The Killers paid tribute to The Beatles during their show at New York’s Forest Hills Stadium over the weekend – watch their cover of ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ below.
The Las Vegas band kicked off their two-night stay at the Queens venue on Saturday night (September 14) by honouring The Beatles, who did two nights there themselves 60 years earlier.
Frontman Brandon Flowers told the audience, “Some of you might know the history of the place. 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 covered The Beatles’ 1963 track ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand‘, one they’d never covered live before. In the past, they’d covered other Beatles tracks, including ‘Helter Skelter’ – which they played with Paul McCartney himself in 2016 – ‘Get Back‘, ‘In My Life‘, ‘Michelle’, and ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’. Meanwhile, the band also covered Erasure’s 1998 track ‘A Little Respect‘, and played many of their own biggest hits, like ‘Mr. Brightside’, ‘Somebody Told Me’, and ‘Human‘.
There was a poignant meaning to their song choice at Forest Hills, however. When The Beatles played the stadium on August 28 and 29, 1964, it was in the set on both nights.
Their shows were just two of many big concerts at Forest Hills that summer, with other artists playing there including Barbra Streisand, Joan Baez with Bob Dylan, Harry Belafonte with Miriam Makeba, Johnny Mathis, Count Basie and Trini Lopez.
And after the Beatles’ first show, Dylan visited them at the Delmonico Hotel nearby and allegedly introduced them to cannabis, something the band later described as opening up their minds and turning them on to more experimental sounds.
The Killers, meanwhile, are playing Oceans Calling Festival in Maryland and Evolution Festival in Missouri to round off the month, before a run of shows in Mexico in October, and then a series of Australian dates in December. You can find tickets to the remaining North American dates here and tickets to the Australia shows here.
English (US) · 