This is how Dave Keuning played the song during the Sam’s Town tour of 2006-2007.
I’ve used the same finger positions as Dave, based on viewing the limited available videos on KZfaq.
The guitar is tuned to Eb.
The Killers only performed this song live a few times, from what a I can tell. There are a couple of videos from a performance in Athens, GA, where one is completely drowned out by Mark’s bass and the other, good enough to hear and see what’s going on with Dave’s guitar, for the most part.
Live, it was played at quite a bit faster tempo than the studio version. This adds a bit more punch to the song.
It also sounds like Dave is playing some upstrokes (as well as downstrokes) during the verse chords/riff; again, this adds a bit more treble and punch to the phrasing.
I’ve replicated the upstrokes to a degree in my cover, although the studio version sounds like it’s downstrokes throughout.
I did try recording a version against the live performance, but the background audio is pretty poor, so stuck to playing over the studio version, despite its slower pace.
Whilst the verses are played in partial bar positions, all of the choruses are played as standard open position chords, other than the Bm (Bbm in this tuning).
Importantly, that G7 shape and A (F#7 and G# in this tuning) at the end of the verse sections are played up at the nut end of the neck, not in a higher position on the neck as some people cover it. If you listen to the studio version, you can hear that the F#7 is being strummed across all the strings, most of which are open - and you can clearly see the position Dave plays it in the videos.
The only bit I’m slightly unsure of on the live version, is the strumming pattern of the 5 chord ascending chromatic sounding progression, that precedes the above part at the end of the verses.
I’m sure of the correct notes/chords - the bass note of each chord is chromatic (F#, G, G#, A, Bb) - the full chords themselves are not simply chromatic, however - again, this is where other covers get it wrong. In this tuning, the full chords are: F#, Eb/G, G#, F/A, Bbm - you have to use a couple of the C shaped barre chords, that Dave loves.
In the studio version, the first time these are played, there are two strums on each chord except for the last one and just top two strings are played - so a root and fifth note, like a power chord).
On the second time, it sounds like one strum of each full chord is played.
I can’t quite hear, or see whether Dave is following this pattern live, so I have stuck to playing it like the studio version.
Guitar-wise, Dave used his blonde/natural 1975 Fender Starcaster.
I’m using a blonde/natural 1977 Fender Starcaster.
There are no effects on the song, but I used a Keeley Mod+ Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer, throughout.