Right I’m going to be honest about this from the start, I’m
writing this review as a fan so there may be more than a hint of bias. The
Killers are by far and away my favourite band (2 years since Wembley! Where’s
the time gone?) so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see Brandon without
his regular band mates.
Having seen The Killers three times previously I knew he was
good. He is a brilliant frontman; singer, performer and stage craft are all top
notch. But that was with The Killers, would he be as good performing his own
material? The answer was an emphatic yes… and some.
I had been in possession of his new album The Desired Effect
got a week before the show and fell in love with it on the first listen. It is
brilliant from start to finish and with the drip feed of singles leading up to
its release you got the idea there was going to be a strong pool of songs to
choose from. Each of the singles that were played were instant fan favourites
and crowd pleasers.
Flowers kicked the show off with ‘Untangled Love’ which
unsurprisingly is an 80s enthused party anthem. The slow build up leading up to
the big sing along chorus made it a perfect opener. He followed it up with ‘Can’t
Deny My Love’ which sounds awesome live; it sounds a much mightier beast in a
live environment. Released as the lead single here in the UK it was the best
known of the ‘new’ songs and definitely went down well with the crowd.
He then went back to his previous solo effort ‘Flamingo’ playing
the wonderful ‘Crossfire’, the ‘Mr Brightside’ of his debut. It’s his most
famous solo hit and had every single person inside Brixton singing along. He
followed it up with ‘Magdalena’ another song from Flamingo, a song that very
much channels ‘Spaceman’ vibes, keeping up the high energy start.
So far so good.
He then slowed it down by going back to some old Killers
material and playing a wonderful yet completely different version of ‘Jenny Was
a Friend of Mine’. Usually it is a huge high energy sing/dance along anthem,
but this is was a more laid back affair. It wasn’t in a lounge style as such,
but it shows the versatility and class of the music. Definitely went down well
with the crowd as it is a popular fan favourite. Flowers bookended the song by
asking the crowd whether they thought the subject in song was guilty or not (he
is). He followed that up with ‘Lonely Town’, another one of the pre-release
singles. This was in fact better than the album version as it didn’t have that
little auto tune interlude in the middle.
My night was then made when he played ‘Digging Up the Heart’,
my personal favourite off the new album. Having been looking at recent setlists
and noticing its omission I had no idea it was going to be played. I’ve heard it described as the ‘Walk of Life’
of the album, but in a way it’s similar to From Here on Out from Battleborn. It’s
an upbeat song that you cannot stand still to. The second surprise of the night
then followed when Killers fan favourite Human started and for 4 minutes we
were all at a Killers concert. Even better it wasn’t played in a different style;
it was played as heard on the original. It was a great and unexpected addition
to the setlist.
He then slowed it down again before ending the set with one
of my favourites off Flamingo ‘Only the Young’ and then the Jacques Lu Cont
remix version of ‘Mr Brightside’… which again had the whole of Brixton academy
singing as one. It might not have been the original but that didn’t matter, the
chance to sing along to ‘Mr Brightside’ in a live environment is a special
moment, especially when you have 4/5000 other Killers fans in the room with
you.
As ‘Mr Brightside’ drew to a close Flowers trooped off stage
with his band, with the crowd not letting up till his return. As on the
previous night, he had a special guest accompany him for the encore and we were
lucky enough to have the brilliant Chrissie Hynde join Brandon on stage. They performed
a cover of The Pretenders classic ‘Don’t Get Me Wrong’ before duetting on ‘Between Me and You’. He then finished off
a fantastic evening with ‘I Can Change’, which sounds even better live than it
does on the album before rounding it off with the brilliant ‘Still Want You’ complete with
crowd participation.
It was a fantastic evening and has given me the bug for
seeing The Killers again, something that had been lying dormant for the last
two years. The music may be different, as are the musicians who join him on
stage, but the songs of the same superb quality of any Killers material. The only
disappointment was that they didn’t play a cover of ‘Read My Mind’, my all-time
favourite Killers song as they had done the previous night, but you can’t have
everything. An inclusion of ‘Jilted Lovers and Broken Hearts’ would have been
nice too.
All in all it was a fantastic evening and lived up to and surpassed
expectations.
Just have to wait for the next Killers tour now….
Setlist
Setlist
Untangled Love
Can't Deny My Love
Crossfire
Magdalena
Hard Enough
Jenny Was a Friend of Mine
Lonely Town
Diggin' Up the Heart
Human
Swallow It
The Way It's Always Been (Acoustic)
Only the Young
Mr Brightside (Jacques Lu Cont Remix)
Encore
Don't Get Me Wrong feat. Chrissie Hynde
Between Me and You feat. Chrissie Hynde
I Can Change
Still Want You
