The Killers Team With Werner Herzog for Live Concert Webcast

The Killers are teaming up with director Werner Herzog for a live concert webcast in September. True to form, Herzog has big plans for the show.

“He has ideas for someone crowd-surfing with a camera on,” says Killers bassist Mark Stoermer, speaking by phone from London. “He’s gonna put cameras on Ronnie [Vannucci, Jr.] while he’s playing drums.”

The concert is the 11th installment of the American Express Unstaged series, pairing pop stars with celebrated directors for concerts streamed live on VEVOand YouTube. In previous webcasts, David Lynch worked with Duran Duran; Hamish Hamilton collaborated with Usher; and Gary Oldman, the actor who wrote and directed the 1997 film Nil by Mouth, teamed with Jack White.

The Killers concert happens at the Paradise Theater in the Bronx on September 18th at 7 p.m. Eastern time. Click here for a live stream. That day also marks the U.S. release of the band’s new album, Battle Born.

Stoermer says the band chose Herzog for his unique ideas, and the filmmaker seems to be taking his work seriously. When he met with the musicians in their home city of Las Vegas a couple weeks ago, Herzog told them he’d watch previous installments in the series to see what other directors had done.

“He wanted to not make any mistakes that any of the other directors may have made,” Stoermer says. “He definitely wanted to make the best version of this live AMEX performance of any director so far.”

Though the webcast probably won’t be quite as ambitious as some of Herzog’s previous work – for his 1982 film Fitzcarraldo, he had his crew pull a steamship over a giant hill in the Amazon – it will be global in scope. Starting September 5th, viewers around the world can submit photos of themselves holding signs saying where they live. Some submissions will appear on stage during the stream.

There will be other surprises, too. “I think there’s gonna be an animal involved,” Stoermer says. “I’m sure it will be all done the right way.”