For a band from Las Vegas, it seems odd The Killers have put their emphasis on tunes rather than show. It's all very well doing so, and few can argue with the power their singles have, but it would be nice to see a world of glitz and glamour from their home city bought across with them.
Arguably though, they work just as well without the zazz and the oomph. While their contemporaries Muse, Coldplay and Kasabian have turned up on the arena circuit with massive stage shows designed to give visual spectacle to go with their massive sound, the Las Vegas quartet (a sextet live with two additional keyboard/guitar players) are content with a big screen, a big box of laser-lights and tunes by the bucketload.
Naturally, as its Halloween night, there's nods to it everywhere. The band walked on to Victims-exclusive feature Zombie Hands, with the band dressed as ghostly ghouls on the big screen playing a weirdly hypnotic tune as the band strutted on (drummer Ronnie Vannucci Jr arrived in a skeleton onesie, in contrast the black leather/denim of his bandmates).
This led itself into surprise opener Bones, with its Tim Burton-directed music video taking the place on the screen and the true sensation of a whole arena chanting "Don't you wanna come with me, don't you wanna feel my bones all over your bones?"
It maybe the Battle Born tour, but the band weren't to be rushed in delivering new songs - 4th song The Way It Was, sounding much meatier than the Dirty Dancing knock-off on record, was the first number. The delightful ballad followed on from Hot Fuss power-pair Jenny Was A Friend of Mine and Somebody Told Me, which got the crowd singing and jumping.
Frontman Brandon Flowers was bouncing around as ever, posing with his microphone and delivering rousing chorus after chorus and the odd speech over the top of the tightly-woven instrumentation. When he wasn't doing this, he was tinkling away at a black piano at the back of the stage or his keyboards behind a thunderbolt-shaped lighting array.
The band happily chucked in new songs and old songs together, with a lot of them seamlessly clicking with the oldies. Album opener Flesh & Bone seamlessly followed classic Spaceman, while future single Miss Atomic Bomb was a delightful confection as the song led into laser-accompanied 2008 mega-hit Human.
Re-worked numbers also cropped up - For Reasons Unknown and From Here On Out were introduced with sprightly drum interludes from Vannucci, while a delicate, new piano arrangement begun the moving Dustland Fairytale.
But despite the new songs all sounding excellent - the surging A Matter Of Time was a particular delight, while Here With Me was a lovely ballad - the Brummie crowd were in the mood for the hits.
They got what they wanted with an almost comical splurge of big hitters that ended the main set. Read My Mind, fuelled by a delightful riff from guitarist Dave Keuning, led into the dramatic new hit Runaways, and was followed up by the song that launched it all - the glorious Mr. Brightside - before a final run through of When You Were Young ended a fantastic 18 song set.
Except it wasn't quite over - the band strutted back out after a breather for three more. A Hot Fuss duo got the crowd back in the jumping mood with Smile Like You Mean It leading into All These Things That I've Done, fuelled by its refrain of "I've got soul but I'm not a soldier" that sounds made to be sung by 13,500 people all at once and a flash flood of red and silver confetti.
All this led into show closer Battle Born, with more fireworks than Bonfire Night and glorious riffs and chourses that united the arena for one last singalong. It all ended with Flowers introducing us to the members of the band before high-fiving the ecstatic front row as riffs pounded and a final flourish of fireworks bought the song to a close.
In keeping with the Halloween spirit, a lovely touch saw the band hand the crowd sweets before taking a final bow to end their show.
This really was a night of glamorous zazz. The power of the tunes and the delightful live show the Las Vegas band have always looked like delivering produced a truly incredible treat for Halloween night. It seems like such a big trick though that it's now all over.
4.5/5
Supporting the band were Canadian duo Tegan & Sara, who begun the night with a good set of electronic-pop tunes. The duo, augmented by a quartet of additional musicians, looked far from daunted at the prospect of playing to someone else's audience in a room the size of the Vatican City, and certainly will have won some fans over with an impressive display.
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