Following sets from their all-Australian special guests, The Killers surprised their Sydney audience on Saturday night with a surprise appearance from Craig Nicholls, frontman of The Vines.
Addressing the Qudos Bank Arena crowd during the band’s encore, frontman Brandon Flowers credited The Vines as “one of the bands that kickstarted [rock music] again.”
“They just sorta blew the doors open and allowed for bands like us to walk through them,” he said before introducing Nicholls to the stage. “We’re gonna play a little bit together now.”
Together, they played through a cover of The Vines classic ‘Get Free’ with Crag on guitar and trading lines with Flowers. The group then followed it up with ‘When You Were Young’, with Craig taking the lead. Watch fan-shot footage of both songs below.
It's not the first Killers x Vines crossover - Nicholls joined the band for a cover of The Beatles' 'Helter Skelter' in Sydney back in 2007. The Craig Nicholls cameo also follows a surprise appearance from The Vines drummer Hamish Rosser at the band's Brisbane concert. As Fairfax reports, Rosser was spotted in the crowd and pulled up by Flowers to perform on the band's song 'For Reasons Unknown'.
The Killers' Aussie music fandom doesn't stop there. Alex Cameron has been opening for the band here in Australia as well as overseas. The Seekae frontman struck up a friendship with Brandon Flowers after he proclaimed Cameron's solo debut Jump The Shark his "hands down" fave album of 2016. The Killers vocalist ended up co-writing 'Runnin' Out Of Luck', a track from Cameron's 2017 album Forced Witness, and has been making a habit of joining Alex on stage at shows.
Rounding it out is Jack Ladder & The Dreamlanders, who've been opening before Cameron and The Killers in Australia ahead of releasing their new album Blue Poles (out 4 May).