman for Las Vegas rockstars The Killers, has taken to US TV to deliver an absolutely stunning performance of one of the group’s most enduring hits.
The Killers have spent the last 17 years dishing up super-sized stadium rock that has seen the group go from a humble indie rock quartet to one of the world’s biggest bands. Needless to say, it’s not very often that you end up seeing the group – or frontman Brandon Flowers, for that matter – in a casual, stripped back environment.
However, when Flowers hit up Late Night With Seth Meyers recently, that’s exactly what went down.
Hitting up the US late-night talk show on Monday night, Brandon Flowers appeared alongside actor Armie Hammer to discuss The Killers’ early days, including meeting guitarist Dave Keuning, and how it felt to hear ‘Mr Brightside’ with the full band for the first time.
Speaking in regards to how Keuning joined the band, Brandon Flowers noted that the pair met thanks to a classified ad. “It sounds old-fashioned,” Flowers began. “But that was in this century, it wasn’t that long ago.”
“At the end of each ad, they would put what influences you had,” he continued. “So I would just look at the band names and it was a lot of nu-metal and a lot of stuff that I wasn’t really affiliated with…then I saw The Beatles. I saw Smashing Pumpkins and Oasis. I thought, ‘That’s close enough for me.'”
The singer also talked about the band’s first show, noting how it didn’t go anywhere near as well as fans would’ve expected. “We played an open mic night at a café that was across from UNLV, we had our slot and we played three songs,” he noted. “I was looking for a spot on the floor to throw up, I just didn’t think I was gonna make it through.”
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However, that early show proved to be a huge moment for the group, performing a cover of Travis’ ‘Side’, ‘Under The Gun’, and the now-legendary ‘Mr Brightside’.
“I had never heard it with a beat at that point,” Flowers said. “We didn’t have a drummer yet.”
“I still remember playing it at a drummer’s house. He had the drum set up in his living room and I was on bass, and Dave was on guitar. I remember the hairs on my arms standing up. It was the first time that I heard it with a beat.”
“I didn’t know it would grow into what it’s become since,” he concluded. “But I knew that it was good.”
Closing out the show, Flowers delivered an acoustic version of The Killers’ 2006 hit ‘When You Were Young’, stripping back the tune’s stadium-rock sound and turning it into a tender ballad that definitely blew a few listeners away.
Check out Brandon Flowers performing The Killers’ ‘When You Were Young’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ7zVmi8gT4
