I found out last week that I’d won two tickets to go and see Brandon Flowers play an intimate, winners-only show (only 200 pairs of tickets were given away after a draw from those who pre-ordered his album ‘Flamingo’ on HMV) in London on September 8th . I have to say I was pretty darn excited.
After a mad taxi dash across London and jogging up to the venue we secured some snug positions quite close to the stage in the relatively small Relentless Garage in Islington. It was clear we were going be in for a special event. Brandon’s backing band for the show entered the cosy stage and they were shortly followed by the main man himself complete with billowy-Heathcliff-esque shirt and black waistcoat. Oh, and he had trousers and shoes on too, of course. This night was a chance for Mr Flowers to showcase his debut solo album, a record he made alone due to his fellow band mates in The Killers wanting to take a little break from music for the meantime.
‘Flamingo’ is a much milder sound in comparison to what you identify with The Killers but stills carries the same tone and spirit in its veins. With the album only having been officially out for a few days you would have expected a relatively quiet crowd, but you would have severely underestimated the level of fandom associated with this man. From the opening song to the closing ‘Killers classic; people were singing along to every word. Flowers’ current single ‘Crossfire’ predictably drew the biggest reaction of the night and sounded truly euphoric live. The energy of it was echoed in other epic album tracks such as ‘Jilted Lovers And Broken Hearts’, which strongly echoed the usual sound of The Killers, along with upbeat track ‘Magdalena’.
We were treated to two covers during the set – ‘Bette Davis Eyes’ (Kim Carnes) and ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight?’ (Elvis). Each was embellished with Flowers’ personal vocal stamp and both sounded equally aurally delicious. One of the beautiful things about Brandon Flowers’ stage presence and voice is how songs that previously sounded “alright” on first listen of the album suddenly come across as musical classics when transferred to a live show.
Flowers was humbled through the entire performance, thanking the crowd for such a warm reception and beaming whilst taking breaths between verses. It made you forget temporarily that this man, whilst accompanied by his usual band set-up, has sold out arenas worldwide in minutes and has written some of the most loved songs of this century. There he was; in a modest-sized venue, performing brand new songs, acting as if he was just starting out. A true sign of a proper musician, not a rockstar ego.
A humorous moment came just before they played ‘Swallow It’ and Flowers mentioned that it had sparked a bit of a controversy. One must imagine this controversy comes from those with severely one-track minds. I’m sure you can all figure out the innuendo, but in case you’re a little too vanilla, here are some of the lyrics:
You could not Swallow It
No baby you're not ready, slow down
Ooh, matron.
After the languid yet soulful ‘Playing With Fire’, Flowers exited the stage, shortly to return with only an acoustic guitarist to perform a stripped down version of ‘When You Were Young’. It sounded delicate and spine-tingling and rounded up the evening perfectly. That classic coupled with ‘Losing Touch’ earlier in the evening made for a balance between Flowers’ solo material walking comfortably hand-in-hand with his collective work as part of The Killers . Brandon demonstrated that he can carry himself and his sound with the charisma and soul of a Vegas-born singer yet remain true to his roots and what got him there in the first place. Raw talent.
SETLIST FOR THE NIGHT:
On The Floor
Crossfire
Magdalena
Bette Davis Eyes [cover]
Jilted Lovers And Broken Hearts
Was It Something I Said
Hard Enough
Are You Lonesome Tonight? [cover]
Losing Touch [The Killers]
Only The Young
Swallow It
Playing With Fire
ENCORE
When You Were Young [The Killers]
It's not as good as being there, but here is a video recording that we filmed whilst Brandon performed 'When You Were Young' during last night's performance. Enjoy.
0 comments:
Post a Comment