Review: The Killers don’t short-change ticketholders in St. Paul gig for Wells Fargo

Twice in his band’s latest exuberant Twin Cities concert Thursday night at the Palace Theatre, Brandon Flowers made it sound as if he were about to thank the corporate sponsor whose name was uniquely splashed all over the venue’s walls.

“We are the Killers, and we come to you tonight courtesy of… ,” the suavely suited frontman said near the beginning and end of the concert.

“Las Vegas” was what he said next each time, not “Wells Fargo,” the real entity to thank for Thursday’s sold-out gig.

The “Mr. Brightside” hitmakers — who call Sin City home — ventured into one of the few bright sides of the music business for rock bands nowadays and took on a well-paying promotional gig Thursday. Tickets to the show (a reasonable $75 before fees) were sold exclusively to holders of Wells Fargo’s Autograph credit cards.

Where most artists let certain card holders get early access to tickets, the Killers let certain card holders get the only access. Even resale options were strictly shut down.

As careful as Wells Fargo was about limiting entry — and as prominently as the company’s logo was displayed all around the 2,500-person building — its corporate footprint was nowhere to be found in the performance itself.

Flowers never mentioned the sponsor or circumstances behind the show. He treated it like an everyday gig.

Their set clocked in at their usual 90-minute mark. They opened and closed with two of their biggest hits, “Somebody Told Me” and “Mr. Brightside,” respectively. In between, the 17-song setlist picked pretty evenly between their seven albums, though with less emphasis on their 2020s-era records than at their two back-to-back shows in 2023 at First Avenue and Target Field.

For Flowers — who unabashedly and rather competently channels Bruce Springsteen and Bono in his songs and showmanship — a common gig is uncommonly high on drama, adrenaline and anthemic choruses. This one was no exception.

Despite wearing a tightly tailored suit that Bono wouldn’t dare to don nowadays, the lanky, clean-cut frontman cut loose with ostentatious gestures to the crowd and extra-animated singing early in the set during the especially E Street-flavored rouser “The Way It Was” and the night’s punkiest rocker, “For Reasons Unknown.”

His voice was strong all night, especially when he teamed up with the group’s relatively newish trio of female backup singers and landed some killer harmonies during the recent standouts “Caution” and “Runaway Horses” (which features Phoebe Bridgers on record).

This maybe wasn’t the best night for the band to wheel out its more Springsteen-esque, blue-collar storytelling songs about “a white trash country kiss” (“A Dustland Fairytale”) and “good people [who] still don’t deadbolt their doors at night” (“Quiet Town”). The cost of Flowers’ suit and the annual fee for the more high-end Autograph credit card could probably cover a half-year of rent for one of those songs’ subjects.

It was a perfect night for more playful, showy, Vegas-style glitz and glamor, and for the many call-and-response singalongs with the very responsive crowd. Those moments came during a brightly lit “Read My Mind,” the disco-y groover “The Man” and the ever-unbeatable zenith of every Killers concert, “All These Things That I’ve Done.” That one was complimented by a hard blast of confetti big enough to fill the band’s more standard concert setting in arenas.

Here’s hoping Wells Fargo is picking up the night’s cleanup bill, too.

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