The Killers give Jimmy Kimmel a quarantine concert from a secure bathroom location
As is the way of things in these before times, Jimmy Kimmel’s been delivering his nightly monologues from home. Noting the raft of online queries about his appearance in these self-shot pieces, Kimmel denied the scurrilous rumors he’s been whiling away the socially distant hours by getting either drunk or stoned, explaining that his eye-bags and disheveled kisser are just what the Jimmy Kimmel Live host looks like without his ABC “glam team” to pretty him up for air. Fair enough. Kimmel was dressed up otherwise, however, as—in deference to wife Molly’s call for a sweatpants-less “formal Friday”—he and his family were putting on actual clothes for the day. (Rather adorably, daughter Jane and son Billy’s respective Frozen and Spider-Man getups were deemed formal enough to pass muster.)
After working his way through his complement of topical jokes (Donald Trump is still tetchy whenever anyone asks about how badly he’s bungled this whole coronavirus thing, if anyone needs a refresher), Kimmel introduced his guests for the 15-minute-long online episode, The Killers. Or, rather, half of the Killers, as Ronnie Vennucci and Brandon Flowers video-chatted in from Flowers’ Utah home, where Vennucci assured Kimmel that their half of the band, at least, are remaining “co-vigilant” against transmission of the virus. Both also touted the good work of the bartenders support charity United States Bartenders Guild on behalf of the brave men and women whose livelihood is being threatened by the COVID-19-mandated trend of people eschewing the local pub in favor of swilling their booze while nervously looking out their home windows.
Then, retiring to Brandon’s smallish bathroom, the duo did a keyboards-and-acoustic-guitar rendition of The Killers single “Caution” from their new album, Imploding The Mirage. (Sort of a tile-and-toilet version of NPR’s Tiny Desk, or our own late, lamented A.V. Undercover round room concerts.) Like everything else, the band’s tour in support of the album has been postponed, so a Utah bathroom took the place of a stadium full of screaming fans, but they sounded good, all things considered. And the lyric, “If I don’t get out, out of this town/ I just might be the one who finally burns it down” certainly seemed to capture the national mood.