Stellastarr @ Cockpit
By Cathy Simpson
The Killers are from Las Vegas - that place where celebrities go to get fat, legendary and dead. This in itself should be enough to make you want to go see them but if you want more encouragement there's the fact that they have a battery of fantastic, up-tempo, future indie-disco classics and more on-stage charisma than Timberlake, Connery and Elvis combined - and trust me, that's damn charismatic.
The band provide the sweetest of ear candy (and eye candy for that matter, ladies) with songs that are simultaneously as sparkly and sleazy as the Sin City itself. Tracks such as Mr Brightside, Jenny Was a Friend of Mine and new single, Somebody Told Me are Cure-esque, guitar driven pieces of glam pop brilliance, laced with shooting space-age synths and topped with Brandon Flowers' smooth, soaring, screeching vocals. Fantastic.
Stellastarr* played their layered-up rock set with style, but it lacked the undeniable magnetism of the Killers. The band have courted a deliberate distance from the New York scene which has lent them the accolade of individuality in an increasingly copycat market place, they represent an alternative to the Strokes, the Yeah Yeah Yeah's and all their faux-offshoots and that can only be a good thing. What's more, when the band drop their sound right down to bass and drums then build it back up to a polyphonic audio triumph it is difficult to stop the goosebumps.
The set highlight comes in spiky single Jenny, which got an enthusiastic response, but the evening really belonged to their support. The Killers may not have released an album yet but they still rocked the Cockpit good and proper - if Vegas sounds this good I want a shotgun Elvis wedding!
