KILLERS TRIUMPH AT HOMETOWN VEGOOSE FESTIVAL

The Killers headlined the Vegoose Festival over the weekend in their hometown of Las Vegas, and it’s even more meaningful knowing the band has released their sophomore effort Sam’s Town. Killers joined other performers on the festival: The Raconteurs, Fiona Apple, Ben Folds, Phil Lesh and Trey Anastasio, and Widespread Panic among others.

The two day festival actually started with smaller shows Friday night and culminated with a 10:00pm set by Widespread Panic. Ronnie Vannucci, drummer for The Killers, talked with us on-site about playing Vegoose.

“Vegas has always been somwhat of a struggle to become…to have some semblance of culture or any type of roots-type of movement besides building hotels and the gaming industry. It’s had its hits and misses, and it’s good to see that festivals like Vegoose are starting to make a little bit of a mark. And it’s nice to See Vegas become more of an established city to do stuff like that in, and it’s good to be a part of all — being that we’re from Vegas, and it’s hitting our hometown.”

The Killers are out on tour to support their new effort, Sam’s Town, which follows in the footsteps of Hot Fuss. The band talked about the pressure of making a second hit album.

“You know there’s always a lot of pressure, I think, for bands as long as they still care to do better. For us a lot of that pressure came from ourselves. The four of us run a pretty tight ship. We’re pretty big on quality control. So, I think that any other pressures that were outside the band were kind of superceeded by our own type of…our will to do better, write better songs, become a better band, and constantly try to improve upon what we do, and make things fresh and new again. So yeah that pressure is always going to be there because basically we still care.”

Hot Fuss featured several radio staples including “Somebody Told Me,” “Mr. Brightside,” and to a lesser extent “Smile Like You Mean It.” Killers will be taking off shortly after their set for a tour of Europe. The band will be overseas through November 30, winding the leg down in Dublin, Ireland.