The Rebel Diamonds Tour is the seventh major concert tour by American rock band The Killers. The tour supports their second greatest hit album Rebel Diamonds (2023), which features select songs from each of their studio albums.
The tour began at the 3ArenainDublin on June 12, 2024 and is currently scheduled to encompass 29 dates across the UK, Ireland, Spain, Japan, United States, Canada and Mexico.[1][2][3][4][5]
The tour was announced in December 2023, ahead of the release of Rebel Diamonds, initially spanning ten concerts in arenas across the UK and Ireland.[6] This was later extended to 16 dates due to demand.[7] The band later added a number of dates in North America, as well as a number of festival performances in Europe, Japan and the United States.
This tour saw founding member and guitarist Dave Keuning return to perform live with the band, following his hiatus since 2017.[8]
The stage for the band's arena shows was diamond-shaped and carpeted to look like a casino. A light-up letter 'K', the band's logo, was positioned at the front of the stage, from which frontman Brandon Flowers frequently performed throughout the show; behind him were lead guitarist Dave Keuning, bassist Jake Blanton and rhythm guitarist Ted Sablay, and at the very back were drummer Ronnie Vannucci (centre-stage), keyboardist Taylor Milne (to Vannucci's right), and the three female backing vocalists (far stage right).[9] A large screen was positioned behind the stage, displaying visuals throughout the band's performances, and there were two large screens on either side of the stage.[10] Before the start of the show, the top of the stage had an old movie theatre-style board that read "Tonight: / The Killers / plus special guests / Travis", followed by the venue name, for the UK and Ireland leg of the tour.
During their show at London's O2 Arena on the 10th July, the band stopped their set midway through to show the final minutes of England's Euro 2024semi-final match against the Netherlands, which England won 2-1, on the big screens. When the final whistle blew, securing England's qualification to the final, red and white confetti was launched over the crowd, and the band immediately began playing "Mr. Brightside", whilst drummer Ronnie Vannucci re-emerged on-stage wearing an England football shirt. After the show, the band tweeted, "Tonight we played for England!", and the moment went viral on social media, as well as being reported widely in the national and international media.[11][12][13] Commenting on the moment on the News Agents podcast, journalist Emily Maitlis described "Mr. Brightside" as the "real national anthem" and argued that "that track now will be glued to that moment of football" in the English collective memory.[14]
The UK and Ireland leg of the tour received widespread acclaim from music critics.
Aidan McCartney of the Manchester Evening News gave the band's performance at Co-Op Live a five-star review, praising "the band's ability to deliver unexpected delights after all this time" and stating that they are "still at the peak of their powers twenty years on."[15] Writing for the i newspaper, Craig McLean noted that the band's set was shorter and more intimate than other similar artists touring at the same time in the UK, but nonetheless noted that "the band were in roaring form from the off", with particular praise for Dave Keuning's "exultant moves on his trapezoidal guitar" in a four-star review.[16] Reviewing the same Manchester concert as McCartney, Andrew Steel of The Yorkshire Post was similarly complimentary of the band's downsizing of the "relative... intimacy" of the band's arena performances in comparison to their stadium shows during the Imploding the Mirage Tour in 2022, claiming it allowed the band to appeal more to hardcore, as well as casual, fans.[17] Dave Simpson of The Guardian gave the band's Co-Op Live show four stars, commenting that the band "set the pace with a series of big hitters" and that frontman Brandon Flowers "comes over like a cross between a young Elvis Presley and a fairground compere".[18]
Lisa Wright of the London Evening Standard gave a five-star review of the band's first night in London on 4th July, calling Brandon Flowers "one of this century's great frontmen" and praising the show's production, stating that "everything about the production contained maximum world-building razzmatazz that turned the O2 into a stadium-worthy immersive extravaganza".[10]NME's Thomas Smith gave four stars to the second London show, with similar praise both of Flowers for "assum[ing] the role of gracious host, reminding the audience that he and his band are in the service industry, gleefully here to facilitate the best of times" and the "smart staging – diamond-shaped lighting and a garishly-patterned casino carpet."[9] Reviewing the band's show in Glasgow, David Pollock of The Scotsman gave a four-star review, calling Flowers "one of the modern music industry’s premier salespeople".[19]
The first set list was used on the tour's opening night in Dublin on June 12, 2024, and for subsequent opening nights in Manchester and Glasgow, as well as the band's fourth night in Manchester and second and fifth nights in London. It features "Read My Mind" as the opening song, and closes with "Mr. Brightside". The encore also features a cover of Erasure's "A Little Respect".[20]
On 10 July in London, the band stopped the show after "A Dustland Fairytale" to show the final three minutes of England's Euro 2024semi-final match against the Netherlands, which they won 2-1. Consequently, they played "Mr. Brightside" immediately after this moment rather than as the final song in the encore, removing "Be Still" from the set list entirely.[12]
The second set list was used on the band's second night performing in Dublin, Manchester and Glasgow, and their third and sixth nights in London. This set opens with "My Own Soul's Warning", which was used as the opening song during the previous Imploding the Mirage Tour, and closes with "Exitlude", the first time this song has been played regularly since the Sam's Town Tour in 2006-07.[23][24] An altered version of the set list was used for the band's opening night in London, opening with "Sam's Town".[25]
On 4 July in London, A heavily amended version of this set list was played to mark Independence Day, opening with "Sam's Town", "Enterlude" and "When You Were Young". "Human" was moved to the encore, played before "Mr. Brightside". "Spirit" was removed from the set list, and "Bones" was replaced by "Bling (Confession of a King)".[25] "Bling (Confession of a King)" replaced "Bones" again on 11 July in London.
On 7 July in London, "In Another Life" replaced "Pressure Machine" . On 26 June in Glasgow, "Pressure Machine" was cut from the set list entirely.
On 11 July in London, the band played "boy" and a cover of Erasure's "A Little Respect" before "Caution", and removed "From Here On Out" and "Spirit" from the set list.
^Maitlis, Emily; Goodall, Lewis (June 11, 2024). "The Democrats turn on Joe Biden". The News Agents (Podcast). Event occurs at 30:49. Retrieved June 11, 2024.
