The Killers

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Rolling Stone Live Featuring The Killers at Irving Plaza - June 20, 2005

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The Killers in Concert at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison -…

2010 begins with disappointment for fans of The Killers, who have announced their intention to take an extended break after finishing their current tour of Asia and Australia. Guitarist Dave Keuning said "I'm not sure if people are aware of it but these are probably our last shows for a while. We haven't had a break in quite a while. It's just been touring and making records and on and on and on. It's been just six years just kind of connected together." Keuning said he was looking forward to the prospect of spending more time with his son. "It's like people just expect us to do that non-stop before we die," he said, "but we just want a little bit of time off, just to be myself and do what I want to do for a little bit." The Killers' frontman Brandon Flowers recently denied rumors that he was planning a solo career, but he has yet to comment on his plans for the hiatus.

The Killers aren’t the first American band to struggle to make it big on home turf after cracking the European market, but their excuse for homeland ambivalence to their particular brand of rock is a little hard to swallow. Speaking to press during their North American tour, frontman Brandon Flowers said, ‘We’ve been embraced in Britain in a way that I’ll never understand, and it’s such a wonderful thing, but over here, people are still so obsessed with Led Zeppelin and Nirvana, those sorts of bands, that nobody else is allowed. It’s not just us; there are a lot of great bands that have been held down or confined by the influence of these people that we’ve put up on pedestals. I’m tired of it, you know? I just want to knock them all off!” Fighting talk indeed, but the only action that really counts is releasing good music that people want to pay to listen to - and plenty of rock bands who don't sound like Led Zep or Nirvana have succeeded. With almost five million US album sales already, from three record which all hit the Top 10 on the Billboard charts, The Killers aren’t exactly doing badly; but it looks like only total chart domination is going to satisfy them.

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