The Killers [EDIT]

One Liner: Massively popular alternative dance rock in the Oughts, even with no new music they ought to be fun.
Wikipedia Genre: Alternative rock, indie rock, post-punk revival, new wave, heartland rock
Spotify Says Similar To: The Strokes and Kaiser Chiefs
Home: Las Vegas, NV

Poster Position: 1
Slot: ?

Thoughts:  I know these guys weren't the first to make dance rock a thing, but I feel like they were one of the first to take the guitars and crunch of the alternative rock/grunge scene and add heavy synths to turn alternative rock into a dance party.  Their debut, 2004's Hot Fuss, was the soundtrack to quite a bit of those years when I lived in Waco, and the rest of the world loved it as well, making it a multi-platinum smash worldwide.  The Wikipedia page on the album describes all of the accolades it has received since - top ten greatest debut albums of all time, top 100 albums of the 2000's, 500 greatest albums of all time, etc.  So, all that to say that this band is massively popular.  However, in the music world, its all about what have you done for me lately.  Hot Fuss was in 2004, then Sam's Town was 2006 (which was very popular, but not as hot as the debut).  After that, you had Day and Age (2008) and Battle Born (2012), and neither of those two albums caught on with the public in any significant way.  Five years later, there have been rumors of new music, but nothing has come out (that I know of).  So, I guess my hope is that we hear the hits, and if that is the case, then this is going to be a great show.  Let's run through those hits.

From Hot Fuss, you've got four huge hits (and the rest of the album is damn good as well) led by "Mr. Brightside" at 286 million streams, then "Somebody Told Me" at 127 million, "All These Things That I've Done" at 73 million, and "Smile Like You Mean It" at 38 million.  Its funny, in my mind, I would have said that "Smile Like You Mean It" was the hit of those four. Shows you what I know.  I'll give you two of those. First, the disco-fied dance rock of "Somebody Told Me."

101 million views of that video too.  So, this one starts with a pretty straight-forward rock groove, but then when the chorus hits is when you realize that this isn't just another mid-oughts rock band.  It's the hooo-hooooh's and the disco drums, and synth scrim at the end. I don't think anyone was doing that sort of thing at this time (although a bunch of bands were doing it as soon as they heard this track).
And then "All These Things That I've Done," which is a different tone, but has the great chanting bit in the middle that will probably fun to yell along to in the park in October.  Really, the entirety of this song, even before the Soul/Soldier bit, it very singable.  This would be a good karaoke song, now that I think of it.

You gotta watch out for those KillerSluts with their boomerangs, man.  They will take you down. And I always love anything filmed in the neon graveyard of Vegas.  I wish I could average the number of plays on Spotify for an album without doing it manually, but screw it, I'll take the 4 minutes: 52.8 million streams average for this album.  Lowest stream count is 5.2 for the final track.
Sam's Town kicked out two big singles - "When You Were Young" at 107 million and "Read My Mind" at 44 million.  I'll give you the first one.

The Killers do pretty solid video work.  And that song is a good one - more like a massive U2/Springsteen arena-rock jam than the stuff from Hot Fuss.  17.5 million average streams for this album's songs (way lower than Hot Fuss).  Lowest is 3 million for the second to last song.

Day & Age just had the supremely weird "Human" as its big single:

I say supremely weird because of the chorus - "are we human, or are we dancer?"  WTF does that mean?  "my sign is vital, my hands are cold."  Uh, what?  But if you just go with it, you get a snappy rock song that is pretty fun.  But I still want to know, why can't I be both? Why?  I AM A HUMAN DANCER, DAMMIT!  The album also had a relatively big hit with "Spaceman" at 37.7 million streams.  Average streams for the songs on this album are 20.4 million per, with the low end being 4.2 for the last song.

Finally, you've got 2012's Battle Born.  No songs from this album make the top ten most popular tracks on Spotify for the band, and the top track has 36 million streams.  Here that one is, "Runaways."

I seriously don't remember ever having heard that song.  Brandon Flowers makes it pretty obvious that its a Killers track, but literally that doesn't ring any bells at all.  Sounds like a good 80's rock jam, "Heat of the Moment" mixed with Bryan Adams with a sprinkling of Journey - or something like that.  Average streams for the songs are 12.3 million, with the lowest at 5.2 million for the 8th track.  So this album definitely has the lowest streams on Spotify - I'd say it isn't bad (I just ran through it a few times) but it just sounds like they are still trying to recapture the excitement of ten years ago when the world has moved on to new sounds.  Except for "From Here on Out," which sounds like some weird Oak Ridge Boys/Eagles attempted countrification of their sound.  Not OK.

But let's think about the music world in these two different decades.  In 2004, the BIllboard top song was Usher/Lil' Jon's "Yeah!" and the top rock-ish songs were Hoobastank's "The Reason" and 3 Doors Down's "Here Without You."  [as an aside, interesting how rap heavy 2004 was, I didn't recall that]  Those rock songs are extremely earnest, sappy ass rockers about love, using violins but mainly being driven by modern rock-style drums, guitar, and bass.  And then The Killers came along with the synth-y blast of "Mr. Brightside" and made a real shift in the next few years of alternative rock music. But when Battle Born came out in 2012, you've got "Somebody I Used to Know" by Gotye as the top track and a bunch of electronic-heavy songs up top in the Billboard charts, with the top "rock" tracks honestly non-existent.  You could try to count things like Fun's "We Are Young" or The Wanted's "Glad You Came," or One Direction's "What Makes You Beautiful," but I wouldn't count any of that as rock.  Maybe 60-something songs down the list when you get to The Lumineers' "Ho Hey," but certainly no songs that I would consider to be the classic style of rock.  So now these guys are trying to do the same old thing in 2012 that was successful in 2004, and it obviously is just missing the mark for most people.

I have a feeling that I'll need to make some pretty hard calls for the headliners in October.  The Chili Peppers are my can't-miss-show, then Jay-Z probably comes next, then Ice Cube.  After that, I'd love to see The Killers, Chance, and Gorillaz, but I know that it won't happen, some of those guys are going to be up against each other.  But I'd like to see this show anyway.  I bet it would be fun.

Recommend?  Yes.

[EDIT 6/26/17]  So, my friend and frequent reader Joseph alerted me to the fact that The Killers have released a new single, "The Man," just recently.  At 3.3 million streams already, its getting heard immediately, but when Joseph told me to go hear it, he was not complimentary, saying the following two nuggets of commentary: (1) "Remember Hot Fuss? Remember how Sam’s Town wasn’t as good but was still interesting?  Now go listen to their new single…it is GARBAGE.  I hate it with the power of my entire soul" and (2) "It's three+ minutes of the worst."

Already over a million views of that YouTube video.  These guys still command an audience. So, here are my thoughts.  The tune starts out pretty promisingly, funky beat and sweet sound.  I am fully ready to like it.  AND THEN THE LYRICS START AND JOSEPH WAS RIGHT AND HOLY SHIT THAT IS AWFUL, SO AWFUL.  A sampling:

• The Chorus: "I got gas in the tank, I got money in the bank, I got news for you baby, you're looking at the man, I got skin in the game, I got a household name, I got news for you baby, you're looking at the man."
• It's like all of the worst things about current music and rap distilled into that one chorus. I don't know if he is trying to be ironic or be funny, if he is, it misses the mark entirely.
• Verse Two: "When it comes to Friday, I always earn, Don't try to teach me, I got nothing to learn, 'Cause baby I'm gifted, You see what I mean?, USDA certified lean"
• Oh, God, if I have to hear a big group of 20 year olds sing the words "USDA certified lean" at this show, I'm going to have to gouge my eardrums out.
• The Breakdown: "Who's the man? Who's the man? I'm the man, I'm the man Who's the man with the plan? I'm the man."
• Oh, and after this, there are samples of a cork popping and a cash register cha-chinging.

This does not bode well for the new album that is apparently soon to come out.  Let's all pray for a sudden desire to postpone that album in favor of making all future shows a Hit Fuss-only redux.