The Killers played their first proper live gig since December 2019 at New York's Terminal 5 on Thursday.
Rob Loud*After a week that’s seen Korn frontman Jonathan Davis and Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson contract Covid, and everyone from Garth Brooks and Neil Young to BTS and Nine Inch Nails cancel live events due to concerns about the virus, it briefly seemed like the Killers warmup show at New York’s Terminal 5 was in real jeopardy when a man who identified himself as the band’s doctor came onstage at the top of the night to address the crowd.
“I’ve got a bit of news for you guys,” he said. “Recently, as of this evening, the band in its entirety has tested extremely positive … for rock & roll!”
The fake-out led immediately to the band storming onto the stage and kicking off an extremely momentous Killers concert. Not only was it their first proper gig in front of a live audience since December 2019, and their first time playing songs from 2020’s Imploding the Mirage and their new LP, Pressure Machine, but it also marked the return of founding guitarist Dave Keuning, who was semi-estranged from the band during the past few years and didn’t participate in their last tour or the Imploding the Mirage sessions.
“Even the greatest city in the world has not had much to celebrate these past few months,” frontman Brandon Flowers said after the group kicked off the show with “Dying Breed.” “But tonight, we are fixing to change that.”
This is a band that normally headlines enormous festivals or 20,000-seat basketball arenas, but they squeezed their standard show into the relatively tiny confines of the 3,000-capacity Terminal 5 on the far west side of Manhattan and packed it with hardcore fans who came with both vaccine cards and negative Covid tests from the past 48 hours. Masks were encouraged, but the vast majority of the crowd shed them after just a couple of songs.
Pressure Machine arrived just a week ago, and some might have expected the album to be a major aspect of the show. But it’s a stark concept record about townspeople in Flowers’ childhood home of Nephi, Utah, who are struggling to get through each day, and lacks the sort of anthemic tunes the band likes to play live. That might explain why just two Pressure Machine songs, “In the Car Outside” and “Sleepwalker,” made the set list. But it’s a fantastic record, their best since at least Battle Born, and hopefully they’ll sprinkle more songs from it into their shows down the line.
They also played three tunes from Imploding the Mirage (“Blowback,” “Caution,” and “Dying Breed”), but the rest of the show was dedicated to classics like “Human,” “Smile Like You Mean It,” “All These Things That I’ve Done,” and “Read My Mind.” And if Keuning was rusty from years away from the concert stage, he sure didn’t show it. He hit every note, blasted off solos perched on Ronnie Vannucci Jr.’s drum riser, and gleefully sang along to many of the songs, even when he was nowhere near a vocal mic. The band was a fine live act in his absence, but they’re only truly the Killers when he’s on the stage. (Bassist Mark Stoermer has been off the road since 2016, but he continues to play on the records. Jake Blanton serves as his fill-in onstage.)
“It’s so weird that we’re coming back to the stage,” Flowers said about a third of the way through the set. “There’s been a lot of trepidation. I’ve talked about it before, but being from the West Coast of the United States, we have this crazy regard for New York City. You watch Saturday Night Live and see the news of the world, and everything is just happening here. We get really nervous when we play here, but it feels so good right now. Thank you so much for coming. It may not look it, but I get nervous.”
The main set ended with a euphoric rendition of “Mr. Brightside” where the crowd blissfully sang along to every word, once again proving that it’s become the “Don’t Stop Believin” of its era. And after a brief break, they wrapped up the show with “The Man,” “Sleepwalker,” and an epic “When You Were Young.”
Vannucci Jr. was the last one off the stage. “Thanks,” he said, “for risking your lives to see us.”
The band is in New York play the We Love NYC Homecoming concert in Central Park on Saturday. The all-star event was booked when it seemed like Covid was on its way out and was supposed to mark the return of live music, but the Delta variant had a very different plan. If current trends continue, a lot more acts are going to postpone or cancel dates in the coming weeks.
The Killers are supposed to play a handful of festivals and headlining dates in the next couple of months before heading over to Europe in the summer of 2022 and then return to North America for an arena run in August 2022. They might wind up playing every show as planned, or they might be forced to make major alterations. Whatever happens in the future, fans should be grateful that Keuning is back in the band, a new record is on shelves, and they managed to pull off at least one incredible concert.
LIVE REVIEWS
Slayyyter played her take on Turnstile’s ‘Birds’ onstage for the first time in Atlanta. You can watch footage of the performance below.
Slayyyter is currently touring with her ‘Wor$t Girl In The World’ show. She added the cover to her set at The Eastern on Monday night (September 21).
She sang ‘Birds: Slayyyter Version’ near the end of the main set, following ‘Brittany Murphy’. She then came back for an encore featuring ‘Brand New Chanel$’ and ‘Beat Up Chanel$’.
It was her first live performance of the song. She originally recorded it for Turnstile’s ‘Never Enough: Versions’, a collection of reworked tracks released on August 28.
The 22 track release brings together new interpretations of songs from Turnstile’s fourth album. Contributors include Elton John, Hayley Williams, Blood Orange, A. G. Cook, Faye Webster, Four Tet, Oklou, Floating Points, Nourished By Time, Alex G, Julien Baker and Mustafa.
Panda Bear recorded a new take on ‘Magic Man’, while Dying Fetus gave ‘Birds’ another interpretation rooted in death metal.
See Slayyyter perform the track live and listen to her studio recording here:
Slayyyter trades the original song’s hardcore intensity for a bigger electronic sound that feels at home alongside her latest album, ‘Wor$t Girl In America’.
Turnstile first released ‘Birds’ on their 2025 album ‘Never Enough’. The song won Best Metal Performance at the 2026 Grammy Awards, where the album also won Best Rock Album.
In its five star review of ‘Never Enough’, NME pointed to ‘Birds’ and ‘Sole’ as reminders of Turnstile’s hardcore beginnings. It also praised the album for “furthering their unique, pop-facing take on hardcore”.
Slayyyter will join Turnstile on another stage next month. She and Die Spitz are set to support the band at the University of Kansas in Lawrence on October 6 for the ‘Never Enough Tour Pt. 2’.
It has been a big year for Slayyyter. Her third album, ‘Wor$t Girl In America’, came out in March, and NME’s review highlighted its mix of “brash, sleazy pop” and late 2000s indie sleaze sounds.
Last month, she performed Hole’s ‘Violet’ for triple J’s Like A Version. Courtney Love called the cover “a delight” and encouraged Slayyyter to “keep wiping the floors with us”.
A few weeks later, Slayyyter took ‘Wor$t Girl In America’ to Reading Festival. NME’s live review declared that there was “undoubtedly a star before us on stage” and praised her “rasped, rocked-up delivery” and growing confidence as a performer.
