CT drummer joins The Killers onstage at Mohegan Sun concert
On March 17, Middletown native Andrew Moore, 29, found himself drumming onstage at Mohegan Sun Arena in front of 10,000 people. The crowd was there to see The Killers, a band Moore has admired for as long as he has been playing music, and for whom he had also shown up to watch live.
“Okay, this is a gig. Treat this like a gig. These are your bandmates now,” Moore thought to himself as he performed the song “For Reasons Unknown.”
Knowing that the band would sometimes pull fans onstage to play with them during this particular song, Moore had come prepared with a sign that said, “Can I play the drums (please)?” The sign had been confiscated by security, but not before lead singer Brandon Flowers had the chance to catch a glimpse of it.
“You know the song? You know the stops and everything? We’ve been burned a couple of times,” Flowers asked Moore before he invited him on stage. “Don’t you let me down. Come on up.”
“For Reasons Unknown,” is a cut off of the band’s 2006 album “Sam’s Town,” and Moore knows it well. After finishing the song, Flowers told the crowd that Moore was “restoring our faith in humanity.”
A drummer since the age of 10,
Moore has played in a number of different bands, including one of his current bands, Dizzie Pocket. As a live drummer for Nashville musician Frankie Justin, he has opened up for Dylan Scott and Gary LeVox of Rascal Flatts. He is also a session drummer at Lunara Studios in Lyme. Last month, Moore’s talents were featured on New Jersey indie folk rock band Hodera’s latest album, “Dear Friend.” The Connecticut resident will be drumming for the band on its upcoming spring tour, which includes a stop at the State House
in New Haven on Friday, April 21.
But this was his biggest “gig” yet. “I thought I would get choked up playing in front of that many people,” Moore said, admitting he even dropped a drumstick while playing at one point. “I think that all my years of playing, even though they’re much smaller little
shows...is the only thing that kept me from freaking out.”
Moore said he still hasn’t fully grasped the moment of playing in front of 10,000 people. After getting off stage, Moore did not have the opportunity to speak from the band, but was told by the sound technicians that among all of the
fans they’ve had join the band, Moore was one of the best they’ve heard.
The show, which was the The Killers’ first show in Connecticut in seven years, featured a rare cover of U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name” in honor of St. Patrick’s Day.