I saw the experience that is The Killers last night. S. and I headed Downtown to check them out. Boy, the preview article sounds like a band of full of themselves, but we must soldier on. We were at Becky's fore and aft.

The Venue: This show took place at The Bart on the campus of one Cleveland State University. It's normally not that bad of a place to see a show. This, of course, was the "Half-House" setup with a General Admission pit on the floor and the big curtain behind the stage sectioning off the rest of the arena.

The Opening Act: This was Louis XIV, a band I describe as the "kind of band you hear on the radio and can't wait to change the channel." OK, they are not that heinous, but close. Needless to say, we didn't arrive until after they were done. I asked the young man next to me how they were. He replied, "If I knew they were going to be that bad, I would have come in the same time as you." Uh-oh.

Things I Noticed: The Bart-Tender was told ahead of time there would be a bunch of kids there, he wouldn't be busy. Wrong'em boyo. He had a huge line. BTW, chaperone hat was not even in danger of coming out on this one...who knew? And another thing, the shorts on these women keep getting shorter and shorter and shorter and then they'll tell two friends and then they'll two friends and so on and so on and so on.

I decided I could do many of the moves that the lead singer, Brandon Flowers, does. He walked across the stage monitors up front, pumped his fist a few times, waved his arms theatrically on other occasions and moved about rather oddly. Virtually no stage banter. Hey, I can do that.

The Tickets: We had tickets in Section 114. This is a section on the east side of the arena, one of the sections that faces the stage. Our section was directly in the middle. No sitting for this one either, so I can't speak to how comfortable the chair might have been. Oh, and someone kept farting. Now, THAT was heinous.

The Sound: Awful. One of the worst I've heard at CSU. Keyboards were tinny, lyrics were extremely muddy. I know it's very early in the tour, but jeezy creezy!

The Stage: The setup was rather sparse, I thought. They came out to a video that took us to Sam's Town. Vegas, baby! And the title of their latest album. For a while, I thought we were getting video from Area 51, as there were lots of desert shots. Finally, the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign is shown and we're off! That was the last piece of video for the evening, as this was projected on a thin curtain at the front of the stage. There was a lighted Sam's Town logo hanging at the back of the stage. Some sort of odd white Christmas light design, hung on the keyboard up front and two speakers on the side.

We have guitar on the left, lead singer w/keyboard in the middle, bass on right, upper right had keyboards, drummer in upper middle. He also had a big gong, but I'll be damned if I saw him use it. Then again, I was drinking.

Oh, yeah, the confetti. When they first entered the stage to the song "Sam's Town", these bits of confetti were coming down through red, white and blue lights. It seemed like overkill, because I thought they dropped a lot. Not convention-like, mind you, but a sizable amount.

The Music:: Sound aside, The Killers put on the type of show I thought they would. The show was about 90 minutes long and they look like they should be having more fun, and sometimes the audience appears not to get into some songs, because of that. The energy level increases tenfold when one of their hits is played. They only have two albums, but are played rather consistently on XM, and it's obvious that the youth like them. So, there is a rather odd sense the band can do whatever they want because of their early success, and I think they choose to do that. I'd put them in the reasonably entertaining category.

They played all of the hits, including: "Mr. Brightside", "Smile Like You Mean It", "Somebody Told Me" and "When You Were Young". And a bunch of stuff I did not know.

They also did two covers in the encore: "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" (yes, that version and I still know the words) and Joy Division's (that band again) "Shadow Play". And, of course, they closed with "All These Things That I've Done". Remember "I got soul, but I'm not a soldier."

Soeder's review is here.

Meal of Links

Passport update. I received my passport yesterday. The renewal was sent on August 7 and I received the new one on September 7. This was regular processing, not expedited, and I got it one month's time. No horror stories at all. As a matter of fact, it was issued on August 21, only two weeks after I sent in the application.

The most rockin' song of all time. Could it really be "Ramble Tamble"? I tell ya what, that ain't that bad of a choice. But, obviously, there are so many others that could qualify. The comments indicate that tunes from The Stooges, Doors, The Who and many, many others could qualify. Great to see the love for "20th Century Boy", which I think makes it on all criteria, especially the drive faster part. And with that great T. Rex lyric, "Well it's plain to see you were meant for me. Yeah, I'm your toy, your 20th century boy." A staple on my listening chart. Really some other good ones like "The Rocker" by Thin Lizzy. Without question, their best song. And "Highway Star" by Deep Purple. "Ace of Spades", too. Hah! This was a pretty good read.

Hey, folks! Salt your meat!

Exercise Yard

MLB is fairly confident the Indians will win the division. We did not have to participate in any coin flips. BTW, lead is down to 5 games.

Visitor

14 Down: Legendary swimmer (10 letters) Answer: Sea Monster