They’re arguablly the biggest band to come out of Las Vegas, and they’ve become one of Australia’s favourite international acts as well.
The Killers’ latest visit to our shores is a well-timed, end-of-year victory lap to finish off a collosal set of local tours in 2024 by some of the biggest acts in the world. It’s well and truly for the fans – alternate shows showcasing their greatest hits record Rebel Diamonds, and others playing their seminal debut album Hot Fuss in full.
And if it wasn’t clear that this is for the fans, you just had to take a look at some of the merch produced for this tour on sale around the venue. Shirts, stubby holders and many other items in the theme of legendary Aussie acts like AC/DC, Midnight Oil and INXS. It’s a super impressive example of how well Brandon Flowers and co know their audience down here.
Tonight is a Rebel Diamonds show – and it lived up to title. It began with the most apt of openings – with frontman Flowers echoing the lyrics ‘Rebel Diamonds’ before launching into the song with them in it, the superb Read My Mind. Big hits followed including ‘Somebody Told Me’, ‘Spaceman’, ‘Smile Like You Mean It’ and ‘Shot At The Night’.
If you were taking Rebel Diamonds on face value as a greatest hits show – you got what you were after, mostly. Among the catalogue of hits, the middle of the show had a collection of rare album track cuts (Rebel Diamonds, litterally). This included ‘My God’, dedicated to a fan who was celebrating his birthday, and had met Flowers during his late breakfast at the hotel earlier that day. While pleasing for diehards, this segment derailed the momentum and provided opportunties for a bar break, or for my friend and I, a moment to munch on the cheese and crackers we’d brought in.
Thankfully, things got back on track and more hits flowed. There were lasers, confetti bursts, a crowd takeover during fan favourite ‘All These Things That I Have Done’, and a superbly-executed sparkler shower as Ted Sablay belted out the solo during ‘When You Were Young’. Closing the main set was arguably the biggest and best surprise of the tour so far, as Icehouse’s Iva Davies joined for guest vocals on their cover of his band’s hit ‘Electric Blue’.
A four-track encore provided more of the mix that had proceeded us – two more recent left-of-centre singles – ‘Your Side Of Town’ and ‘Boy’, followed by two back-catalogue fist pumpers, the anthemic ‘Human’, and fittingly finishing with their biggest smash, ‘Mr Brightside’ (what else). Put aside the mid-show lull, and this show showcased why The Killers remain such favourites with Australian audiences, two decades into their career. They can be occassional Rebels with their setlist choices, but they have buckets of Diamonds which are among some of the finest rock tracks produced this century, and we clearly love hearing them.
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