The Killers @Webster Hall, Sept. 22nd

Ok, so I'm a Killers hata. I have not bought their first album, Hot Fuss, and haven't scoured the Net for a leak of their next album, Sam's Town. I liked "Somebody Told Me" a lot when it came out, and even found "Mr. Brightside" and "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine" acceptable. But what I couldn't tolerate was the way they blew up all over the place. And I deemed lead singer Brandon Flowers a pretty boy (c'mon, his last name is Flowers) arrogant wanker without ever giving the Killers a real chance.

I'll fess up -- I bought tickets to their show in next month at Theater at MSG without any serious intent of going. Merely cos I could. Merely cos I know I can dump these tickets with ease on Craigslist to some surly former fratboy or his annoying chirpy shorty girl. So when news broke that the Killers were coming to play Webster tonight, a smaller venue, for a cheaper price, I became vaguely interested. In actuality, I should have caught them when I could have two years ago at the smaller venues, just like I should have done with Bloc Party. And so the tickets went on sale on Ticketweb on Wednesday, and they went on sale, and they were still on sale -- it took about 4.5 hrs for them to sell out. And I didn't bite then, preferring to giggle at the Killers' overestimation of their fanbase. Where were the zealots? They couldn't really all be Jewish and/or under 18!

Anyway, I guess my resolve to cut back on going to gigs was not so strong. I had been doing well -- only had caught The Dears and Pete Yorn so far this month, and both last week, thinking that would be it for September. Then I buckled and grabbed a free pair of Gnarls Barkley for Tuesday. Then a few hours later, I found out I won Stereogum's Yo La Tengo Contest, so I musta gotten the bug again. I'm such a fuckin' concert addict. What a short-lived break. So since today was quiet at work -- hooray for Rosh Hashana -- I was able to scoop up a last minute ticket to the Killers' "secret" gig.

Ok, ok, so they were actually really good live. Brandon didn't talk a lot other than mentioning the song titles, so he didn't annoy me nearly as much as I thought he would. The rest of the band is quite ugly, so it's a good thing he's the pretty boy frontman.

They played for about an hour, which was kinda a gyp, but what can ya expect from a band with a short 1st album and a yet to be released 2nd one? The stage reminded me very much of the movie "Moulin Rouge" for some reason:


And, yes, I sang along to the 3 or 4 songs I knew. The entire crowd kept bouncing, so it was really hard to take any clear shots.

I have to give the Killers their props. They play solid music and are fun to listen to, as long as you filter out the stupid shit that Mr. Flowers likes to say -- comparing their music to Springsteen's? Are you kidding me??? Now I can cross them off my list. And you can bet your buns I'm selling those MSG tix!!! Bring on Yo La Tengo!

PS -- The Red Romance opened up for them. They were fine. Just not memorable.

PPS -- after the show caught up with Rad and a few of his friends, including Matt from The Music Slut, whom I had met during Radiohead in the summer. Sweet!