One of the things that has a certain resonance during a concert is if a member of the band mentions the name of the city where the event is being held. Given that these people are endlessly on the road playing in venues that are probably pretty much interchangeable from the point of view of back stage and on stage, there is something to be said for their speaking the name, as though there is a personal connection.
(This naming convention also carries over to recorded music, even if it is Huey Lewis enumerating bergs.)
The Killers are on a world tour that recently brought them to Georgia. No, not the Peach Tree State. The country that shares a border with Russia, just south of Chechnya. Georgia had been annexed by the Soviet Union in 1922. During the 1980s a successionist effort grew such that in 1991 the country regained its independence. The country turned toward the West, which annoyed the Russians. In 2008 Putin wasn’t the president of Russia because that would have meant three consecutive terms, so he, in effect, turned the position over to Dmitry Medvedev, his First Deputy Prime Minister, and he took the Prime Minister position. In effect, he maintained control. In August 2008 Russia invaded Georgia. As Brian Whitmore, nonresident senior fellow of the Atlantic Council put it: “In 2008 Russia invaded Georgia, occupied 20 percent of its territory, and got away with it.” Arguably one of the reasons why there is substantial Western support for Ukraine today is because of what Putin did in Georgia 15 years ago.
Remember: Russia seized 20% of Georgian territory and still occupies it.
And when Putin invaded Ukraine, the Georgian people became profoundly concerned that they could be next. (The Ukrainian border with Russia is northwest of the Georgia-Russia border.)
Which brings me back to The Killers.
