May 22nd: Mann Music Center, Philadelphia (#11)
May 27th: Merriweather Post Pavillion, Columbia, MARY-land (as John & Simon pronounced it) (#12)
Same set list for both shows. After 24 years, I FINALLY got to hear Last Chance On The Stairway live, even if it wasn't the entire song. I was so anxious to hear it, I couldn't enjoy it the first time because I spent the entire minute & a half thinking, "I'M FINALLY HEARING IT!!!! This is it!!!" and in a flash, it was done. At Merriweather, I just smiled and sang along. Much more enjoyable. I wanted to be sure the guys saw the joy on my face. I wanted to say, 'If you perform this song for the next 20 years, I promise I will never complain about hearing HLTW for the 10 millionth time!'
Didn't try to get the camera into Merriweather. Partly chickened out, partly didn't want to bother. My camera was never going to do justice to the view I had from the 4th row. I watched 10 years worth of O's games through a camera lense. That perspective is too distorted at a concert. I saw most of the camera'd people around me trying to enjoy at rock concert standing still. That must be a slight disappointment from the band's perspective. They are trying to get people to move and they get statues with camera where their faces should be.
Opening act, Your Vegas, were great. The lead singer sounded just like Bono and moved like him too, circa 1982. A Town And Two Cities
My seat at the VERY cold Mann Center was about 20 feet from John Taylor. Which for me is heaven. Only problem was the speakers which blocked most of my view of Roger.
[SIDEBAR: In 7 hours, I will have a bootleg of this show. DIALUP SUCKS! I did consider going out into the hallway and shouting, "Does anyone have a cable connection I can borrow for 5 minutes?!?", but I didn't think that was very neighborly.]
I'm very grateful for this bootleg because I don't remember much from this concert. The show moves VERY fast, even the ballads. There was barely time to catch your breath before they were on the the next tune. Even the "intermission" before the Electro set was only 2 minutes. Just enough time to take drink and a deep breath before the non-stop medley. I'm really not sure why they give Simon a keyboard. I think he hit 5 keys between the 2 shows!
At the beginning of the Electro set, Simon sneezed into his headset mic. The look on his face as part surprise and part 'oops, sorry!'! It was amusing. He also throws the tambourine in the air at the end of "Sunrise". When it came down, it hit him in the nose and rolled off to the side of the stage. He did a better job at Merriweather.
During GOF, Simon plays a little 'copy me' game with the crowd. After about 6 of them, he said, "Do you think this is going somewhere? 'Cause I promise you, it isn't!" and the game continued until the band introductions. This time around, Simon let the entire crowd do his intro. In Philly, he shouted, "What's my name?!?" until the crowd was at fever pitch. At Merriweather it was, "Who's your daddy?!?"
During SAP, virtually everyone in the place held up their cell phone for the "Duran Duran starlight party" as Simon called it. It looked amazing.
{SIDEBAR Part 2: The bootleg is FANTASTIC. Possibly the best one I've ever heard. I've listened to it 10 times already. Now if I can just get the Merriweather show.....}
The new songs sound great live. Especially Tempted. It was very brave of them to start the show with 3 new tunes.
Just before they came on stage at Merriweather, a well-dressed black man sat down next to me. We chatted a little during the show. He was quite friendly. He said he had just come from work because he couldn't let DD be that close and not go see them. When Simon stands at the front of the stage to start the show (about 15 ft away from us), my new friend yelled, "That's Simon 'freaking Le Bon!!!!" and said similar things about John & Nick. He knew all the classics and was singing louder than I was! It was great.
More tidbits as I remember them....
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Now playing: Duran Duran - Red Carpet Massacre
via FoxyTunes
