Pomp rockers and stateside U2 inheritors the Killers play Orlando this week, with not one but two albums’ worth of new material to rip through for the faithful. The band will be showcasing both 2020’s Imploding the Mirage and newest album Pressure Machine, out last month. Pressure Machine, written during the pandemic shutdown, focuses in thematically on frontman Brandon Flowers’ childhood hometown of Nephi, Utah.
“During COVID-19, it started to feel like we were all in the middle of nowhere,” said Flowers in a press statement. “I dis- covered this grief that I hadn’t dealt with. Many memories of my time in Nephi are tender. But the ones tied to fear or great sadness were emotionally charged. I’ve got more understanding now than when we started the band, and hopefully, I was able to do justice to these stories and these lives in this little town that I grew up in.”
Aside from repressed trauma set to soaring riffs, there’s some damn good news in the form of the touring opener: Smiths and Electronic guitarist Johnny Marr, the Dorian Gray of Britpop.
This article appears in Sep 7-13, 2022.