Bringing a dash of Las Vegas flash to the future home of Britain’s first supercasino, the Killers crowned last week’s Brit Awards win for best international group with a grandiose arena show. The Anglophile quartet from Las Vegas, hailed on these shores before the US caught on, were received warmly as they played most of their casino-themed second album, Sam’s Town, to a rapturous crowd. Arriving onstage in a snowstorm of glitter, they acted like high-rolling winners right from the first note.

They even opened the show with a bold gamble, frontloading the set with tracks from the new album, where most bands would have eased them in gradually alongside more familiar hits. Beginning with Sam’s Town itself, a huge and ebullient fireworks display of a tune, this musical wager paid off immediately as thousands of fans roared along to every word. This jubilant momentum carried over to the single When You Were Young, all soaring peaks and roaring gradients.

The singer, the splendidly named Brandon Flowers, appeared extremely comfortable with the supersized gestures and broad brushstrokes that arena-sized fame demands. The most famous Mormon pop star since Donny Osmond, openly ambitious for mainstream success in a way few British rockers like to admit, he radiated effortless entitlement and easy charisma. Of course, looking like a slightly anaemic version of a clean-cut Ben Affleck is not exactly a hindrance.

A clutch of tracks from the quartet’s 2004 debut album, Hot Fuss, sounded equally vivid and anthemic. The urgent scramble of Somebody Told Me detonated another artificial snowstorm, then the cascading chorus of Jenny Was a Friend of Mine began its vertiginous rollercoaster plummet. Cutting through the band’s new guitar-heavy, Springsteen-esque direction, a radiant Smile Like You Mean It was one of the show’s few concessions to their 1980s synth-pop fixation.

This winning streak ran a little dry in the show’s second half. The weaker tracks from Sam’s Town, notably This River is Wild and Bling (Confessions of a King), felt like graceless makeweights. Likewise the quasi-reggae stomper Glamorous Indie Rock & Roll, which demonstrated their limitations when they step outside their comfort zone of polished, pumped-up Americana.

They recovered their good form with a climactic reading of Mr Brightside, another massive singalong.

Flowers dropped a few bars of David Bowie’s vintage glam-rock serenade When You Rock and Roll with Me into the encores. Then, announcing a homage to “one of Manchester’s finest bands”, he launched into a burly, Americanised update of Joy Division’s urban alienation classic Shadowplay. Some postpunk purists may consider this heresy, but the former Joy Division bass guitarist Peter Hook nodded gruff approval from his ringside seat.

Ranking themselves alongside such Brit-rock titans does not feel like overambition. Like all bands with only two albums to their name, they do not yet hold a full hand of aces. But they have drive, aspiration and lustrous pop hooks in abundance. And like all the best poker players, they already swagger like winners.

Tour continues: Newcastle Metro Radio Arena tonight

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