Oh, to pick a clever song reference that can encapsulate Monday night’s (October 3) encore at The Killers concert.
“Johnny Was A Friend of Mine?” “Uncle Jo[h]nny?” No matter how you frame it, The Killers gave fans at TD Garden something they’ve never seen before: Johnny Marr shredding to a “Mr. Brightside” remix from Sawdust.
After nearly 20 years of slinging the finest rock from Sin City, there’s not many surprises that Killers frontman Brandon Flowers can sneak under the his sports coat sleeve. Inviting opener and Smiths favorite — we’ve collectively downvoted Morrissey as a society, correct? — Johnny Marr to trade hits and close out the show felt like the obvious choice to up the encore’s “wow” factor. Especially when it came time to show The Smiths’ catalog some love.
“I still love you / Only slightly, only slightly less / Than I used to,” Flowers recited on the chorus of “Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before.” The relevance of the candid line likely soared right over the band’s head, like the borderline-excessive explosions of confetti that punctuated their set.
It’s tough to keep up with The Killers these days, or at least want to keep up with them. The farther the band strays from the perfection of Hot Fuss, the more it’s clear that they debuted with their magnum opus — a “once in a lifetime” project, if you will. Which is a fantastic feat on paper, but also means that it’s all downhill from here, even if the fall is gradual and the starting point is the upper echelon of decade-defining rock.
As it turns out, Sam’s Town wasn’t the album to whine about. That distinction fluctuates between 2017’s Wonderful Wonderful and the band’s newest effort Pressure Machine, which failed to squeeze out any diamonds and instead plays like Americana tropes drawn out to last 11 songs. Record sales suggest fans didn’t exactly rush to buy a copy, yet they’re still forking over cash to hear those sweet sounds of the mid-2000s, from “All These Things I’ve Done” to “When You Were Young.” They’ll even rearrange the Garden’s court-side seating with the tremors of their stomps if the pulse of a Hot Fuss track wordlessly commands them to.
We’d tell you how many fists flew into the air for direct hits like “Somebody Told Me,” but y’know. The scene isn’t all different from their 2018 rendition (also at the Garden), or the one that followed at Boston Calling later that year.
“This is a super-spreader event,” Flowers proclaimed with a slightly tone-deaf amount of confidence. “We’re spreading peace, we’re spreading love, and we’re spreading rock and roll.” Oh, and a little folk rock, too, which seemed to stump even the most devoted fans. Flowers might not have an answer to his existential cry of “are we human, or are we dancer?” but if he’s playing new songs “Runaway Horses” or “Cody,” the answer is not the latter. The exuberant crowd came to a standstill — twice — when The Killers tried to slay a few tracks from Pressure Machine, with nary a soul singing along in sight.
It kind of makes you wonder if it’s even worth it to pull from any album post-Day & Age. Right up until they blasted a new little tune called “boy.”
Hot on the heels of a deluxe edition of Pressure Machine, The Killers recently dropped an unassuming single that plunges into the synth rock that made them worth fussing over in 2004. As a mid-set reset, “boy” struck the group’s sound right at its moody, upbeat core, side-stepping that foray into folk that felt so out of left field. Even if a random scenario generator never dreamt up the Smiths-Sawdust situation, “boy” presented its own subtle shock to the crowd: It was an undeniable return to form. (Finally).
Bring a Killers fan to a concert and they’ll sprint to the soothing embrace of early-aughts nostalgia. Show them a sliver of Hot Fuss‘ sound is still out there, whirring in the band’s creative headspace, and they’ll do you one better.
They’ll smile like they mean it.