nic at night

Last night, to kick off the summer right, we went to see the Killers with one of Dana's coworkers. The show was at Merriweather, an outdoor ampitheatre about an hour out of town in Columbia, MD, and because we're old we bought seats in the pavilion and arrived just in time for the end of the 3rd opening band. It wasn't clear if the event was supposed to be in the festival vein, with all the bands of similar standing, or if there were just 4 opening sets (our interpretation of choice).

At any rate, the lineup was geared for the young. The ratio of teenagers to adults was something like 14:1, with the ratio of parents to non-parents at something like 100:1. So there we were, an island in a sea of screeching youngsters and their chaperones.

Thankfully, the show itself was good. I was a bit worried that the new-new-wave post-post-punk sound wouldn't translate well to a live show, but these boys from Vegas had a lot of energy and the singer came through with a surprisingly robust voice. The screams of "We love you, Brandon!" from the row(s) behind us added quite a bit of excitement to the event as well. The kitsch of the whole thing appealed to us older fans, as the stage set was straight out of Vegas, with plush red velvet and rhinestone style lights blinking out their name. And, I must say, you also had to be d' âge certaine to be able to appreciate the way the band's cigarillo pants made them look like the Monkees.

With the exception of a small dehydration-related meltdown leading to the pumping of three times its worth in quarters into a rest-stop vending machine to obtain one 500ml bottle of water, the trip back to the city was pleasantly uneventful as well.