Brandon Flowers, Glasgow review: 'rootsy reverie'
Killers frontman Brandon Flowers proved himself the soul of country at this Glasgow show, writes Fiona Shepherd
Brandon Flowers, Academy, Glasgow ★★★★
Killers frontman Brandon Flowers is known for his love of British indie and new wave music but he’s got a new (old) jam for his latest solo album, Thrasher. “I can like Franz Ferdinand and Johnny Cash,” he told his adoring public at this sold-out hoedown. Flowers as country singer? Better believe it. The act of revisiting his father’s favourite music – particularly the outlaw country greats – has sent him spinning back to his small-town Utah upbringing where “Mormon wives was just what we called our friends’ moms” and awakened his poetic storytelling instincts.
Flowers is doing this properly with a generous nine-piece band crammed together on a stage which can barely hold them. The sound was big, booming and rich, with additional mariachi soul in opening number The Red Ground. The fine baritone country delivery of Plans suited him down to the dirt ground, while lyrically he captured the regret, ache and rumination on life which is so ingrained in country music. The rueful Angel and the rollicking Magdalena were characterised as “the road to ruin and the road back”, while the affecting ballad Miss America was dedicated to his older beauty queen sisters.
Occasionally, the rootsy reverie was broken as he reverted to the blaring pop of other corners of his catalogue including, to the wild delight of the crowd, a scattering of Killers songs such as a rip-roaring When We Were Young. Crossfire, from his debut solo album Flamingo, was retrofitted with mellifluous steel guitar and Lonely Town, from follow-up The Desired Effect, manifested as an upbeat Blue Nile.
He kicked off the encore with a trio of Killers cuts, singing the heck out of All These Things That I’ve Done but, true to the spirit of his current incarnation, he ended the show on slowburn country epic An American Dream. It would be no bad thing if he chased that dream a bit further.
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