Sound check
Small talent, big venue
By Matthew Singer 04/12/2007
The Killers
UCSB Thunderdome
April 6
Grade: D
Some bands are born to be ostentatious. Others are forced into it.
The Killers are an example of the latter. A marginal group from Las Vegas who should have disappeared after scoring their first hit with a song about dating closeted transvestites (or something), the quartet — one bitchy Mormon vocalist and three nondescript backing musicians — has ended up becoming much bigger than it has any right to be, outlasting its peers in the “new New Wave” trend of 2004 and selling out cavernous venues like Staples Center and the 4,000-capacity UCSB Events Center (known, appropriately, as the Thunderdome), where they played April 6. For last year’s Sam’s Town, the band aggrandized the limp-wristed synth-emo of its shockingly ginormous debut Hot Fuss, blatantly swiping from perennial stadium dwellers like U2 and Bruce Springsteen. But their newly fattened sound seems born more of necessity than desire; after all, fey fashion-pop can’t fill stadium seats forever. Nobody thought the Killers would get to this point — especially not the Killers themselves. It showed onstage in Santa Barbara: Despite all the Big Rock Show ornamentation — kinetic lighting, fog machines, a neon sign reading “Sam’s Town,” cannons blasting confetti into the audience — there was a distinct lack of commitment from the band to the grand gestures of the new music, and a huge, gaping, matter-eating void of charisma. Singer Brandon Flowers is the stiffest frontman in rock; he may glean from Bono and the Boss, but he moves like a ventriloquist’s puppet. And with his tuxedo and moustache, he looked like one, too.
What they do have, though, is hits — lots of them. And they wasted no time reminding the audience of that fact, performing “When You Were Young” (the catchiest and most egregious of their Springsteen knockoffs), “Bones,” “Somebody Told Me,” “Smile Like You Mean It” and “Jenny Was a Friend of Mine” in succession at the top of their set. But when it came time to fill out the rest of their 90 minutes with album tracks, the crowd — mostly teenagers, with the odd 8-year-old holding a homemade sign reassuring the band that they do, indeed, rock — was exhausted. For that portion of the show, the fans mostly sat on their hands, until the introduction of the closing “Mr. Brightside” sent fans running from the bleachers.
Well-constructed setlists, charismatic frontmen, a dedication to over-the-top fabulousness — these are the things that make a great arena band. Until the Killers learn the craft they have unwittingly stumbled into, though, they will remain too big for their stylish britches.
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