A Killers concert is like a night at a European dance club: every song is an upper, strobe lights hit you from all sides, and the lyrics seem deep, though somewhat nonsensical. Are we human? Are we dancer? And who is Mr. Brightside?  It doesn’t matter, because each song is a three-minute shot of Red Bull and vodka, and the energy is contagious.

Wednesday night at the Hollywood Bowl, from the first chord to the final drumstick tossed in the air, the crowd was held captive by the band’s electrifying melodrama. That, and lots and lots of lights.

A sure sign of staggering fame is having an opener like the Psychedelic Furs, who were to the ‘80s, well, what Molly Ringwald was to the ‘80s. A second sign is that you can fill an enormous amphitheater with people who know all of your songs by heart.

During the 90-minute show, the Killers blasted through most of their singles, including a few B-sides and hits from their newest album, Day & Age. They didn’t ease their maniacal pace for a second, turning even their slower ballads like “Dustland Fairytale” into showstoppers.

The band showed its Vegas origins through the set design, with pyrotechnics, confetti and puffs of smoke bursting out in time with the synth beats. And, of course, there were the necessary glam-rock histrionics—bassist Mark Stoermer and guitarist Dave Keuning alternated between leaping onto the set pieces and tossing their heads to anchoring their hyperactive frontman.

The Killers owe their bombast largely to Brandon Flowers’ tireless showmanship. He wove through the songs, slipping effortlessly from reverberating operatic notes to near-falsetto. He jumped on the amplifiers decked in feather epaulets like some sort of crazed ostrich. He brandished his microphone stand like a sword in “All These Things that I’ve Done.”

He stopped his exuberant prancing only for a few minutes—to pop behind a bedazzled piano and deliver a soulful start to “Smile Like You Mean It,” later finishing with the familiar album version while bathed in a wall of red light.

Not to mention that Flowers’ dizzying charisma rivals that of a cult leader, so toward the end of the show, the 17,000-member audience was a unified sea of arms waving in time to “This Is Your Life.” Nothing else could make the Hollywood Bowl seem like an intimate setting.

A highlight came during the obligatory encore, during which a Jimmy Kimmel (in Kanye West sunglasses) rushed onto the stage and grabbed the microphone from Flowers, saying, “I’m going to let you finish, but I just wanted to say that the Psychedelic Furs had one of the best songs of all time.”

The Furs then joined the Killers onstage for a stirring joint rendition of “Pretty In Pink,” before the Killers ended solo, as they always do, with “When You Were Young.” For the Killers, whose roots are planted firmly in new wave, it was a fitting finale—splashy, retro, slightly over-the-top and entirely delicious.

—Olga Khazan