Review: The Killers with Ra Ra Riot @ Indiana Horseshoe 8/8/09

Ra Ra Riot graced us by playing for the third time in the Louisville area since December. Hold on, I am supposed to open by saying something about The Killers, right? Let’s start this over…

The Killers traveled to the Indiana Horseshoe casino on Saturday, which is located in the middle-of-nowhere-Elizabeth, Indiana, and brought along the amazing Ra Ra Riot to play with them. Now, I have never really paid too much attention to The Killers, but Ra Ra Riot are one of my favourite new bands and I was overjoyed to have a chance too see them again.

Ra Ra Riot recently came to Louisville to open for Death Cab For Cutie, but I sadly missed their set. It seemed like they gained a few fans from that show, as I saw quite a few people who looked they were into it and some even looked like they knew a few of the words. I was happy to see that taking place, and this should happen more often for this band. The Killers invited them to play this show down here in southern Indiana and they drove straight down here all the way from upstate New York. Plus they played the same stage as The Killers the day after this at Lollapalooza, only a lot earlier in the day than The Killers. Turns out Ra Ra Riot were a good mix to go along with The Killers. This team-up should be a great way to get this fantastic band a bigger fan base. As I said earlier, this was their third time in this area and hopefully it is nowhere near their last time.

A few more Ra Ra Riot pictures after the break. But first, some words about The Killers:

The crowd that consisted entirely of people above the age of 18 started to grow as darkness neared. It seemed like it was taking a while for the crew to set up the stage. Lighting was of course needed, as were instruments, and also all the plants and flowers… for Brandon Flowers. Darkness eventually fell and The Killers were ready to take stage, much to the audience’s approval. Brandon came on stage in his jacket that I still do not understand and took control with the single Human, which which asks the infinite question “Are we human, or are we dancer?” Well, I still have no clue what that means, but it sounded alright live even though I never really cared for the song. It did had a lot of people dancing. So I guess we, the crowd, were divided amongst ourselves. Half human, half dancer. What a dilemma. At least they didn’t sing “Are we human, or are we talking to other people, maybe getting the occasional drink, not paying attention to the band at all?”, but that’s what a lot of people were doing. I guess the casino/music-venue-in-the-parking-lot draws all kinds. However, the faithful first wave up in the front (who queued for quite a while before the show) were all singing along and having a great time.

Rocking through their 17 song set they of course played all the hits. All hits, all the time. During Somebody Told Me, somebody decided to throw a few pairs of neon sunglasses up to the stage. Brandon put on a pair, and the put the others on Ronnie’s (drummer) head as he was playing. Sure, they looked cool. Who doesn’t look cool wearing neon sunglasses at night?
During Bling (Confessions Of A King) we were all asked to sing back at them for the last few verses. Which, to me, felt a little like a youth group praise band. No worries though, the quieter song did translate nicely live. However, I had problems with the next song. The next song you ask? Shadowplay. I don’t think Ian Curtis had this in mind when it was written around 30 years ago. However, I won’t write too much more into this, because we here rarely pass negative judgment on things.

Being at a casino inspired Brandon to talk about the early days in Vegas before The Killers were even formed, where he was searching for musicians in wanted ads. This is how he introduced guitarist Dave Keuning, before he started into the first demo he gave to an relatively unknown Brandon Flowers. He talked about when they were first meeting, that Dave would have rice every day because they were broke. Occasionally they could afford hot dogs chopped up in the rice. You knew it was a payday when that happened. After the story they launched into the song that was that demo – Mr. Brightside. When Mr. Brightside is your first song, you never have to eat hot dogs and rice ever again. This song seemed to bring everyone together, even the talkers paid attention for this hit tune.

After a short break The Killers put on a killer (pun intended) 3 song encore. Ending by saying, “We’re going to play this last song as hard as we can. Are you gonna take it as hard as you can?” Well, I was a bit scared hearing that, but it just meant they were going to rock out When You Were Young as their final song. They really did play it hard, and it made me a fan of the song. Halfway through the final song came the fireworks. I kept thinking “I hope nothing catches fire”, while also thinking “This looks awesome!”. As the band left the stage and the crew started cleanup, you could faintly hear Moonriver playing. My only question, “Why not the Morrissey version, Brandon?”

Setlist: