Dreadful Penny

Twenty-five years ago, I would have given you a kidney — maybe both of them — for good tickets to see Duran Duran. I was given their Rio LP on my twelfth birthday and played it continuously until Seven and the Ragged Tiger replaced it on my turntable. My bedroom door was covered with posters of the Fab Five.

So, to find myself at the Masonic Temple last night, about thirty yards from Simon Le Bon, was totally rad. Awesome. To the max!

The opening act was Your Vegas. They seem like nice boys. There was nothing wrong with their performance at all. Sorry I don’t sound more enthusiastic, but there just wasn’t anything special about them. Their music was derivative: one of their songs sounded frighteningly like U2’s “Elevation” and shortly after that, we thought they were going to break into the B-52’s “Love Shack”. They performed well and the guys were cute, but they were forgettable.

Short break and then, to pompous, spacey intro music, out they came. *swoon* Simon, Nick, John, and Roger!! And some other guy and another guy and some chick. But Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor, and Roger Taylor! Woo!

They looked and sounded terrific (I say that especially after seeing New Kids on the Block on Good Morning America this morning - *shudder*). The concert opened with their new music, then a few of their older hits. After a costume change, they came back to do an electronic mix set — my favorite of the night — a few more songs, and then “Rio” as the encore. Full set list here. All in all, they performed for a solid two hours. Not bad when your lead singer is 49 and danced and jumped around much of the time.

High points:

• They played “Last Chance (on the Stairway)” in the electro set. I always loved that song, though I don’t think it was released as a single.
• “Warm Leatherette”! In the middle of that set, they slid in this cover. I think I was one of about ten people in the venue who knew all the lyrics, and six of the others were on the stage. Simon chanting the deadpan lyrics was really cool. I’m embarrassed to admit I had no idea that “Warm Leatherette” was actually released in 1978; I’m most familiar with the electroclash cover by Chicks on Speed.
• The whole electro set, actually. There are plenty of videos online and it was just great.

Low points:

• Simon darling, it’s Detroit, not Detroit City. A lot of his banter was flinch-worthy, and when he announced, “We are Duran Duran, the band designed to make… you… party!” I broke out in unrestrained laughter.
• John Taylor came back for the encore wearing a Barack Obama t-shirt. I checked; no, he didn’t emigrate recently, so I don’t give a damn about his opinion on American political races. Freedom of expression and all, but it seemed to be in poor taste.

This morning I sought out songs from Red Carpet Massacre, Duran Duran’s latest album. Meh. The studio versions are overproduced and sound too much like Timberlake and Timbaland (who were largely responsible for the album). I want the live versions, which blended the new attitude and beats with classic D2 sound and were - in my opinion - more fun and more listenable.

All in all, it was a terrific show. I will confess that we had free tickets (thank you Royal Oak Music Theatre!), which made it even better; there’s no way we could have fit $160 for a concert into our current budget. I may have offered bodily organs to see Duran Duran in 1983, but yesterday the most I could spare was $10 for parking plus gas money. After 25 years of abuse, that’s probably what those kidneys are worth now, anyway.