STELLASTARR*
with THE KILLERS
Cabaret, Montreal, Quebec


I absolutely cannot get The Killers' song, "Somebody Told Me", out of my head. I'd heard it before, of course, having downloaded it from someone's blog ages ago, but I'd filed it under "sounding a little too reminiscent of Orgy for my liking", and left it at that (Hey, anyone remember Orgy?). Live, though, the song was redeemed. Backed by an awesome light show, The Killers (who are sporting a rather unfortunate name) breathed new life into recorded material towards which I'd previously been pretty ambivalent.

Singer Brandan Flowers, who is much cuter in person than in press photographs, was a capable frontman, holding the audience without forcing himself on us. Drummer Ronnie Vannucci was likewise entertaining; whether it was watching the progressive dampening of his pink shirt ("Did he just spill water on himself? Uh, I guess not. Ew."), watching him break a stick during "Mr. Brightside" or watching him finish most songs standing up, in order to beat the cymbals that much harder, he had an energy that couldn't be denied. In contrast, bassist Mark Stoermer stood mostly stalk still, moving only to lift the neck of his bass in the classic rock'n'roll move.

The first half of the set saw Flowers finishing every song on the keyboard, which was verging on annoying in its repetitiveness and predictability. Luckily, they moved into songs starting with keyboard just in time to keep it all from being a yawn. Towards the end of the set, we were treated to a paean to "Indie Rock'n'Roll", with lyrics extolling nearly every cliché imaginable. The intended level of irony was a complete unknown, and that's why the song was so much fun. It was a fitting way to wind down an unexpectedly great set.