The motto of the Killers' hometown, Brandon Flowers reminds us before a stirring Dustland Fairytale, is "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas". "But that's a crock of shit," he says, gazing wide-eyed at his first ever stadium gig. There was speculation that the Killers booking Wembley was over-ambitious, driven by a misguided sense of entitlement. These kickstarters of the 80s revival look and sound like a stadium band, so they'll darn well make themselves one. And, on a stage flanked with gigantic lightning bolts, the Killers launch from Brandon's solo introductory Enterlude into a volley of big hitters, determined to justify their place in the Bono brigade. When You Were Young is drenched in firework fountains, and alien abduction anthem Spaceman roars by, bedecked with warp-speed visuals. Even dusted-off rarity This River Is Wild has all the wallop of an encore-closer. Ironically, the only moments that fail to convince are those corners of new album Battle Born most knowingly engineered for a stadium context: the slushy, dated Heart atmospherics of The Way It Was are only emphasised by the surroundings.
As the night progresses Brandon – whose squeaky clean, eyeless-smile persona has previously given him the air of a Stepford rock star – undergoes a visible transformation. At first he's pumped-up and on edge, clearly over-awed by the scale, but when their grammatically challenged hit Human unleashes a tangible sense of celebration (Wembley, it appears, is dancer) he relaxes into superstardom like a vindication. A more, well, human Brandon emerges, wise-cracking about Mark Stoermer's basslines causing‚ "new sensations in unmentionable parts of your body"‚ rocking up I Think We're Alone Now and jigging cheerily through country bar boogie From Here On Out. To watch him traverse the front row trying to touch everyone in the stadium is to see a man having his life's ambitions fulfilled. Guitarist Dave Keuning gets his moment too, spot-lit front and centre for the Mr Brightside riff that sends Wembley stratospheric.
The ecstatic crescendo of All These Things That I've Done, tonight greeted with glitter cannons filling the air with silvery lightning bolts, is usually the highlight of any Killers show. But here it's upstaged by Wembley Song, written specially for the event, which gives a wry potted history of the band's rise, namechecks an array of previous Wembley headliners ("George Michael, stay away from cars!") and even honours the 66 World Cup. It's a touching tribute to the territory that first embraced them and a night they don't want to end – from Wembley they race to Islington's Garage club to play a punkish half hour of fan favourites at 2am. A night the stadium league got a whole lot brighter, and lightning struck London twice.
• This article was altered on 24 June to correct the venue to Wembley Stadium from the O2 arena.
• What have you been to see lately? Tell us about it on Twitter using #GdnGig
