Music Blogs

The Killers' Day & Age hasn't been as hot a seller as the quartet's first two efforts, but there was no lack of enthusiasm among the crowd at last Sunday's packed show in support of the album at New York City's Madison Square Garden. The punters were loud, bouncy, and if the couple directly in front of me were any indication, quick to make out during a ballad. But despite all the positive mojo, Brandon Flowers and his fellow Las Vegans, drawing heavily on material from the new disc, put on a strangely flat concert.

You can blame the mouthpiece. When I last saw the band play, they were at a small club gig in advance of 2006's Sam's Town. That was a straight-up bad night, mostly due to Flowers' obvious discomfort. He spent most of the concert standing rigid behind his keyboard, looking vacantly into the crowd. Maybe he was nervous playing the then-new songs--whose cinematic ambitions were cramped in the tiny space--but he never gave off the vibe of having a good time.

He was clearly in a better frame of mind Sunday night. Taking the stage in his much-discussed feather-festooned jacket, Flowers was a far looser and more active performer. He strutted across the stage, jumped on top of monitors, induced singalongs on crowd favorites like "All These Things That I've Done" and "When You Were Young," and generally did everything you expect a rock star at an arena show to do. But there were two problems: As a purely physical presence, Flowers is still lacking. He's got none of Chris Martin's benevolent charm or Bono's inspiring charisma or Prince's polymath energy. To paraphrase a song the band played, Flowers comes across far more human than dancer.

The other problem is deeper. Even though Flowers was obviously happier to be on stage this time around (and said so multiple times), he never has those moments of abandon or loss of self-control that turn a concert into something more than just a good time. There's a predictability to his showmanship--fist pumps always cued to cymbal crashes, the carefully apportioned amounts of time spent at each part of the stage, the obviously canned between-song patter. Even his movements are weirdly mechanical, like he's always dancing some version of the Robot.

The concert did have its moments of ass-kickery though. Newer songs like the glammy "Neon Tiger" and funky "Joyride" sounded designed for big stages, grand and brash. And like I said, Flowers has improved as a focal point, but if the Killers are ever going to be as important as he wants it to be, he's still got some work to do.

See more at www.spin.com

SPIN's 40 Best Albums of 2008 http://www.spin.com/articles/40-best-albums-2008

Search 1,400 Album Reviews http://www.spin.com/reviews