The Killers kicked off a two-night stand at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, New York, on Saturday night by honoring another band that played the same venue 60 years earlier.
“Some of you might know the history of the place,” Killers frontman Brandon Flowers told the crowd. “Obviously there were some amazing tennis matches that took place here. When we think about that historic Beatles performance at Shea Stadium, that was in 1965. But in 1964, 60 years ago, the Beatles did two nights here at Forest Hills. We thought that we would pay our respects. I don’t think there’s a person here that wasn’t influenced by them in some way or another. Here you go.”
The Killers then played “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” which they’d never before covered in concert. (They had done “Helter Skelter,” “Get Back,” “In My Life,” “Michelle,” and “When I’m Sixty-Hour” at various points in the past.)
“I Wanna Hold Your Hand was an historically accurate pick. When the Beatles performed at Forest Hills Stadium on August 28 and 29, 1964, it was in the set both nights. But a more important moment took stage offstage after the first show when Bob Dylan visited them at the Delmonico Hotel on Park Avenue and introduced them to marijuana, which they all credited with drastically opening up their minds, and setting them down a path towards more experimental music.
The lineup at Forest Hills Stadium in the summer of 1964 also featured Barbra Streisand, Joan Baez with special guest Bob Dylan, Harry Belafonte with Miriam Makeba, Johnny Mathis, Trini Lopez, Count Basie, and Woody Allen, all in a span of about six weeks.
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The Killers show took place just a little over two weeks past the exact 60th anniversary of the Beatles shows. In addition to “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” they also played Erasure’s 1988 classic “A Little Respect” and a long string of their own hits, including “Somebody Told Me,” “Read My Mind,” “All Things Things That I’ve Done,” “When You Were Young,” “Human,” and, of course, “Mr. Brightside.”
They play the Forest Hills Stadium again Sunday night, and then take a two-week break before headlining the Ocean Calling Festival in Ocean City, Maryland, on September 28. The band heads off to Mexico in October before journeying to Australia in late November to cap off the year.
