Watch The Killers Cover “I Want To Hold Your Hand” At Forest Hills, Where The Beatles Played 60 Years Ago
Unless we’re talking about something like the Ed Sullivan Show performances, the Beatles’ most famous American concert is their heavily documented Shea Stadium gig in 1965. A year earlier, however, the Beatles played a different Queens venue. In August 1964, during the initial American Beatlemania explosion, the Beatles played two nights at Forest Hills Stadium. After the first night, as Rolling Stone points out, the band met Bob Dylan, who famously introduced them to weed. This past weekend, rock ‘n’ roll history buffs the Killers played their own two-night stand at Forest Hills, and they took the moment to pay tribute to the Beatles.
The Killers have covered lots of Beatles songs over the years. Paul McCartney even came out to join them at a Russian billionaire’s party to ring in the 2017 new year, which must’ve been a real banner day for Russian oligarchs everywhere. On Saturday night, the Killers marked the 60th anniversary of those Beatles shows with a cover of “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” the first Beatles single that Capitol Records released in the US. They’d never played it before. Brandon Flowers told the crowd:
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.
Watch a couple of fan videos below.
At the second show last night, the Killers also did a snippet of “She Loves You.”