Thanks to Alfred!

Local promoters caught lightning in a musical bottle the last time The Killers played El Paso.

It was July 25, 2004. The T-Lounge, the now-defunct rock bar on Texas Avenue, was brimming at capacity with 350 hyped, mouth-frothing fans.

The band came. They rocked. They conquered. And the show went down in the books.

"We happened to catch them right before they were going to explode," says Marina Monsisvais, former DJ and promotions director with the long-gone HERO Radio 94.7 FM, which put the show together. "And when they got here, they were in the middle of the full-blown explosion. We were lucky that we got them."

The band's lead single, "Somebody Told Me," took off on the charts between the time they were booked and the time they played, so it took some muscling from the radio station to keep The Killers in a small venue.

But they pulled it off, and come show time, latecomers were huddled outside, perking up their ears for an awesome wall-filtered version of "All These Things That I've Done" here or a kick-ass brick-woofered rendition of "Mr. Brightside" there. The inside was reportedly packed.

"I was grateful to have my spot behind the bar," says music columnist Crystal Robert, who was a T-Lounge bartender and booker at the time. "But the crowd was really good and responsive, and they didn't mob them – they were respectful. It could have gotten really ugly. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see them play in a venue so small."

Now, 8.5 million album sales and seven Grammy nominations later, The Killers are playing the Abraham Chavez Theatre on Monday. At 2,525 seats, the venue allows more breathing room for fans – and bragging rights to a larger number of them.

"The show that people are going to see is the show that they didn't get the chance to see the last time around," Monsisvais says.

Wendy Garrett, director of theaters for the El Paso Convention and Visitors Bureau, says it came as no surprise that the concert sold out in less than a week.

"It's an extremely popular band for us to get in El Paso and they wanted to play a small, intimate venue," she says. "They were very specific about that."

Based on other recent concerts, the band will likely draw evenly from its New Wave, Duran Duran-esque debut, "Hot Fuss," and its Springsteen-inspired sophomore LP, "Sam's Town." The pomp, melody and showmanship that accompany those comparisons are all part of The Killers package.

"We don't have rock stars anymore," Monsisvais says. "We don't have bands with legacies anymore, partially because of the way music is being listened to nowadays. Artists need to make albums and not just songs. The Killers made an album, and that makes them the only rock stars we have."

The Killers
Abraham Chavez Theatre
1 Civic Center Plaza
Monday, Sept. 17 – 8 p.m.
SOLD OUT

http://www.thekillersfansite.com