For a credit company, American Express has a shockingly reciprocal relationship with brilliant film folks. They’ve commissioned ads from Wes Anderson and Martin Scorsese, they’ve backed contests for the Tribeca film fest, and via current live-streaming concert series “Unstaged,” they’ve been pairing bands with idiosyncratic directors. Thanks to this, we can now see a thing we never could’ve imagined: Werner Herzog interviewing the Killers about wild donkeys.
Tonight, the Killers play New York’s Paradise Theater for “Unstaged,” and camera duties will be handled by Herzog, the strange mind behind Grizzly Man, Into the Abyss, and the unfortunately literal Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe. In honor of that, the man and the band teamed up for a seven-minute mini-doc which finds them touring the surreal landscapes of Las Vegas. There are long, meaningful looks into the camera, poignant wall leans, light banter, and that subtle sense of humor and profundity Werner is known for.
“So this is the strip. Believe it or not, this is our natural habitat,” says frontman Brandon Flowers, later adding, “We didn’t know that it was strange to other people until we went to other places. I never looked at it as being … fake or a facade of any sort. I still get excited when I go to the Strip. I still get a rush.” Tonight’s performance begins streaming at 7 p.m. Eastern via the Killer’s VEVO channel. The band’s fourth album, Battle Born is out today.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=r6gP5tabZ3Y
