Brandon Flowers plays the Wiltern
Brandon Flowers once declared with his breakout band The Killers, "I've got soul, but I'm not a soldier." With the acclaim and success of his solo album, alongside sold out tour stops across the country, it is apparent Flowers did not lie when he said he'd "got soul."
On Tuesday night, "Mr. Brightside" performed a show at the Fox Theatre in Pomona; one of two southern California dates for his solo trek in support of his album"Flamingo."
Jenna Berg drove out from Calabasas for the show. She eagerly said, "I love him with The Killers, love him solo, whatever he does."
Opening act Fran Healy entertained the crowd for the first hour with an acoustic set. Making jokes and telling stories in between songs, it was a good way to get the evening started.
When the lights went down shortly after Healy's set, it was Brandon's time to grace the stage. Wearing slim black pants, a black button up and suspenders, he opened with "On the Floor" while props from the "Flamingo" album adorned the stage.
"Crossfire," the second song and lead single off his album, got everyone in the theatre to stand, and it remained that way for the rest of the night.
Four songs into his set, Flowers did a great cover of the 1981 hit by Kim Carnes, "Bette Davis Eyes."
The catchy guitar riff boosted the intensity of "Jilted Lovers", as he strode confidently from one side of the stage to the other.
A native of Henderson, Nevada, he told the audience how growing up he used to love seeing the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign en route to sin city. "I still get butterflies when I drive past that sign," mentioned Flowers prior to performing the song of the same name.
Halfway through, Flowers performed "Losing Touch," a Killers' song from their 2008 release "Day and Age."
For an encore, he opted to go with a bonus track off his record called "The Clock was Ticking," a storytelling track with a cheerful western vibe and melancholic lyrics.
He closed the show with an acoustic version of the Killers' classic, "When You Were Young." It would be surprising if anyone in attendance hadn't known the words to the song, since the sound of the audience's voices singing along almost drowned out his own.
Although brief, the hour-long set he gave left many fans satisfied. Those anticipating to hear the songs off his solo release got to see him perform all ten tracks. People who went hoping he would do some stuff from the Killers got just that.
Intimate and unpretentious, the spectacle was not in the props or outlandish outfits but rather in the music itself. Flowers may have claimed he wasn't a soldier, but he's definitely at the forefront of any battles.