Brandon Flowers at the Stone Pony December 2, 2010
It’s always an interesting thing to see a lead singer of a band perform a solo show…especially when the band is still together.
Brandon Flowers when he released his solo album Flamingo, had fans buzzing on whether or not the Killers had broken up, especially when the album itself could have easily been a Killers album.
And there’s always intrigue on how many, if any, songs from the band the singer will do in a live show..
Brandon played for a tight 65 minutes at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, which ironically was as long as an encore at a Springsteen concert. He paid homage to the Boss with an inspired cover of The Promised Land (footage below). He did play 2 Killers songs, “Losing Touch” in a similar arrangement and a stripped down version of “When you were Young” to end the show.
It was a treat to see a guy who with his band last year headlined a sold out Madison Square Garden in a small legendary club. Unfortunately, his staging and sound set up did very little to keep the Pony intact, whether it was some garish gold drapery that served as a backdrop, covering completely the iconic Stone Pony horse or the obnoxiously huge soundboard (which would have sufficed for a stadium) taking up half the floor of the small club.
It was a great show and for a guy like me who’s used to 3 hour Pearl jam and Springsteen shows, I was a little taken aback by 65 minutes at first. But as I let the show sink in, it bothered me less, Brandon played 11 songs off his solo album, had the wherewithal to understand where he was playing and gave us a Bruce cover (Philly, the previous show had “Bette Davis Eyes” as the cover) and did do the two Killers songs. If he played longer I guess maybe he could have done another stripped down reworking of a Killers song or two or even a few more covers, but that is just nitpicking on my part.
The true frustration of this show is that the Flamingo album has some great songs that are not getting the proper attention such as “Jilted Lovers and Broken Hearts” and “Magdelena”, these are hit songs and I’m shocked that the label or whoever hasn’t made it happen for either if not both of those songs.
Here’s the setlist from the show and the full video of the Springsteen song…
On the Floor
Crossfire
Magdalena
The Promised Land (Springsteen)
Jilted Lovers & Broken Hearts
Welcome To Fabulous Las Vegas
Was It Something I Said?
Hard Enough
Losing Touch (killers)
Swallow It
Only the Young
Playing With Fire
The Clock Was Tickin’
When You Were Young (killers)
Anything, Anything