Vegas rockers the Killers have just released a new single but their 2004 debut, Mr Brightside, is remarkably still in the charts, having clocked up 326 weeks in the Top 100. What’s the hot fuss about this anthem of overcoming betrayal?
Killers devotees Tim Chapman and Hannah Follows investigate its legacy in their party-starting comedy that reaches a crescendo to match the song’s. They start (how else?) by climbing out of an actual cage, with Follows sporting a polka dot tie and gold waistcoat like frontman Brandon Flowers. Chapman is clad in a claret smoking jacket in homage to Eric Roberts’ devilish character in Mr Brightside’s baroque and sublimely silly video, which gets affectionately lampooned here with some rewritten lyrics.
There’s a potted history of the band’s story with Follows’ witty lip-syncing used as a comic counterpoint to recordings of Flowers in rockstar mode. The pair then recount their efforts to track down a karaoke singer whose village-pub renditions of Mr Brightside on YouTube have left them hooked. It results in a road trip to Rotherham, documented through genial video and audio clips that don’t quite deliver on the promise of a bizarre mystery behind the karaoke nights.
That quest is intercut with material inspired by the 2016 viral video of Mr Brightside being belted out at a wake in an Irish pub. We’re invited to imagine the feeling in the room and the duo instigate a number of simple games to encourage the audience to get to know each other but these come across like team-building exercises rather than being fully incorporated into the performance.
The bond between Chapman and Follows themselves is what makes the night – they are both irresistibly gleeful, capturing that possessed look and breathless fervour of passionate fandom. The pair punctuate the show with cover versions of the song on quirky combinations of instruments and reach a highpoint with a retelling of the lyrics in the style of a Mr Men book. While the show never really uncovers the reasons behind the song’s enduring popularity, it’s a life-affirming hour that leaves you looking on the bright side.
At Underbelly, Edinburgh, until 28 August.
