Imploding the Mirage Tour


Imploding the Mirage Tour


The Imploding the Mirage Tour is the sixth major concert tour by American rock band The Killers. The tour supports their sixth and seventh studio albums Imploding the Mirage (2020) and Pressure Machine (2021). The tour began at the Terminal 5 in New York City on August 19, 2021, and ended at Interlagos Circuit in Sao Paulo on December 2, 2023.

Background

The tour was initially announced in November 2019, with a series of stadium concerts in the UK and Ireland in May and June 2020. This was followed by announcements for multiple festival and arena shows across Europe in summer 2020. However, in April 2020, the band were forced to postpone the shows due to the COVID-19 pandemic, rescheduling them to summer 2021. Further pandemic restrictions forced the band to postpone the shows again in March 2021, moving them to summer 2022.

Following the announcement of the band's seventh studio album, Pressure Machine, in July 2021, the band also added a number of dates across North America between August and October 2022 to the tour. In November 2021, the band further extended the tour with dates in Australia and New Zealand in November and December 2022, alongside previously announced dates in April 2022 in Mexico.

The band's show in Manchester on 11 June 2022 attracted headlines after 67-year-old Doug James crowd-surfed to the front of the audience during the show and injured his head. Frontman Brandon Flowers embraced James after he was carried over the security barriers, and James later said it was “like his childhood [was] coming back” and it brought him “so much joy”.

Controversies

On August 15, 2023, the band apologised after inviting an audience member from Russia to perform on drums for "For Reasons Unknown" during their concert in Batumi in Georgia, the band's first ever show in the country. After inviting the audience member on stage, frontman Brandon Flowers asked the crowd, "We don't know the etiquette of this land but this guy's a Russian. You OK with a Russian coming up here?", which was greeted with a mix of boos and cheers. Flowers later responded to crowd discontent by asking, "You can't recognise if someone's your brother? He's not your brother?", which led to further booing and some fans walking out of the arena. The band later issued an apology on their social media pages, stating "it was never our intention to offend anyone" and recognising that Flowers' comments "could be misconstrued".

Critical reception

The tour received widespread acclaim from music critics.

Reviewing their second performance at the Emirates Stadium in London in 2022, Thomas Smith of NME awarded the band four stars, commenting that they strike the balance between "humble and grateful; bombastic and flashy" and that frontman Brandon Flowers has "Jagger-level bundles of energy and a similar magnetism". Smith particularly praised the additions to the set list from the Imploding the Mirage album. Jenessa Williams of The Guardian also gave the band four stars for their intimate warm-up show at the O2 Academy in Sheffield prior to the start of the UK and Ireland leg of the tour in 2022, noting that the band overcame issues with the venue's sound system and consequently that "tonight’s cage might not have been as grand as the Killers are used to, but with 20 years of practice and the crowd on their side, they’re still coming out of it with style."

These sentiments were echoed in reviews of the band's headline set at the 2023 Reading and Leeds Festivals. NME's Andrew Trendell called "Mr. Brightside" "a fitting showstopper of showmanship to a set that could run as a Vegas residency for the rest of time" in his four-star review of the performance. The i newspaper's Ali Shutler awarded the same number of stars in his review, remarking that "The Killers’ music remains universal and timeless" and praising the band's balance between "a sense of nostalgia" and "fresh-faced excitement".

Set list

This set list is representative of the show on May 24, 2022 in Doncaster. It is not intended to represent all shows from the tour.

Special guests

  • Alex Moore performed The Lathums’ "How Beautiful Life Can Be" with the band during the concert on 12 July 2022 in Vienna, and again on 16 July in Amsterdam.
  • Johnny Marr performed The Smiths' "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out", "Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before", "What She Said", "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want", "This Charming Man" and "You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby", as well as The Killers' "Mr. Brightside", frequently during the encore of the band's 2022 North American tour (where Marr also served as the band's opening act). Marr returned to play "This Charming Man" and "When You Were Young" with the band on 29 August 2023 in Edinburgh.
  • Lindsey Buckingham performed Fleetwood Mac's "Go Your Own Way" and The Killers' "Caution" and "Mr. Brightside" with the band during the concert on 27 August 2022 in Los Angeles.
  • Bruce Springsteen performed "Born to Run" and "Badlands" and The Killers' "A Dustland Fairytale" with the band during the concert on 2 October 2022 in New York City.
  • Mike Scott performed The Waterboys' "The Whole of the Moon" with the band during their headline performance at the Electric Picnic Festival on 3 September 2023.

Tour dates

Cancelled shows

Collection James Bond 007

Personnel

Credits adapted from LasVegasRoundTheClock and Consequence of Sound

The Killers

  • Brandon Flowers - lead vocals, keyboard, piano, bass on "For Reasons Unknown"
  • Dave Keuning - lead guitar, background vocals (did not appear on May 17 - June 22, 2022, returned to the tour on July 2, 2022 in Gdynia, Poland, absent in 2023 dates)
  • Ronnie Vannucci Jr. - drums, percussion, rhythm guitar on "For Reasons Unknown" (audience member on drums)

Additional musicians

  • Ted Sablay - rhythm guitar, lead guitar (May 17 - June 22, 2022 and 2023 dates), musical director, backing vocals
  • Jake Blanton - bass, backing vocals
  • Taylor Milne - rhythm guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
  • Robbie Connolly - keyboard, rhythm guitar, backing vocals
  • Erica Canales - background vocals
  • Melissa Mcmillan - background vocals
  • Tori Allen - background vocals, violin, rhythm guitar

Notes

References


Text submitted to CC-BY-SA license. Source: Imploding the Mirage Tour by Wikipedia (Historical)



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