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The Colosseum at Caesars Palace was built to withstand the roof-raising power of Celine Dion and other acclaimed performers in its time. But weathering a live rendition of \u201cMr. Brightside\u201d is another matter entirely.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Under sprays of confetti and glitzy signage shaped in the image of the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, The Killers barreled through the most popular Hot Fuss <\/em>track, commemorating night two of its sold-out Strip residency, a historic occasion for the Vegas-bred band that started as a group of unknowns in 2001.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI came here from a quiet town in Utah when I was just 16 years old. I had big dreams working as a busboy right here at Caesars Palace, and I bet my life on three men who I hardly knew,\u201d said frontman Brandon Flowers. \u201cSome people come to Vegas and they lose everything, that\u2019s just the way it goes. But let tonight serve as a reminder\u2014sometimes it goes the other way, too.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n For the first time in years, fans saw The Killers\u2019 original core four reunite, after guitarist Dave Keuning and bassist Mark Stoermer stepped away from their touring posts in 2016 and 2017. Dusting off the iconic debut that built a runway for their success, The Killers emerged as spirited as when they were young. Flowers refused to stay still, exhibiting the agility of a man touched by the holy ghosts of Vegas showmen who came before. He hopped up on a raised stage platform, a pulpit for his fiery, if not frenzied, performance of \u201cSomebody Told Me\u201d and \u201cAll These Things That I\u2019ve Done.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Fans responded in kind, parroting back the bridge, nearly outmatching the grandiose gospel vocals assigned to the live trio onstage. The rest of the band appeared just as alight, especially Keuning, who paced the floor with his guitar, relishing in his rockstar era with nimbly executed solos and a smile plastered across his face.\u00a0<\/p>\n Those performances, while great, also felt strangely siloed. Flowers attempted to drum up some camaraderie by telling stories about the band, but their disjointment came off glaringly obvious in certain scenarios. Timing on \u201cAll These Things,\u201d for instance, sounded too sped up, with Flowers shouting through his lyrics instead of actually singing them. It\u2019s very possible the band might still be breaking the ice, having not performed as a unit in a while. They seemed to fall in line on moodier cuts like \u201cAndy, You\u2019re a Star\u201d and \u201cMidnight Show,\u201d where Flowers\u2019 full timber noticeably shined, carrying us into the latter parts of Hot Fuss<\/em> and the epic, catalog-spanning encore finale. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cYou feel that?\u201d Flowers asked, as the room began to rumble with applause.\u00a0<\/p>\n The band launched into Sam\u2019s Town <\/em>favorite \u201cRead My Mind,\u201d thrusting the crowd into a perpetual sing-along that didn\u2019t fully let up until \u201cDustland Fairytale,\u201d a track Flowers prefaced with a story about his late mother.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cShe’s gone now but she made sure to give me enough light to get me where I needed to go,\u201d he said, before joining Keuning for a side-by-side finale of the song, tapering it off under a single spotlight.\u00a0<\/p>\n Grounded by the intimacy of those moments, The Killers carried on like a powder keg, more present and alive than ever on the show closer, \u201cWhen You Were Young.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n By the end of it, Flowers looked spent, chest heaving, his Nevada state pendant dangling. And with one final comment, the frontman gazed up into the crowd and proclaimed, \u201cWhen we were young, we dreamed about this.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Killers\u00a0<\/strong>August 21, 23, 24, 28, 30, 31 & September 1, 8 p.m., the Colosseum, ticketmaster.com.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n