Sunday, January 18, 2009

"You've Been Good Long Enough!"


After a chilly week of rehearsal in Vegas, staying at the legendary (and in dire need of demolition) Tropicana, the Killers have kicked off, as Pitchfork put it best, their gigantic and ever growing world tour in Denver yesterday. The tour schedule is only one of many things still growing for these lads.

Internationally chart-topping new album.
Check.
Bigger and badder, tiger striped, island themed, video wall equipped, pyro shooting, bubble bursting set.
Check.
Three tour buses and a how's-that-for-your-carbon-footprint fleet of six big rigs for equipment.
Check.

Again, referring to Pitchfork, it looks like I'll be all over the US, UK, EU, and OZ with the Killers for the next few months. One mild new year's resolution I'd like to keep is to blog more for SD Dialed In.

Let's begin.

As is usually the case, trying new food is the best part of touring. In Denver, a few of us stopped by the Buckhorn Exchange, supposedly Denver's oldest restaurant. Its specialty, game meat. Big game meat. The decor is, at first, alarming with an overwhelming variety of game trophies, everything from armadillo to zebra. I felt like I was at a taxidermy seminar. After alligator, rattlesnake, and duck appetizers, we followed up with buffalo, elk, ostrich, quail, and yak entrees. As a meat lover, I was in love. Especially with the elk. There's so much more to the world than just hamburger.





We had a warm up show in beautiful Boulder where I finally understood why so many kids from Torrey Pines decided to go to there. The monitor rig exploded halfway through and the crowd got a truly intimate moment with just Dave and Brandon singing into the room with a springtime-in-the-quad version of "Tidal Wave," a B-side on the new album. Yesterday in Denver, I suppressed my urge to stop, drop, and roll like they taught us in elementary school in order to preserve the rock-ness of the show even though I was convinced that I was on fire when they started the pyro show directly over my head during the encore. I ran as fast as I could off the stage to pat myself down. I'm fine, by the way.





So, today, I'm in Minneapolis after a 15 hour bus ride, complete with the requisite I-80 Iowa Truck Stop food run, enjoying the last night I'll have a hotel room to myself for a while. After Minneapolis, then Chicago and on and on like it says on Pollstar. One week away from Madison Square Garden! It's, like, totally dancer!

1 comment:

Helen said...

Hi Ray, great to read your blog & can't wait till you all come back to the UK. The new show sounds amazing! Just make sure that you don't eat anything too unusual that might upset your tum! Take care with those pyro's too :-)