Last week's concert with The Killers at ACC

Thanks to the fine folks at Edge 102 and my brother, I got the chance to see The Killers last week from a private box at the Air Canada Centre. To paraphrase the great philosopher, Ferris Bueller: If you have the means, I highly recommend you acquire one.

I was genuinely pleased the concert went so well. I enjoy The Killers, but they're low on my "must-see" list of bands, but they sold me last Monday. I was surprised to see a band with only 2 albums playing an arena show, but damned if the place wasn't filled pretty well. I underestimated how well the songs from Hot Fuss and Sam's Town play in an arena. There's this anthemic quality to their music, 80s New Wave via Vegas. The best comparison I can come up with is that The Killers are a modern Duran Duran gene-spliced with The Smiths.

The openers were a band called The Red Romance. I hadn't heard of them before, but they were good. I'd want to hear more before I buy an album, but good New York garage band sound. I don't know if they were nervous about playing an arena, but they only had 4 lines of stage banter:

We're The Red Romance.
We're from New York.
We've never been here before.
We appreciate you guys.

Over and over and over. Which led to this post-opener discussion:

Karen: I hear they're the Red Romance.
Jason: Did you know it's their first time here?
Karen: That's probably because they're from New York.
Jason: Really? Well, they certainly seem to appreciate us.

Statler and Waldorf go to a concert.

The Killers hit the stage and didn't let up for 90 minutes. Lead singer Brendan Flowers has got a great voice, acting as tour guide on a trip through Sam's Town, with side trips into their breakout debut album Hot Fuss. I didn't recognize a couple of the Sam's Town songs, as I've only heard it all the way through once or twice. But for every song I didn't know, they're was some group on the floor excitedly bouncing up and down. I suppose every song is "someone's song". For my brother Jordan, Jessica and I, it was the closing song from the first encore "All These Things That I Have Done", with its building chorus of "I've got soul but I'm not a soldier". I was surprised there was a second encore, and hearing "When We Were Young" for a second time was a nice way to thank the crowd.

The box had great sight lines, and great service thanks to Melissa, our hostess, who kept us flowing in beer, pizza and ice cream bars (not a low calorie night). Quote from my brother's friend: "Dude! They've got hot dogs! For free!" Comfortable balcony seats are the way to go, and I was feeling a bit spoiled. The bonus was receiving an Alpine Blackbird GPS navigation unit as well, which means I have a GPS unit that's worth more than the car it's in. The only thing missing were bags to carry them in: it makes you feel like a bit of a target when 10 people are carrying boxes labelled "Alpine GPS" try to move through a crowd and down Spadina Avenue.

I'm not sure if I'd pay out arena ticket prices to see a concert with only The Killers, but if they're playing a smaller venue, sharing a bill with someone, or playing an outdoor venue like Molson Amphitheatre, I'd recommend checking them out. I'm looking forward to seeing them again.

Thanks again to Pina from the Edge, Melissa from Rogers Centre, whoever it was from Alpine that hooked us up, and my brother for thinking of me when he had to pick 9 friends to go with him.

Pictures are up on the Edge 102 website.

The Killers - MySpace

The Killers - official site