Glastonbury June 24,2005

From NME

Forget what you thought you knew about this gig. The Killers might have had the kind of year only Satan can arrange for you with your soul as collateral, but tonight's show is no cakewalk. Tonight, Brandon Flowers minces along a thin line between potential greatness and leaping clean over the enroaching shark that's claimed the credibility of so many.

First, there was the mutually destructive war of words with The Bravery, which shifted plenty of units but lost both bands respect on all sides. Then came Brandon's egomaniacal U2 comparisons, that jacket, and some rather disquieting (and definitely unprintable) rumours of Viking-esque sexual rampages. Michael Eavis (*glasto organiser*) may have offered them Glastonbury on a platter (which, in a rare moment of humility they refused) but make no mistake, the gauntlet is well and truly thrown down this evening.

Things don't start well. Drummer Ronnie Vannucci has grown a beard- ususally a sure sign that something's amiss- and casually tossing off "Somebody Told Me" as their opening song doesn't do them any favours. Then there's the fact that Brandon-elegantly decked out in a mint dinner jacket with black lapels-is shit scared. You can't blame him; the crowd is properly massive. But then he's going to have to get used to that.
When the weather's this grim the muddied masses need something to connect with, not a poseur whose aloof attitude stinks worse than a hippy's nutsack.

But just as we're about to send Brandon back to rock's Room 101 for the Bono Talk something weird happens. "Smile Like You Mean It" touches a nerve and tugs at heartstrings, and thousands sing along. "Andy, You're A Star" repeats the trick and suddenly they're on a roll. They end on a spectacular triple-whammy of "Glamarous Indie Rock n Roll" (sung, as it should be, without a shred of irony), "Mr Brightside" and "All These Things That I've Done", and suddenly we're looking at 2007's headliners. Solitary newie "All The Pretty Faces is promising, too. Another album down the line and the world could be Brandon Flowers' plaything. He knows it, too. "Wow, turned out pretty beautiful tonight, hasn't it?" he asks the crowd in his sole speech of the evening. And he's right. Glasto '07 here we come.