Killers playing to win

Fear is a band’s best friend.

At least that’s the philosophy of Brandon Flowers, singer of the Las Vegas-based neo-post-punk quartet the Killers.

“We are scared to death of this all going away,” he said, sitting in an office Wednesday in the old bank building catacombs that now house the Vault 350 club in Long Beach. “It is great motivation.”

The “this” he fears losing is manifest in the crowd that’s packed in a floor above waiting for the show; the acclaim for the group’s 2004 debut album, “Hot Fuss,” which got the Killers on the cover of Spin’s “Next Big Things” issue in February; and other trapping of a surging, though still nascent, career.

With three shows this weekend at the Wiltern LG and a new video for the anthemic song “All These Things That I’ve Done” (shot by Anton Corbijn, video director for U2 and Depeche Mode) about to hit the airwaves, the rise is only accelerating and the stakes increasing.

It’s not deer-in-the-headlights fear, though. It’s keep-you-on-your-toes fear. And it’s clearly working. Flowers, just 23, was a remarkably confident young man as he chatted before the show, certain of his own abilities without seeming cocky -- and the kind of guy who could pull off wearing a black suit with a tie covered in little round mirrors without seeming affected.

And it was even more the case on stage Wednesday, where Flowers and his bandmates came off as comfortable yet certain in their abilities, willing to take some chances with their music and knowing that if they play their cards right, they have a solid future.

The opening “Jenny Was a Friend of Mine” laid out the band’s essential blueprint: Mark Stoermer’s powerful bass lines echoed Duran Duran and New Order. Frizzy-haired Dave Keuning’s alternately choppy and fluid guitar drew on early U2 as well as Duran, while U2 was again present in Ronnie Vannucci’s martial-precision drumming. And Flowers’ vocals and synthesizer solo both recalled early Depeche Mode.

That basic model puts the Killers squarely in the camp of such contemporaries as England’s Franz Ferdinand and New York’s Interpol. But throughout the show it was clear that this band has peered further back in rock history, with hints of David Bowie and Queen emerging in song structure and, on at least a basic level, showmanship that also owes something to its Vegas roots, celebrated in the red-and-black scheme without seeming kitschy.

Songs from the album that’s sold 1.5 million copies were roughened and intensified, particularly the modern-rock-radio staple “Somebody Told Me,” though never at the expense of solid hook appeal in the choruses. Several new songs and B-sides expanded the range and pointed to some new directions, and the unreleased “Indie Rock ‘n’ Roll” injected a winning sense of humor that mocked the band itself and current trends.

Flowers may not be quite the dynamo Bono is, nor did the set exhibit the kind of emotional/spiritual/cultural reach of a Bowie or U2. But there was an assured presence that could serve well as the band moves up to bigger settings. Even a backward tumble over a monitor during “Mr. Brightside” didn’t seem to faze Flowers.

While the Killers’ members have clearly done their homework on the music of their role models, more important, they’ve thoroughly studied the heroes’ career trajectories. And while Flowers says he’s happy to be part of a vibrant scene of new bands, the goal is to transcend that scene.

“Grunge happened in the early ‘90s, and all I can tell you about from that is Nirvana and Pearl Jam,” he said. “Labels today are rushing to sign bands like us. Two or three or four will last. And I hope we’re one of them.”

And to do that?

“It’s about staying competitive, and you’ve got to be able to change,” he said. “The Beatles changed but never lost the appeal. I love David Bowie -- love ‘Ziggy Stardust’ and ‘Hunky Dory’ and the Thin White Duke suits and the clown suits. I love all of them.

“We’ve already changed,” he said. “Our new songs have more harmonies, are more organic in the music. We don’t always want to be known as a keyboard band.”

Plans for a second album are underway, with sessions set to start in October. U2 producers Flood and Steve Lillywhite as well as Tony Visconti (who was behind many of Bowie’s classic recordings) are set to participate.

The competitive spirit leads Flowers to view other bands in the scene more as rivals than as peers, though. Most famously, he recently engaged in a war of words with New York band the Bravery, claiming that the latter got a record deal (with Island Records, also the Killers’ label) only because of the Killers’ success and accusing the Bravery of being fake.

Bravery singer Sam Endicott replied in kind with the tiff taking on tones reminiscent of the ‘90s battles between Brit-pop leaders Oasis (another of Flowers’ favorites) and Blur. On Wednesday, Flowers didn’t want to fan the flames, but he also didn’t take back anything he’d said.

“I was grateful other bands opened the door,” he says. “Without White Stripes and the Strokes, we wouldn’t have a deal. And without us, the Bravery wouldn’t have a deal. That’s it, really. But maybe the controversy will get people talking.”

Of more concern to him are other current bands that he views as real competition.

“I try to use other bands as motivation,” he said. “I don’t want them to be good. Arcade Fire, the Strokes -- if they have a good album I want to cut my wrists!”

He’s kidding ... a little.

“It’s healthy competition,” he said.

“When the last Strokes album came out, they raised the bar about 10 feet. We had eight songs and threw out six. Our album’s better for it.”