The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
    • Shows & On demand
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Fund us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Cannes
      • Sundance London
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • Tumblr

  • RSS


CultureMusicLive music

The Killers at the O2 Arena: A Wonderful, Wonderful show

The Killers at the O2 Arena: A Wonderful, Wonderful show | Live review
28 November 2017
Filippo L'Astorina, the Editor
Filippo L'Astorina
Avatar
Filippo L'Astorina
28 November 2017

Music review

Filippo L'Astorina

The Killers at O2 Arena

★★★★★

Highlights

Life to Come, Somebody Told Me, Spaceman

Links

Twitter Facebook Instagram Website

A sold-out O2 Arena welcomes back The Killers to London, the four-piece’s proper home. Not that they haven’t been around lately, but theirs were stints and this town needed more. The band – or half of it, considering Mark Stoermer (bass) and Dave Keuning (guitar) stopped touring – enter the stage playing Wonderful Wonderful, the new album’s opener. The set design is classic Las Vegas-style: clean, well-lit, with a large staircase leading to their iconic drummer, Ronnie Vannucci Jr; behind is a pyramid, which, just like all the walls around it, is a huge screen. And it couldn’t be any more relevant considering it was a pyramid – the one at Glastonbury – that baptised and crowned the band as national treasure in 2006.

Brandon Flowers wears a white shirt and black blazer, a look much closer to his tours as a solo artist – lines are getting a bit too blurred – contrasting with the rock nature of The Killers; these considerations, though, peacefully rest at the back of my mind as the Las Vegans storm the arena with a heart-stopping rendition of Somebody Told Me. It’s hard to resist this beat and sound, most of the people leaving their seat and dancing throughout the set. The Man, Smile Like You Mean It and Spaceman are some of the highlights of the first half of the show; the frontman cites Hemingway: “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self,” then incites “Ronnie ‘unstoppable’ Vannucci Jr” to “give these people what they want” on For Reasons Unknown.

It’s a performance so consistent and intense it’s even hard to realise its peaks. While Life to Come stands out for depth and emotion, The Killers set the North Greenwich venue on fire with Human, When You Were Young and the closer Mr Brightside. Sadly, they haven’t played Tyson vs Douglas, one of the best tracks from their latest record – and also a fan favourite – but Flowers redeems himself singing in a gold Elvis suit for the entire duration of the encore, re-embodying that beautiful rock kitschness we love him for. This really is a (pardon the cliché) a Wonderful, Wonderful night. 

★★★★★

Filippo L’Astorina, the Editor
Photos: Rob Loud

For further information and future events visit The Killers’ website here.

Related Itemsfeaturedlive musicreview

More in Live music

Tokio Myers at the Forum

★★★★★
Daniel Amir
Read More

Lisa Stansfield at the London Palladium

★★★★★
Adrian Peel
Read More

Hinds at Electric Brixton

★★★★★
Jake Cudsi
Read More

Gregory Porter at the Royal Albert Hall

★★★★★
Ed Edwards
Read More

Bastille at the Royal Albert Hall

★★★★★
Selina Begum
Read More

The Vaccines and Whenyoung at Alexandra Palace

★★★★★
Musanna Ahmed
Read More

John Barrowman and Seth Rudetsky at Leicester Square Theatre

★★★★★
Bev Lung
Read More

Alela Diane at Union Chapel

★★★★★
Cristiana Ferrauti
Read More

Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats at Shepherd’s Bush Empire

★★★★★
Jake Cudsi
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Music review

Filippo L'Astorina

The Killers at O2 Arena

★★★★★

Highlights

Life to Come, Somebody Told Me, Spaceman

Links

Twitter Facebook Instagram Website

Tickets

Theatre tickets

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Project Gastronomía: How will Londoners eat in 2050? A symposium on gastronomy and multisensory design
    Food & Drinks
  • Gregory Porter at the Royal Albert Hall
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Bat Out of Hell at the Dominion Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Tribeca Film Festival 2018: On the red carpet with the stars of Westworld season 2
    Cinema
  • Half Breed
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Sherlock Gnomes premiere: A chat with James McAvoy, his co-stars and the film’s creators
    Cinema
  • The Outsider
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Tokio Myers at the Forum
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • The Outsider: An interview with director Thomas Meadmore
    Cinema
  • Beast
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Sherlock Gnomes premiere: A chat with James McAvoy, his co-stars and the film’s creators
    Cinema
  • Tokio Myers at the Forum
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Beast
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Lisa Stansfield at the London Palladium
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Bat Out of Hell at the Dominion Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre

Instagram

Something is wrong. Response takes too long or there is JS error. Press Ctrl+Shift+J or Cmd+Shift+J on a Mac.
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Fund us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • New London restaurant openings and pop-ups
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Subscribe
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2018 FL Media Ltd

Josh Rouse: An interview with the American singer-songwriter
Action Bronson at Village Underground | Live review