Magic Jewball

Last night, KP and I went to go see The Killers at the Theatre at Madison Square Garden. Now, I’ve seen The Killers before and it was free. Well, actually it was $30 round trip on the Fung Wah bus to Boston since I saw them (with Interpol opening) at a WFNX show. But since I went with NewMother Jan, I consider the $30 as the cost to see her, and the show as being free. But this time I bought the tickets before the CD came out and you know how that is. New CD! Accompanying show! This is the kind of thing that induces you to pay $65 to see a band that used to be free.

I think the thing that struck us most about the show was how clean and fresh the whole place was. It didn’t really feel like you were at a rock show. Have you seen this venue? CBGB’s it ain’t. People were drinking cocktails with glow sticks in them. Plus, there was no pot smell at all. In fact, it kind of smelled like Bath & Body Works. As KP remarked, “this is the only show I’ve ever been to where people are moisturizing between sets.”

But it got more bizarre, because at some point this family arrived from a distant planet to sit right in front of us. It was a thirty-something guy, his 5 year old kid (holding a bag that said “Happy Birthday”) and a woman who was either the thirty-something’s elderly mother or else maybe his cleaning lady. We weren’t sure. Right after the band went on, though, the woman lit up a joint and proceeded to rock out, I kid you not. Then her son (or employee) pulled out a video camera and videoed the whole show (while singing along) and only took breaks to let the little boy do some filming. Because illegal videoing is a family affair, naturally!

To our right was a passel of five jock type guys who seemed to be playing a game where only four of them could be seated at any one time. So every few minutes another one would shift back past us and then yet another would leave. It was a little distracting. Well, KP and I were busy as usual cracking each other up like the 12 year olds we are, so maybe we were in fact distracting them. But come on, you gotta laugh at “Play ‘Touch Me I’m Dick!” OK, maybe it’s just me.

But it was a decent show even though for the second time now they avoided playing “Believe Me Natalie.”  And now that they have two albums they could play for longer than an hour. Not that they did by much. But I’m sure next time they come the tickets will be $125 and I’ll look back at this as the good old days. Or maybe I’ll just go to the mall and listen to “Believe Me Natalie” on my iPod at Bath & Body Works and forget the whole thing.

By the way, if you’ve ever seen The Killers live, do you think Brandon Flowers thinks he’s sexy? Maybe a little bit? Nah.

 

The Killers – Believe Me Natalie