By Anastasia Baker, Music Subeditor
With a name like that, perhaps you can’t not branch out of your era-defining band to take the stage alone, eventually. A quick Google search assures me that Brandon Flowers is actually his real name, and the reputation of the man precedes him - eight Brit Awards; five Grammy nominations; surely set to be inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in the coming years. We’ve all probably heard, too, that ‘Mr Brightside’ is in fact the longest-charting UK number one (a slightly annoying mainstay of a pub quiz) at a whopping 512 weeks, and all encountered that person that thinks The Killers are British because their music is just that ingrained into the country’s cultural consciousness.
All of this, though, is the collective effort of one of the most enduring bands in the history of, possibly, ever - so where do The Killers end, and where does Brandon Flowers begin?
We have great seats for the night: front row overlooking a great swarm of people, from the grey tint of their heads most likely ready to bask in the nostalgia the night promises. Flowers traipses onstage decked out in Western finery (detailed blazer and cowboy-adjacent buckle tie, with a general aesthetic objective of suaveness) and charges into his first song, straight from his most recent LP release THRASHER, ‘The Red Ground’. Although Flowers is a solo act, his band comprises nine members: guitarists and backup singers, a stoic bassist and even a harmonicist. The effect is that of an all-encompassing sound, dense and rich, everything levelled to radio-ready shininess.
The descending jangle of the guitar riff puts me in mind of swaggering cowboys and their horses, with spurs clinking against saddles and holsters bumping against beaten-up jeans. Flowers’ music is considered Americana-country fusion, after all, and I can’t argue with that categorisation.
My prediction seems to ring true: Flowers speaks of nostalgia almost immediately, crooning “take me back” in the chorus of ‘The Red Ground’. He maintains, impressively, a flowing narration between songs, harking back to the sun-bleached Nevada of his origin in which his family still resides, all doing what he would’ve done if he hadn’t experienced the “miracle” that is his musical career. He paints hypotheticals of his unlived life: serving at high-end restaurants on the strip, putting his easy charisma to different uses. He says these professions - server and singer - aren’t so different, though, as he checks in with the crowd: “Is there anything else I can do for you?”
The songs cruise along with twanging guitar lines and the yearning call of the harmonica, Flowers' delivery possessing all the vitality of a brand new day that, despite its hope and promise, must always come to an end. His music is bittersweet and worldly, yet a perfect snapshot of a place far, far from Bristol: "Cheerleader working the till," he sings with narrative prowess in 'Tiger's Blood', "She wants to get outta this podunk place so bad/She can taste the dream distill."
There is certainly a deeper level, then, to Flowers' music than I was perhaps expecting. Sonically, everything is playful and balanced, no rawness or ragged edges; but often, the lyrics are tinged with uncertainty: the restlessness of being young but also perhaps a regret in getting older, "And no one over thinks that they'll be lonely when they're all grown up."
We get some inside information as this is the first time, Flowers tells us, that they're playing a song from THRASHER's upcoming sister album. It's reportedly set for release in 2027, recorded in Nashville at the same time as THRASHER. 'A Good Man is Hard to Find' thumps along with single potential and this kind of retrospective, parable-esque quality which seems to be Flowers' forte.
Flowers is endlessly grateful to be onstage, something oftentimes lost to performers of such great stature and such long tenure; he is endlessly charismatic, too, and there is never a doubt in my mind that he isn’t enjoying every second of performance with an absolute sincerity as he parades around, flashes white American teeth and that overblown American confidence. This approach to musical performance as a public service is both endearing and perhaps a testament to the steadfast and star-studded nature of his success - by considering the audience with such care the show really is a curated spectacle, meant to entertain.
There are a few nuggets of Killers' greatness sprinkled into Flowers' solo act, namely 'When You Were Young', 'Quiet Town' and 'Read My Mind'. No doubt these songs have an extra power behind them: guitars once plucky and pinging are now kicked up to eleven, guttural with distortion, and the crowd is immediately in full voice. It's a feature of the gig that doesn't feel tokenistic; on the contrary, it's great that Flowers acknowledges the band as his musical origin, present and future. His solo project really does capture a different side to him, but never for a second does he begrudge the importance of The Killers in facilitating that.
A five-song long encore culminates in 'An American Dream' off THRASHER, full of delightful lyrical anachronisms: "Got picked up by Elvis in a Tesla Model X". The tension the song envisions between chasing that glittering dream of fame and fortune and excess or living simply and authentically feels very apt as the conclusion of tonight; Flowers seems to look back over his shoulder as he has the whole performance - without regret, but with curiosity in wondering what could've been, and he leaves us with a final lyric: "take me back home."
Have you heard any of Brandon Flowers' solo work?
