![]() ![]() “ Trees are your best friend because you can hide behind them when a rock bouncer gets out of control, which isn’t uncommon” he says. And no, that advice wasn’t given by a tree-hugging hippie with a curly fro, it was from the veteran videographer from MadRam11, the media leader in all things that involve 600+hp machines, big-ass vertical rocks, and mayhem… emphasis on mayhem. But we can’t wait to get back on stage.“ Trees are your best friends” was the first bit of advice for my inaugural assignment with Car and Driver. And now it’s starting to darken a little bit. “We were pretty optimistic a couple of months ago. “Fingers crossed that we can keep making advancements and people will get vaccinated, and we can turn a corner,” said Flowers. They’re also due to play the Firefly Music Festival in Delaware and the Sandjam Music Festival in Florida. 21 to celebrate New York City, performing alongside Paul Simon, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen, LL Cool J, Elvis Costello and Earth, Wind & Fire. The Killers are scheduled to be part of the mega-concert on Aug. ![]() ![]() The outlook once bright at the beginning of summer is less optimistic. This is an unsure time for the concert industry, with COVID-19 vaccination rates slumping as the highly contagious delta virus variant sweeps the nation. The band is kicking around ideas, from separate concerts - “you could do one gig at the enormo-dome and then next door at like Pete’s bar for the smaller songs,” said Vannucci - to building a smaller stage for “Pressure Machine” songs. “So we’re not sure exactly how that’s going to work.” “These are much more laid back and there’s a lot of restraint on these new songs,” said Flowers. “Pressure Machine” comes a year after The Killers’ last album, “Imploding the Mirage,” and means the band has put out two albums that they haven’t been able to play live for fans.īut “Pressure Machine” puts some pressure on the band to find a way to incorporate its slower, more introspective songs into a set list that usually features sonic bombast and sly humor. “It was such a last-minute decision, and I’m really grateful that we did it.” “It became just as important as the instrumentation to have these interstitials and these people speaking and sort of inviting you into this place,” said Flowers. One man talks about spirits in the hills, and a woman recounts a horrific accident to a horse. “The beautiful thing about this record is that it is universal, it does speak to a lot of people.”Īdding to an almost journalistic feel is that threaded throughout the album are recorded snippets of interviews with townsfolk made for the band during a recent one-day stop in Nephi. “I don’t think you have to be or even know about this town to get it,” said Vannucci. While Flowers’ portraits of hopeless dreamers, morally dubious police officers, kids’ feet dangling in the stream, dissatisfied husbands and devoted church-goers is very specific, it can speak to many. The first line of “Quiet Town” begins with “A couple of kids got hit by a Union Pacific train” and later has an image of parents weeping at eulogies: “With their daughters and sons/Laying there lifeless in their suits and gowns/Somebody’s been keepin’ secrets.” The song that emerged - “Quiet Town” - is like something from Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska” in its sympathetic yet clear-eyed look at a small town and their sorrows. All these years later, he was stunned that the incident carried such strong emotions when he began writing. ![]() When Flowers was in eighth grade, some high school seniors were killed by a train. “Most of these are actual characters that I grew up with or experiences that happened during my time in Nephi,” said Flowers, who was influenced by Sherwood Anderson’s “Winesburg, Ohio” and “Pastures of Heaven” by John Steinbeck. The songs are told from the perspective of various townspeople, examining everything from “hillbilly heroin” to homophobia, strained marriages, failure and depression. And it was our job to sort of build around that and create a home for it.” “It was our first time not being ashamed to say the words ‘concept album,’” said drummer Ronnie Vannucci. ![]()
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