Glenn Pinkerton/Las Vegas News Bureau

Frontman Brandon Flowers of The Killers at Mandalay Bay Events Center.

By John Katsilometes

Published Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2010 | 3:30 p.m.

Updated Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2010 | 6:01 p.m.

You might call it a hot fuss.

Word out of Australia is that The Killers, the most successful rock band ever to rise from the Las Vegas music scene, will be taking an extended break after it finishes its set of live shows next month in Australia. The band finishes its Good Vibrations Festival tour Feb. 21 in Melbourne.

But since that story wound around the band as it wraps its current world tour, a conflicting story surfaced Tuesday on the Web site inthemix.com.au that the term "hiatus" should be used when gauging the band's long-term future. In an e-mail this afternoon, a spokeswoman for the band said, "After the Aussie dates, the band is taking a standard break between album cycles and I don't yet know when they'll resume work on the next album."

The Killers breakup fuss started after a report by the Australia Associated Press last week, in which guitarist Dave Keuning said: "I'm not sure if people are aware of it but these are probably our last shows for awhile. ... We're having a break. We haven't had a break in quite awhile. It's just been touring and making records and on and on and on. It's been, like, six years of just being kind of connected together. ... It's like people just expect us to do that non-stop 'til we die, but we just want a little bit of time off, just to be myself and do what I want to do just for a little bit."

It makes perfect sense, considering the band, which launched from Vegas in 2002, has been on the road or in the studio nearly nonstop since its debut album "Hot Fuss" became a hit more than six years ago. But in the face of speculation that The Killers were splitting to pursue individual careers, and after beating back rumors that lead singer Brandon Flowers was planning to depart the band for a solo career, drummer Ronnie Vannucci since has emphasized that the band nearly needs a vacation from itself. "It hasn't happened yet and we don't really (have any plans to take time off)," Vannucci told inthemix.com.au.

"I don't know, we've got a few things up our sleeves," Vannucci said. "I'm sure there will be maybe a couple months of vacation involved. But some of us will still be pretty active, while some of us more or less want a bit of a vacation."

The band's most recent Las Vegas show was Sept. 19 at Mandalay Bay Events Center. It performed two songs as a surprise guest Jan. 10 at The Bank at Bellagio.

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