The Killers are no strangers to Australia.
The American rock band, hailing from “the fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada” has been touring Australia for a good 20 years now. No matter which way you look at it, 20 years is a damn long time. In this time, many Day One fans have grown up and have shared their love of The Killers with their families, elders and children, something that I could clearly see from the demographic of patrons that attended The Killers’ first Melbourne show of the Rebel Diamonds Tour, proudly presented in Australia by Frontier Touring.
During their multiple visits over the last 20 years, the band have performed at several Aussie music festivals including Big Day Out, Good Vibrations and V Festival, plus they’ve played headline tours at beloved Melbourne music venues The Palace Complex and Palace Theatre (twice). Sadly, these no longer exist, however, The Killers remain.
The Killers are a strong formidable force in music to date and exhibited their power in Melbourne on Night 1 of their 3-day residency at the iconic Rod Laver Arena. The venue itself embracing The Killers’ return with a roulette designed welcome sign at its front entrance, the return of Vegas’ style decal on its entrance floor (this was in the venue during their last tour), and there was even a wheel you could spin in the venue to win prizes (some fans even had multiple goes at spinning the wheel, eagerly wanting to win).
Bringing the Vegas vibes to Melbourne with their set, reminiscent of what you would expect from a Vegas casino; bright lights, diamond shapes, colour, sparkles, glitz and glamour, Vegas rock band The Killers thoroughly entertained their Melbourne audience on Thursday the 12th of December and delighted lucky Melbourne fans with a number of surprises.
Swiftly stepping onto the stage and kicking off with ‘Read My Mind’ that contained recognisable lyrics which inspired The Killers’ 2023 greatest hits album name and the tour title – Rebel Diamonds, frontman and self-proclaimed MC of the night, Brandon Flowers, who was smartly dressed in a black shirt and black suit accented with shiny silver pinstripes, consistently addressed the Melbourne audience with unlimited energy and genuine affection. At the very beginning, we were welcomed with Flowers stating, “What’s up Melbourne!? My name is Brandon Flowers and I’ll be your host this evening.”
Accompanied with an 8-piece band that included fellow original member Ronnie Vannucci Jr. on the drums, The Killers dished out hit after hit and had their Melbourne audience up on their feet, all singing and dancing from the very start of the night. These hits included ‘Spaceman’ and ‘Human’ from their album Day & Age, the aforementioned ‘Read My Mind’ and ‘When You Were Young’ from Sam’s Town, and a bunch of tracks from debut studio album Hot Fuss consisting of ‘Somebody Told Me’, ‘Smile Like You Mean It’, ‘All These Things That I’ve Done’ and ‘Mr. Brightside’.
Newer tracks were also performed including the songs ‘Boy’ and ‘Your Side of Town’ from their latest release, Rebel Diamonds. Although, I adored it when The Killers dialled it down to perform from Battle Born, the ballad ‘Be Still’. This was exquisite to hear as we’re normally used to catchy tracks but Flowers displayed equally powerful vocals to the much slower number. I also had fun bouncing, dancing and singing at the top of my lungs to underrated gem (in comparison to its other fellow tracks) from Day & Age, ‘A Dustland Fairytale’.
Admittedly, The Killers have more wonderful songs than they do time. They could easily play a 3-hour concert with their massive catalogue if they so desired. I’ve come to learn that no two Killers shows are the same and the evening’s events only cemented that fact.
Brandon Flowers shared that he bumped into a fan during a late breakfast, emphasised that he loved Australian breakfasts, and that it was that specific fan’s birthday. Excitedly finding and pointing out the birthday fan on the Rod Laver Arena floor, a man in his late 50s in a blue collared shirt, Flowers advised because it was a special occasion, that he took a request and dedicated the song ‘My God’, from the album Imploding Mirage to the birthday fan. To understand how rare the song is, it isn’t normally a part of The Killers’ setlist and, prior to that night, had never been performed in Australia before.
The biggest surprise of the concert, however, was when Brandon Flowers brought on stage Australian singer-songwriter and frontman of rock band Icehouse, Iva Davies to sing a duet of Icehouse hit ‘Electric Blue’, a song that The Killers have covered many times before. This moment seemed like a dream for the band, especially Flowers, who was clearly a fan of the Australian artist and was beaming alongside Davies as they sung the iconic 80s track together.
I’ve been a fan of The Killers from the very start, and it’s been an honour to watch them grow, witness them bask in the limelight that they so deserve, and share their music with the world. Concluding the night with love, some confetti and fireworks, Brandon Flowers stated, “We’ve been coming here for 20 years; can you believe it? Thank-you for sticking with us, thank-you for being here tonight. We love playing for you. None of us had ever left the country before we were in this band and it’s been a wild 20 years.”
Honestly, here’s to 20 more, a hopefully in the not too distant future 20th anniversary tour of Sam’s Town (no, seriously, I need to hear ‘This River Is Wild’ live again), and maybe one day I’ll also hear my own ultimate favourite song of theirs, live rarity ‘Just Another Girl’ live in Melbourne.
Until then, The Killers will perform a special concert to celebrate 20 Years of Hot Fuss on Friday the 13th of December in Melbourne at Rod Laver Arena, before kicking back to their Rebel Diamonds set to conclude their 2024 Australian visit.
The Killers performed in Melbourne at Rod Laver Arena on Thursday the 12th of December as part of their The Killers: Live In Australia tour, which combines both the Rebel Diamonds and 20 Years of Hot Fuss concerts, proudly presented by Frontier Touring.
For more information and ticketing, visit:
https://www.frontiertouring.com/thekillers
https://www.thekillersmusic.com
https://www.instagram.com/thekillers
Photography by Chris Phelps.
