I could mope about a couple of things that went wrong yesterday and beat myself up about the lack of motiviation to write my term paper, but I was going for more substantial stuff here, so I’ll confine myself to give you a concert review from last night. The Killers concert took place as part of the Vodafone music unlimited festival in Cologne. Outdoors directly in front of the cathedral, which is a cool location for any concert. (My cameraphone provides rather crappy pictures, sorry) I arrived about 30 minutes before the support act was supposed to start and got a great spot at the side of the barriers, which seperate the confined space directly in front of the stage from the rest of the venue. [I probably could write a whole long paragraph about some people in and out of that confined space, but it wouldn’t be really substantial, so…]
The support act was ok, not bad, not great and played about 45 minutes, but it took another 30 minutes to convert and prepare the stage for the Killers, who came on stage around 9 pm and sadly only played for about 80 minutes including encores. But, and that’s a big BUT, that were 80 fantastic minutes. The started with “For Reasons Unknown” and played “Somebody Told Me” as second song already, which put the crowd into a really great mood. I almost regretted to have chosen a spot at the barrier (to rest my back during the waiting before the concert started) and to not have choosen a spot in the crowd in front of the stage. I will do so next time, because I will definitely go and see them again, when I’ll get the chance.
They played all the really cool songs “Mr. Brightside” “Read My Mind”, “Bones” and so many more and I was happy to see (or better hear) that Brandon Flowers really can sing. He sounded as good and clear as he does on the record, which is not necessarily the case with every pop- or rockstar. But he was really good. My favorite probably were “Sam’s Town”, which was a combination of the Abbey Road and the album version and “Jenny…”, which I love a lot in general. During the second verse he replaced “She couldn’t scream…” with “She kicked and screamed…” which made me smile because it is so much closer to the truth. (of the story in that song and all). I also liked the new song “Spaceman” and the final song “All These Things That I’ve Done” was a perfect choice, because it ended pretty bombastic. With some fireworks as well, which was a big surprise and just a awesome moment.
So even though 80 minutes were much too short, it was definitely worth it and I’m really happy I had the chance to see this band and hear this music in concert. And the next time I’ll be one of those in front of the stage as well :-)