My first concert in Spain – The Killers

Last night I saw my favorite band in concert, in Madrid! It was quite an experience.

I bought my ticket back in June, after I found out about the job. I didn’t buy my plane ticket until about 2 months later, and I didn’t know quite what my life would be looking like come September 15th, but I bought the ticket.

Yesterday was the show, and I arrived at the venue (Universidad Compultense) halfway through the band that was playing before The Killers. Being in a giant crowd of tens of thousands of people felt so familiar, but there were some things that were quite different.

The way the crowd sung along to the songs was different from what I’m used to. They love choruses that are just sounds, like “ohhh-yeah” or “do-do-do-do-do” because they’re so easy to sing along with! In general they know the words to the chorus but sometimes not the rest of the song unless it’s a favorite. When a song has a super-recognizable guitar line or bass line, they also sing along to that. And not just subconsciously like in the states, they full on sing like “bom bom bom” like it’s a chorus. At one point they were all singing along so loudly to the bass line in Jenny that Brandon started singing it too! I also think a lot of people were just making guesses at English sounds without knowing the actual words, because when the crowd started singing Read My Mind 2 lines before Brandon, I could barely understand what they were singing. It was also kind of cute to hear the Spanish accents during the parts when people knew what to sing. They went crazy for Shadowplay, but were very subdued for Smile Like You Mean It – probably something to do with how easy the choruses are to sing! They went crazy for Somebody Told Me, Runaways, and also When You Were Young (as usual).

Overall though, it was a very familiar and fun experience being in a crowd of tens of thousands of Spaniards, being a complete stranger to the city, while sharing the music of this amazing band with all of these people.

The Killers played an amazing set. It was so good to be able to see them live again after their long long hiatus. I was really happy when they played Dustland Fairytale, because it has one of my favorite lines ever that often makes me tear up – “So Cinderella don’t you go to sleep, it’s such a bitter form of refuge, don’t you know the kingdom’s under siege, and everybody needs you”. That line didn’t make me tear up this time, but a line in Read My Mind did – “I never really gave up on, breakin out of this two-star town, I’ve got the green light, I’ve got a little fight, I’m gonna turn this thing around”. I also somehow never noticed this line from This is Your Life before – “The sky is full of dreams, but you don’t know how to fly”. I feel like moving to Madrid has been my chance to fly and chase my dreams.

It was a fun, exciting, and soul-fulfilling concert. My trip home is another story, for another post…..