Young and young at heart dance along to Duran Duran
| The Province |
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
|
If ever there were an argument for style over substance in a band, Birmingham, England's Duran Duran would fit the bill.
The very New Romantic movement that the band sprang from generated so few enduring moments that it's all but forgotten.
But not Duran Duran.
Having written the lion's share of the New Romantic scene's hits, the group remains whereas the Spandau Ballets and Ultravoxes have long vanished. Even if the spotlight turned off on Simon Le Bon's model good looks and primped hair somewhere around 1986, the quintet did recreate itself as lite-funk adult dance rockers in the 1990s and looks to be back in action again with the well-received new CD Red Carpet Massacre.
The Timbaland and Danja-helmed disc is certainly the most relevant piece of music from the band since The Wedding Album and boasts some tunes that could rub epaulets with any other chart-topper that has Timbaland, Danja and Justin Timberlake's mitts on it. While no one in the respectably sized crowd last night cheered louder for "Falling Down" than they did "Planet Earth" and "Hungry Like the Wolf," the new single certainly holds its own with the old material.
And, yes, besides sounding good - they always could play their instruments - the group looked fabulous. A little craggier, a tad filled out, but trés jet set. Even Nick Rhodes, who still has the same Andy Warhol/Vidal Sassoon wedgie-bob 'do that hasn't been seen around these parts since long before the Love Affair played its last dance tune.
The danciness in the band's repertoire certainly connected with the audience.
While it wouldn't be wrong to assume that the house was swayed towards those who were around when the group ruled the U.K. and U.S. charts in the 1980s, it also included a large number of far younger fans. Waxing nostalgic for a hair-jelled and pointy-toed shoe decade that predated their births, they got their boogie on to the radio-ready "Skin Divers" and older hits such as "The Reflex" that spent 10 years in heavy rotation on MuchMusic. So did their parents and grandparents.
Big props to the group of kids in the upper nosebleeds decked out in their vintage-store finery. Rocking everything from Spice Girl Union Jack dresses to silver lamé Members Only jackets, they had the top o' the club speakers 'copter dance moves down to rights. Actually, there really didn't appear to be anyone not having a really good time. The band hammed it up, too.
It's pretty clear that the members are happy to know someone still cares. Le Bon, guitarist Roger Taylor and bassist John Taylor couldn't believe it when the house took over the lyrics to "Save A Prayer."
A welcome surprise was the second "act" where the band reappeared all dressed in black in a line of keyboards and an electro-drum kit to perform Kraftwerk-like techno verisions of hits such as "All She Wants Is" and a cover of that old bondage and discipline ditty "Warm Leatherette." It was a great reminder of how goofy that whole robot-beat presentation was back in the day. Not that it didn't generate some great songs.
After this interlude, "act three." The final round kicked off with the funky "Notorious" and the hits kept coming.
Hmmm, a band able to mess around with old material without marring it. A band with a set list loaded with hits and a new album that isn't some pale imitation of past glories. Dang. There might be some substance here after all.
Grade: B
