GIG NUMBER ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY
Who
Straight after booking the tickets I booked a hotel, thinking there may be a rush on hotel rooms later that day. As I also did this at work I had to rush it, and a £60 room was hardly a bargain, but it was nice and convenient enough to be worth it in the end. My next step was to purchase all their albums - seeing as I only had a dodgy copy of the debut and loads of live tracks I'd accumulated over the years - and I heard them over and over again. Despite forcing myself to do this to learn everything I enjoyed this process more than I do usually. Apart from printing off a map I did no planning until the Friday night, and devoted so much attention to trying to figure out the best way round that at several points in the day I'd completely forgotten about the fact we had a massive gig to finish off the day! We had no trouble getting there via Stafford and Tamworth and the train ticket came to a surprisingly reasonable £25.70 despite the number of changes, and it even allowed us to travel back whichever way we felt like. I intended this to be my last major excursion before hibernating over the winter and was pleased to find the weather was dry and sunny, especially excellent for taking good photos. We had a busy and generally successful day, with the few downsides being the main church being randomly closed for renovation despite no mention of this on their website, and my brother throwing a massive hissy fit upon walking into the oldest pub in Britain, deciding he didn't want anything from the absolutely fabulous menu and taking us to some shithole down the road. The cathedral was good - I had low expectations as I knew it was a minimalist Catholic one - and we also wandered around the "castle", which was basically just a stately home on a hill. It was heart-breaking to see a painting of the castle as it used to be before some wankers decided to destroy it during the civil war, and to compound the frustration I wasn't allowed to take photos in the interior, not that that stopped me completely.
Also we walked briefly into a hugely impressive pub located inside a converted church and it was great to see the Council House dominating the main square, although a deeply unsightly market made it harder to get the definitive photo. Nottingham is also an excellent place for shopping, including Fop Records which had an outstanding range of music and so forth, and bizarrely there were two Brazilian restaurants, so I guess the locals know good food when they see it? The Robin Hood statue outside the castle was the most prominent reference to Nottingham's most famous son, and it was tricky to get a photo of as there was quite a crowd. Also there were a few more mentions of the Hood within the castle - and one of the main roads is called Maid Marian Way - but the city desperately lacked a defining Robin Hood attraction. Perhaps the locals are sick of only having one massively famous local, which may explain why Jack Bugg's number one album was so proudly proclaimed on a banner outside the Council House. Once the sun went down I was very happy to take some sunset and night photos - knowing we wouldn't be in the mood to after the show - before heading to a French restaurant for some tea. This had been my brother's suggestion so I'd marked it on my map, and we only found out afterwards that I'd taken us to a different one. I'd been 100% confident it would be deserted - especially considering it was still quite early - and was shell-shocked to find it rammed. We got a seat straight away though and they served us quite rapidly, and as my brother was banned by me from eating anything disgusting it was a very nice meal at a reasonable price. We then headed back to the hotel to freshen up and pick up our tickets before heading towards the arena, which was further away than it appeared to be on my map but still reasonably convenient.
The doors had opened at 6:30pm and opposing websites had announced that the show would begin at either 7:30pm or 8pm. One of the advantages of sitting down was that we'd have the same view regardless of when we turned up, but after we had a brief glance at the merchandise and headed inside my heart dropped. Our seats were fucking awful. Absolutely miles away. And the room was just massive, easily appearing to be the size of the O2 Arena despite having half the capacity. If I recall, I'd gone for the more expensive seats and they'd looked alright on the website so I was not at all impressed. The support band Tegan And Sara were already onstage and were playing a completely forgettable set in front of a very basic stage. They looked like tiny ants in the distance and we had to turn left to see the whole show, whereas for the Manics we'd sat straight on, in the supposed cheap seats. They were too loud and I was generally too pissed off with our seats to try and engage with them, and the lack of video screens didn't help either. If it were up to me I'd had attempted to access the standing area, but it was already pretty rammed and there were many dozens of staff who seemed to be taking tickets off everyone who went downstairs, presumably barring you if you had a seated ticket. One of the few supposed benefits of sitting down is to avoid wankers pushing past you, but this show reminded me that this problem is actually much worse when seated as you are disturbed every single time someone wants to get in and out. Also as it's seated, more people feel they are entitled to come and go as they please, and there were even some fuckers who made us stand for ages as they argued over seats with the people on our left, before retreating once it emerged they were in completely the wrong block!
Once the support finished the lights were turned on, and much as at the O2 arena the room looked hazy and not at all attractive. It was bitterly disappointing to have waited so, so long to see The Killers and to know my experience would be undermined by my brother's idiotic choice to force us to sit down. Nevertheless, once The Killers came onstage I buried my frustrations and tried my very best to enjoy and engage with the show. Strangely enough the arena lights remained on as the band ambled onstage and launched straight into Mr Brightside, and I shot my first video. It was great how every single person leapt to their feet the moment they came onstage - knowing that you can only engage fully with a performance when you are standing - and apart from a few of the newer/quieter songs I remained standing for the duration. Interestingly enough as you are not propped up by other standing people and have less scope to move around you actually end up more tired this way, yet only a handful of saddos remained seated. Presumably the lights remaining on had been an error as they came down before the second song The Way It Was, which was the first of nine songs tonight from the Battle Born album. It's a point I've made many times before - and was proved right yet again tonight - that almost any band can easily play lots of new songs but still find room for each and every essential hit. Just three songs from Battle Born were omitted and I mentally listed ten songs which I considered to be essential to a Killers setlist. I was very pleased that all of them were present and correct tonight, but it would have been nicer if the b-sides had been more evenly spread across their career. Also they didn't play Sam's Town or Bones, which would have been numbers eleven and twelve on my essential tunes list. The teething issues were fully resolved by the time Smile Like You Mean It came around, as they'd started off with a low-key desert road banner but launched into a proper video screen set-up around now. The band were shown occasionally on the backdrop but the venue desperately lacked the side screens that form such an integral part of outdoor gigs and allow you to see what's going on clearly.
My second video was during Spaceman, which bellied its chart flop status - it had only entered at number 40 - and went down rather well, whereas Flesh And Bone unsurprisingly was the standout new track, ramming the point home by flashing the title phrase on the screen throughout as my video footage confirmed. That was pretty much the only song of the evening I find myself humming now as I write this up two weeks later. A few b-sides dropped the momentum before Miss Atomic Bomb impressed us with some explosive lights, next up Human went down a storm, and I shot a snippet for my fourth video. It's quite something when what is effectively a ballad can be considered a highlight, but it was clearly one that everyone had been waiting for. Somebody Told Me was prefaced by an unrecognisable intro but once they launched into it everyone started to pay attention, and Brandon had a keyboard handy especially to do his little electronic bit in the middle. Brandon certainly disappointed us by settling for a very dull black t-shirt, and he teased the front rows by going into the crowd and seemingly not touching anyone before heading back. Maybe he was getting a petty bit of revenge on England for hating fellow Mormon Mitt Romney with such a passion? It was also a bit sad to see people dancing right at the back near the bar, as if I'd had a standing ticket I wouldn't waste the show in an even worse viewpoint than we had. For Reasons Unknown went down well and was one of the few older lesser tracks, and I'm surprised to learn that it had been released as a single, albeit one that failed to make the charts. There was also a beautiful moment during Here With Me when everybody waved their phone lights in the air to create a sea of stars which I attempted to capture on video, and it was also good to hear A Dustland Fairytale. We were now in the business end of the set though and Read My Mind was followed by Runaways. More detail eludes me as they were pretty much just playing their songs as you'd expect to hear them on record, although some of the stage lights were pretty as you can see from the picture above. Also you can see from the above that there was an intriguing lightning bolt which adjourned the front of the stage. In fact I took loads of photos, but due to our obscene distance only a few turned out ok.
The main set finished with When You Were Young and I shot my final video. Brandon paid tribute to the crowd, commenting how amazing it is that he can travel just a few miles in England and the accents completely change. I made a mental note of what songs were still to come and was pleased that they didn't mess about in the encore, starting with Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine. This was followed by their greatest song, a tune mightier than all their others put together. I sung "ham", "hamster" as passionately as I could but by now it dawned on me that I'd waited so, so long to hear this live and it was just not the same to be so fucking far away from the action. Even a massive shower of confetti failed to make me feel any better, and the band screwed it up by following their definitive set-closer with yet another newbie. Battle Born was a strange choice for a finale but was certainly well suited to an introducing the band segment, which Brandon did with aplomb, announcing things like "you may have felt a strange rumbling in your loins tonight - don't be ashamed, that's just Mark Stoermer on bass." There were also two extra members who were introduced to us, and the extended ending gave each individual member a moment to shine. The show climaxed with some indoor simulation fireworks, which made up for missing out on the Bonfire Night celebrations outside, and the band left the stage after this one and only encore. Seeing as there was nowhere else for them to go - and they'd already outstayed their welcome by one song - I was happy to leave. The DJ interestingly chose to play When You Wish Upon A Star followed by Somewhere Over The Rainbow, giving a bit of a Flaming Lips vibe as we walked out. Not that this was on the same level. Not at all. I found time to scribble a few notes and we saw a bit of the MOBO awards in the hotel room, where interestingly the black criteria for entry seems to have been opened up to allow anyone who is absolute shite to win regardless of colour!
The moment of truth was waking up the next morning, a bit tired and with ears whistling but having already pretty much forgotten about the show. This was interesting, as my positive attitude once they came onstage had seemingly tricked me into enjoying it, but my feelings faded the minute the show ended. I don't recall feeling this underwhelmed or disappointed since the Stereophonics way back in 1999. The situations were similar in fact, as Stereophonics had also played an enormodome to the best of their ability, but I came out disappointed and thinking of other, better bands. Maybe a better venue and position would have helped but ultimately this was quite like how I'd felt after seeing Kasabian in 2009, feeling they'd done the best they could have done but simply weren't as good as other acts in my collection. In 1999 I had emerged from the NEC singing Super Furry Animals songs, and on this morning I found myself wanting to hear nothing other than The Stone Roses. They were undoubtedly the moment of my year and had lived up to all possible hype and expectation, so perhaps seeing them - and also Blur - had shifted my standards so much that The Killers were simply no longer good enough to compare. In an ideal world I'd had seen The Killers in their early days and may have fallen more deeply in love with their songs, but I will just never know. On the Sunday we wandered around the canal a bit as I wanted to see the Trent bridge, but the moaning by my brother made me turn back and we got some breakfast in a random pub before touring the caves underneath the shopping centre.
I had wanted to visit Woolton Hall nearby, or to stop at Derby for a quick visit to the cathedral, but my brother insisted we head straight back on the busiest train ever. As my feet were hurting and it was ultimately all for his birthday I didn't argue further. Interestingly I can see that The Killers varied their setlist quite a bit throughout the tour, even playing covers of Shadowplay and Don't Look Back In Anger for London. The real talking point though was that the two Manchester dates were cancelled as Brandon lost his voice a few songs into the first performance. I can't imagine how pissed off I'd had been if I'd gone up to Manchester to find the show had been cancelled, and even more so if the rescheduled date had been underwhelming. So yes, it certainly could have been worse. 2012 had been a pretty impressive year on paper for bands I'd never seen before. It's hard to complain when first timers for me included The Stone Roses, New Order, The Specials, The Killers and Editors, and on a lesser note also Tortoise, Beady Eye, Friends, Blood Orange, Savages, Spector and The Wailers. It may not have been the most cutting edge selection, but it means a lot to me to know I'm not just seeing the same stuff again, and if I could keep up this rate and quality I'd be able to see almost every band worth seeing in time for Future Day in 2015! The real question was if I'd want to see The Killers again? Ideally I was hoping to have a chance to see them at a festival when not everything is riding on them blowing me away, but actually decided to go for standing tickets for their 2013 show at Wembley Stadium instead. It pains me to have to award this show just 7.5/10 and I hope that the next time proves more enjoyable. I doubt they can play much better, and it's hardly their fault that they're so popular they have to play arenas and stadiums, but maybe a prime standing spot will make all the difference. Stay tuned to find out!
Mark: 7.5/10
The Killers
Support
Tegan And Sara
Where
Nottingham Capital FM Arena
When
3rd November 2012
Price
£42.50
Who with
Alex
Position
Seated, towards the back
Comments
It had been almost three months since my last gig and I was very excited by the prospect of finally getting to see The Killers after eight long years of waiting. The delay was mainly because they'd skipped the toilet circuit and immediately became insanely popular, and I had no desire to see them play a soulless arena date. As this was around my brother's birthday I thought I could offer this as a present, and that by avoiding Birmingham NEC we'd be going to a much smaller and generally nicer arena. Also as I had no proper photographic record of Nottingham from my Gogol Bordello visit in 2008 and had always intended to go back there this seemed to be the ideal opportunity. In fact this was the fifth date of the tour - following two nights in Birmingham - and before they headed north to Newcastle where a couple of my friends would be seeing them. I booked straight away without much fuss, although as I had to do it discreetly at work I couldn't study the seating chart as much as I'd had liked. Regrettably my brother was absolutely adamant on sitting down, but as we'd had a positive seated experience at Cardiff Arena in 2008 and the Millennium Dome in 2011 and as it was his birthday I didn't argue the point further. This was my second mistake, the first being the failure to research arena capacities a bit more. I can barely believe it, but Cardiff Arena holds just 2,500, and Nottingham Arena was four times that size, although still had 6,000 less seats than the NEC. Even if I had thought about it a bit more though, I'd enjoyed sitting towards the back at the 20,000 capacity O2 Arena and couldn't have guessed how different this one would feel.
Setlist
Mr Brightside
The Way It Was
Smile Like You Mean It
Spaceman
Flesh And Bone
Deadlines And Commitments
Heart Of A Girl
Bling (Confession Of A King)
Miss Atomic Bomb
Human
Somebody Told Me
Here With Me
For Reasons Unknown
From Here On Out
A Dustland Fairytale
Read My Mind
Runaways
When You Were Young
Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine
All These Things That I've Done
Battle Born
