See you down the front

There’s a fine line between epic and overblown.

Remember when the Lord of the Rings films first came out and you thought `Wow!’ and then the extended versions arrived and you just thought `Boring’?

That’s how easy it is to overstep the mark.

This show, however, was epic in the good way. In scale, in power, in volume and in excitement – it was pushing all the meters into red.

But it never tipped over.

The Killers don’t pad their set or individual songs with lengthy jams or pointless solos. They don’t wander through the backwaters of their catalogue. They just pull the pin out of the grenade and blow up.

Now if you’ve heard their last couple of recorded offerings you might be forgiven for thinking that this isn’t the same band you’ve been listening to you – and you’d be right.

They share a similar career path to Oasis in that they started off with a bang, got bigger, and then began to record less and less satisfying albums with a couple of great tunes that work really well live.

But if the albums are occasionally inspid, the live show is anything but.

Of course it helps when your choice of set closer is between three songs that virtually every other band out there would give their right arm for.

They finished the main set with the double whammy of All These Things That I’ve Done followed by When You Were Young.

The encores closed with Human and Mr Brightside which they began as a pulsing dance track in a segue from the previous song and then kicked in with the familiar riff that has lit up a million indie nights, weddings and birthday parties over the last decade.

Earlier they included a cover of Black’s Wonderful Life with Brandon accompanied only by their touring guitarist Ted Sablay. Sablay’s addition, together with bassist Jake Blanton as replacement Killers for long-time members Dave Keuning and Mark Steurmer – who were sitting the tour out – made little discernible difference to the overall package..

Songs off the new album were much punchier with The Man a real standout, and the old favourites like Smile Like You Mean It were all present, correct and shinily vibrant.

As an arena show this was hard to fault. Luckily there won’t be a Director’s Cut.