Cereal Monogamist

Tally of accomplishments, vol. 6

I had to postpone writing the Killers day-after review for a couple days because I had work left to be done. Of course. My grades were submitted around 3am early Friday morning, and I submitted my ABET assessment (it has to do with engineers; it’s boring; you don’t care about it) yesterday afternoon around 4. Since then, I’ve just been letting it all sink in. Case is done. Case is done until late August.

Except for studying for my MA exam. I’ll be doing that all summer. Shout out to Spenser’s The Fairie Queene! Yeah, man!

Anyway, now that I’m at my leisure...the Killers!

The concert was fantastic (here's the review from the Cleveland Plain Dealer), and I had an awesome time, as did Jeremy. He was more or less there on boyfriend duty, not really expecting to care very much, but he’s a sucker for high-drama pop music just like I am (his all-time favorite band is Queen, for crying out loud) so the music drew him in.

The venue was the Time Warner Cable Amphitheater (hey, remember when public theaters and arenas could be named after millionaires of a previous generation instead of corporations?) at Tower City. We weren’t quite sure what to expect there, and all we could get on the Internet was this picture:

What we found there was a concrete slab with a ring of concession stands around it and a massive tent structure overhead. It’s situated on the bank of the Cuyahoga River, and to get to it you have to navigate a bunch of narrow service roads which ride in and around ghost town steelyards. Very interesting experience.

Concerts there sometimes have seating, but ours was standing room only. We were kind of apprehensive about that much continuous standing, and it was fairly painful by the end (I wore heeled boots and Jeremy’s got a prior ankle injury), but I’ve got to say, I think standing made the experience better. Just based on previous concerts I’ve been to, I feel a bit more passive when I’m sitting down—and even though I may stand over my seat for a good song, I’ll usually take it again when I start to feel lazy (which happens very quickly). At the Killers, everyone in the place was singing and dancing, and the fact that we literally had no where else to put our bodies had to be a big part of that. Early on, people were milling around leaving plenty of personal space for the people around them, but when the Killers came on everybody sucked in like we’d been vacuum-packed. At one point I was clapping over my head and realized I didn’t have enough room to lower my arms.

It was hot and it was elbowy and it was loud and it was everything that’s awesome about a live concert. I wouldn’t want to go to one every night, but every once in awhile it’s just what the doctor ordered; lose myself in some mayhem and music. (I say mayhem like I was seeing the Stones in ’68 or something. The audience at the Killers was Jeremy, me, and 5000 tweens.)

The music was great. I don’t know the most recent album as well as I know the first two, and the crowd seemed to follow a similar pattern, but the Killers knew that, and they padded out the set with tons of the old hits. They last two songs were “Mr. Brightside,” which segued right into “All These Things That I’ve Done” without a pause in between—that was a real high point to go out on. (The three encore tunes followed them, of course, but they were well-chosen and anyway, the last song was accompanied by a shower of sparks, so it was gonna get a great reception anyway.)

The band had great energy, the lead singer Brandon Flowers is adorable, and it was just fun as hell. A great way to spend a Wednesday night, if you can.