|
You could dress it up as being fashionably late. Or
you could just call it what it most likely is, and that’s
being bang on time. Hot Hot Heat are on downtime, nobody
can remember when they last saw The Faint, Liars don’t
get seen in the same hemisphere as the words ‘gang’
‘of’ or ‘four’ anymore and Duran Duran very recently
devised their own public flogging by accepting a Brit
Award for lifetime “achievement” then satirising the
word for a further 10 endless, flat minutes (as if being
knocked down the billing so ITV could lead into the
news with The Darkness wasn’t already enough of an insult).
It truly was the early evening of the living dead. Gruesome.
All the edges of the eighties are up for grabs at the
minute then and The Killers it seems are about to take
the lion’s share. And they’re shouting all about it
too, to the cocktail-shaking beat. Not to mention dancing
all over it like they’re trying to crack a stiff Rubik’s
cube. You can kit a man out in denim and noo-wave stripes,
but some hearts will remain forever draped in pastel
shirts and tightly pressed chinos. Growing up in the
80s had a profound effect on some more than others.
The Killers, straight outta Vegas and kind of embracing
its OTT stereotype too, are not the others.
This is a ram raid of a decade. Each member helps themselves
to the luxuries and then get post-modern all over their
swag, like Damien Hirst on a three and a half minute
after-hours trolley dash round the cut-price vinyl section
of Music & Video Exchange. The only other band attempting
anything quite as similar or intense with the era are
tonight’s headliners Stellastarr*. But if they lack
the New Yorkers’ brazen recklessness, or distortion
pedals, they make up for it in decisiveness and quasi-charm
and complete a rather pleasing whole.
Even from the moment – actually, especially from the
moment – they enter to the stark Depeche Mode pop-tronics
of ‘On Top’ they sear with a consistent kinetic sort
of energy, always moving even when they’re stood still,
bristling with a definite neon sort of electricity.
In fact we’re fairly sure frontman Brandon Flowers (oh
yes, name!) glided in on a carpet of the stuff, possibly
in order to avoid creasing his slick suit. Tellingly
they’ve also name checked Duran Duran’s ‘Rio’ in lyric
within seconds of taking to the stage.
As tempting as it might be to hone in and deconstruct
them for their style alone, that becomes short of impossible.
Quite frankly they have more tunes than they could possibly
ever need and a delivery that also buries the hardiest
Franz Ferdinands of this world without stopping for
breath, covering new bases with every other strut. Hardline-goodtime
current release ‘Somebody Told Me’ takes out The Faint
and Hot Hot Heat simultaneously and previous/forthcoming
single (they couldn’t resist the re-release now interest’s
picked up) ‘Mr Brightside’ is so damn vibrant it feels
like it could counter an energy shortage and unite warring
factions before last orders. You get the feeling we
could realistically be dancing to these tunes in years
to come. More pressingly you know we will be at this
year’s festivals. See you in the afternoon sun.
Relevant sites:
http://www.thekillers.co.uk
James Berry for Crud Magazine 2004©
|
