This Killers show was like a sandwich, writes David Pollock, with hits on the outside and something more bespoke and personal in the centre

The Killers, Hydro, Glasgow ****

“We’re the Killers and we're in the service industry,” mugged Brandon Flowers from the stage, on the first night of his band’s three-night indoor residency in Glasgow. “I believe you people ordered a good time – and that just happens to be our specialty.”

The patter is knowingly salesmanlike, and Flowers is one of the modern music industry’s premier salespeople. Despite playing in Glasgow for more than 20 years, since “before all the T in the Park slots, (when) we were a band full of piss and vinegar”, he remains perfectly preserved. The sculpted quiff and the sequinned pinstripe called to mind both a successful televangelist and a cool transatlantic Rick Astley, the latter a suitably 1980s comparison, given that during the encore the piano riff of Boy segued smoothly into a crisp and well-suited cover of Erasure’s A Little Respect.

Earlier in the evening, Flowers had welcomed his elder brother Shane to the show, and thanked him for introducing him to all his great musical influences, including the Psychedelic Furs, the Smiths and Depeche Mode. These memories segued into the spiky, nostalgic balled A Dustland Fairytale, a tribute to their parents’ young life in the Mojave desert.

The set was like a sandwich, with a predictably sturdy surface packed with hits on the outside and something more bespoke and personal in the centre. This segment included the soulful Shot at the Night, with three female singers balancing Flowers’ sturdy baritone, and The Man, a weird, synthesiser funk combination of religious testifying and homoeroticism, with Michaelangelo’s David making his 3D presence felt on a screen.

“We didn't come to pacify,” barked Flowers during that song. “We came to electrify!” He wasn’t wrong, and the tall video backdrop and web of lasers flared as all the specialist Killers hits were otherwise laid out on the counter. Read My Mind and Somebody Told Me flared the set into life; All These Things That I’ve Done inspired a deserved, full-voiced roar along; Human and the signature Mr Brightside climaxed with buzzing electro adaptations. A visit to the customer service desk won’t be necessary.

The Killers, Glasgow review – ‘Brandon Flowers is one of the music industry’s premier salespeople'