Leaving Las Vegas: The Killers return to Hong Kong
From art rock darlings to stadium-filling rock gods, The Killers have taken the heady ride to fame in their stride, writes Charley Lanyon
HONGKONGERS ARE A forgiving bunch. It’s been three years since The Killers, one of the biggest rock bands in the world, cancelled their much-anticipated appearance in Hong Kong.
Now, The Killers are making good, with plans to appear at the AsiaWorld-Expo on September 24, and the excitement in the city is palpable. Band members are confident – to the point of nonchalance – that they won’t disappoint this time around. “We’re just going to get up there and do what we do,” says drummer Ronnie Vannucci Jnr over the phone from Los Angeles.
To say that The Killers are big is an understatement. In the past 12 years they have gone from a humble local indie band in Las Vegas to one of the biggest rock’n’roll acts on earth. They routinely pack stadiums and have sold more than 20 million records to date.
Still, they are an unlikely success story. First off, as we mentioned, they are from Las Vegas, a city whose name is as synonymous with cultural wasteland as it is with glitz and gambling.
Vegas is where big stars go to die, not where they are born.
Vannucci takes issue with the idea that Vegas is somehow lacking in culture.
It has lots of culture, he argues, just maybe not the type of culture we, as humans, should be proud of: “People go to Vegas to lose their minds, to wager their mortgage and their marriage. So, we saw a darker version of humanity.