April 10, 2007

• I finally got to see "The Killers" live in concert, and it was a great show. They played at the Los Angeles Staples Center, which is roughly 50 miles away from where I live. Doors open at 7PM with the show scheduled to start at 8PM, but I decided to wait until 7PM to leave for the concert. I was stalling at home too much. Being that this is Southern California freeways that I was driving on, I expected not to make the start of the concert. Surprisingly enough, I got no traffic, it only took me 35 minutes to get there, parking was no hassle (except for the $20 charge), and I got to my seat with minutes to spare before the opening band even started. Incredible. I did get tickets for the "nose bleed" section; and in the corner side too, so I wasn't exactly remotely near the stage to get a good look at the bands. Oh well.

  The first act was "Solarcade," who is a local independent Los Angeles band lucky enough to be invited by "the Killers" to open for them here in California. I've got to say, they aren't bad at all. In fact, I really enjoyed their performance. I like their sound, which reminded me a little of "U2," but it was more or less the '80s rock vibe that I got from them that got me grooving to their music.

  The next act was "Howling Bells," which hails from Australia i think. Their sound was a departure from the previous act, and it was more of a somewhat progressive moody music type thing going for them. Not exactly an act I would really watch in an arena setting, and half way through their set, I decided that it was time for me to walk around Staples Center. I have never been to this venue before and I liked what I saw. It's a really well designed place, and despite the huge crowd in attendance (sold out show), I never felt the place to be crowded at all. No long lines for concession stands, merchandise booths, or restrooms, because there were so many of those things. I decided to eat at one of their many McDonalds located right in Staples Center, and I also bought Solarcade's latest CD; "This Beautiful Demon," while I was at it.

  "The Killers" started at about 10:05PM and opened up with several songs from their latest disc "Sam's Town." First thing that stood out for me though, was the lighting, which is probably one of the best I've ever seen in a concert. Really nice work there. The second thing I noticed was that lead singer Brandon Flowers is STILL dressed in his "old west" type look that he has been sporting this past year. As for their performance, they sound good live. The bass is a little higher than I would want it to be, as it was drowning out the vocals at times, but for the most part they sounded really good. The bass problem was pretty much fixed by the time they got to their third or fourth song. They played a good mix from both of their albums, playing all their popular singles. In fact, the theme of the show seems to be the song "When You Were Young," because they played the whole song once near the beginning, then later on they played an acoustic piano version of part of the song, and they ended the whole show with a repeat of the last part of the song. They did have two encores too, the first was after they sang "Mr. Brightside," and the second came after "All These Things That I've Done." In fact, before their final short second encore, I already left my seat and was about to leave, when I noticed that the house lights haven't even come on yet (which means the show isn't really over). Their set ended roughly at 11:35PM, so they had a good length for their show. I'm glad to have finally seen "The Killers" live in concert, and I'm sure I will want to see them again in the future.

  

  • 8:31 am
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