The Sam's Town Tour was the second major concert tour by Las Vegas-based rock band the Killers. The tour took place throughout 2006 and 2007 in support of the band's sophomore studio album Sam's Town, released in September 2006, as well as the band's 2007 compilation album Sawdust.[1][2] The tour started on August 23, 2006 at the Celebrity Theater in Downtown Las Vegas, and ended on November 14, 2007 at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, playing over 150 shows in less than two years.[3][4] The Sam's Town Tour also saw the band play in countries like Brazil, Argentina, and Chile for the first time.[5][6][7]
The Sam's Town Tour was announced alongside Sam's Town's release date and track listing at a media gathering in New York on July 24, 2006. In the announcement, the band stated that they "will tour North America in October and begin a European jaunt November" and that they would be joined by Ted Sablay for the tour, stating: “[Ted] will be for us like Pat Smear was for Nirvana — he’ll play keys, guitar and sing a little bit. It will help us match the live versions a little closer to the album.”[8] The tour was re-announced to the public in August of that year, with pre-sale tickets going up on September 14, and the rest of the tickets going on sale the next day on Ticketmaster.[9][10]
A series of "warm-up shows" set to take place throughout August and September at smaller, intimate venues before the main tour had tickets quietly released in venue box offices in August.[11] Most of the tickets were released just days before, with some venues like the Popscene Theater in San Francisco labeling the band as a "special surprise guest" who, according to Popscene co-founder Aaron Axelsen, didn't have "their identity [...] disclosed until they took the stage at the very intimate confines of [the Popscene Theater]."[12]
The first warm-up show of the Sam's Town Tour took place at the Celebrity Theater on the Fremont Street Experience in Downtown Las Vegas on August 23, 2006. Songs such as "When You Were Young," "Read My Mind," and "For Reasons Unknown" were debuted live at the show, along with six others from Sam's Town.[13][14] "Uncle Jonny" was debuted live at the Popscene Theater the following day, while "Why Do I Keep Counting" was debuted live in Japan in January 2007, and "This River Is Wild" in Australia in February of that year.[15][16] The band played nine more warm-up shows throughout August and September, including the inaugural Virgin Festival in Baltimore on September 23.[17]
The Killers performing a warm-up show in August 2006.
The Sam's Town Tour proper started in October 2006 with back-to-back shows at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles on October 6 and 7.[18][19] The first North American leg of the tour, with bands such as Immigrant, the Envy Corps, and the Red Romance opening for the Killers on select dates, lasted throughout October and ended with a show at the Vegoose festival in Las Vegas on October 28.[20][21]
The previously announced European tour leg of the tour, whose tickets sold out in just 5 minutes, began in November, touring in countries such as Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, with bands such as Howling Bells, The Brakes, and The Rapture opening for the Killers.[22][23][24] The band further extended the Sam's Town Tour past the initial North American and European tour legs with a second North American leg in December 2006, a three-show run in Japan in January 2007, during which the official music video for "Read My Mind" was filmed, and an Oceania leg in January and February of that year.[25][26][27]
In February 2007, during a show apart of the second European leg of the tour, the Killers performed a cover of "Shadowplay" by Joy Division.[28] The song, covered by the band for the 2007 biopic Control, became a staple of live shows throughout the rest of the Sam's Town Tour, the Day & Age World Tour, and the Battle Born World Tour, and would later go on to be released as the first single from their B-sides and rarities compilation album, Sawdust, released in November of that year.[29][30][31] The band debuted the song "Tranquilize" from Sawdust on October 12, 2007, the same day the song was released as the second single from the album.[32][33]
The Killers returned to Europe in February and March 2007, being joined by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Mumm-Ra as openers, and performing in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the Netherlands.[34][35] The band rebounded back to North America for a run of shows in the United States and Canada in April and May 2007, before performing a plethora of festival dates across Europe in the summer of 2007, including Greenfield, Glastonbury, and Oxegen.[36][37] The band returned to North America in fall 2007, and then headlined the TIM Festival and Yeah Festival in Brazil and Argentina, respectively, as part of their first shows in South America.[5][6] The band played a string of five shows in Australia to close out the tour, which ended on November 14 at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne.[38]
The Killers' "Murder Trilogy", consisting of "Leave the Bourbon on the Shelf" from Sawdust, as well as "Midnight Show" and "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine" from Hot Fuss, detailing the fictional story of the murder of a girl named Jenny at the hands of her deranged ex-boyfriend, was played in full twice during the Sam's Town Tour.[39] The trilogy, which also marked the live debut of "Leave the Bourbon on the Shelf", was first played live on October 12, 2007 in Athens, being played in the show's encore.[40] The trilogy was then played again on November 11 in Sydney, again being played near the end of the show.[41][42] During both performances, the Killers performed "All These Things That I've Done" immediately following the trilogy, leading to speculation about its inclusion.[43]
Festivals
The Killers played at a number of festivals throughout the Sam's Town Tour. The band first headlined the Virgin Festival in September 2006, and later went on to headline Big Day Out in January and February 2007, and the Glastonbury Festival in June.[44][45] The band performed at a number of other festivals, including, but not limited to, Hove, Rock Werchter, Roskilde, V, and Austin City Limits.[46][47][48] The band also performed at festivals during their inaugural South American leg of the tour.[49][50]
Reception
The Sam's Town Tour garnered fairly positive reviews from critics. Christian Hoard of Rolling Stone magazine remarked that the Killers' concert at Madison Square Garden "might pack more unfortunate big-rock bombast than its new wave debut, Hot Fuss, but it shares a generous hook quotient and a Vegas-y talent for crowd-pleasing. Before a frothy crowd, the Killers proved they've become a tight live band."[51] Jeff Miller of Variety magazine reviewed the show at the Wiltern in Los Angeles, noting "the grand, sweeping epic reach of many songs [...] became a blessing live, with a stage show obviously designed for arenas mixing pomposity and intimacy."[52]Kitty Empire at The Guardian attended the Killers' show in Glasgow and reported that "Flowers has taken the icy feeling from the Killers' first album and thawed it out, opening up their previously airless club-bound sound to the elements. And they tackle bigger themes - Flowers' father's drinking, horizon-sized regrets and betrayals - with the same gusto as they once did pithy love-gone-wrong songs."[53]
The Killers performing in October 2006.
The New York Times assessed the Killers' show at Madison Square Garden, saying: "Although the band is from Las Vegas, it was drawn to the shameless artifice of British glam, new wave and the grander Britpop that followed it; with borrowed sounds, the Killers tapped into the gawky self-consciousness, the mixed yearning and irony, of adolescents grappling with grand passions," noting that "the Killers have learned their pop mechanics well: the pealing guitar lines, the big crescendos. Fans were singing along on all the older songs and some of the new ones, too."[54]The Los Angeles Times reviewed a performance during the Sam's Town Tour, stating that "Flowers grew a thick push broom worthy of that record’s grandiloquent Americana. Drummer Ronnie Vannucci one-upped him with a fearsome Fu Manchu, and bassist Mark Stoermer let his blond scruff run wild. That album’s unapologetic Springsteen-philia proved something of a critical brick."[55] In a review of a show at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, SFGate critiqued that "the Killers graduated into a proper arena band with an extremely sold out show at the Bill Graham Civic that left no grand rock 'n' roll cliche unturned" while also describing how "even as The Killers become the domain of backwards cap-wearing, beer-swilling dudes that high-five each other after every drum roll, singer Brandon Flowers still looks completely out of his league as the band's frontman."[56]
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