Duran Duran strikes familiar chord with crowd

By LESLIE GRAY STREETER

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Monday, May 19, 2008

BOCA RATON — "SIMON!"

"We love you, Nick!"

"SIMON!"

The screams, the plaintive cries and the just plain unintelligible passionate gibberish came loud and crazy from the audience at the Mizner Park Amphitheater.

The utterers were a varied bunch, but in general seemed about 35, female and at least reasonably sane and responsible.

Still they screamed, and sang along with lyrics they may have known, as Duran Duran singer Simon LeBon pointed out, for the better part of 28 years. They might not even have remembered that they knew them. But the words of songs famous (The Reflex, Hungry Like The Wolf) and obscure (Last Chance on the Stairway) tumbled out of their mouths, and suddenly they were 13 or 17 or 22 again. And they were at a Duran show, and they hadn't aged at all.

Well, actually, the four original members of Duran Duran haven't aged at all, for some spooky reason. But we're not jealous.

The Birmingham, England, lads conducted more than a mere exercise in nostalgia.

Fresh from the success of their Timbaland-produced Red Carpet Massacre album, they started with new songs like The Valley and the fans bounced up and down enthusiastically, more than most crowds at this sort of show would.

That's because the songs, including the title track, are good, especially the reflective Falling Down.

But the response was rabidly, voraciously and passionately amped up for the familiar songs knit into the audience's DNA: the loneliness of Save a Prayer and Come Undone, the delicious venom of View To A Kill and the cheekiness of Skin Trade.

"The chief of police was here before the show," LeBon said, "and he said that because of the heat, you should feel free to take your tops off."

He paused, waiting for the screams.

"I'm waiting!"

As far as we know, all the tops stayed on.

But the screams went on, the band played on, and that lovely old-new spell continued.

Courtesy Palm Beach Post