He often sang with a hand over his heart, in a "Pledge of Allegiance" pose, looking as earnest and hopeful as a man asking for his sweetheart's hand in marriage.

Brandon Flowers is not one to camouflage his emotions—when the Killers frontman hits the stage, he holds little back, smiling wide, pistoning himself up and down, gesticulating as he sings.

When Brit electronica subverts Underworld kicked off their current North American tour at The Joint in Las Vegas on Thursday night it was a full-body experience, like taking temporary residence inside a subwoofer as outsized and over-the-top as the city in which it all went down.

Blink-182's tour kick-off Thursday night at Las Vegas' the Joint venue was the kind of show that doubled as one prolonged rim shot, a tongue-in-(butt)-cheek time warp back to junior high, starring a band that has long served as the itching powder in pop rock’s jock strap.

The rap-rock Charlie Brown wanted some answers.

"Why is everybody always picking on me?" Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst asked in song. "Does anybody really know a thing about me?"

Jay-Z's words conveyed a menace that his smile quickly deflated, his acidic rhymes sweetened by the knowing grin of a man who's not only in on the joke, but who helped craft its punch line.

Brandon Flowers shielded his eyes with the back of his hand, like he was attempting to scan the horizon and some unforeseen luminescence was hindering his pursuits. "There's something in the distance," the Killers frontman sang on a jubilant "Joyride," staring off into space. "A glorious existence. A simple celebration. A place you never been to before."