Reviewer rating:Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars
Reader rating:Rating: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars
DURAN DURAN
Entertainment Centre, March 27
SYDNEY, in the words of Duran Duran, has enjoyed a ''special relationship'' with the English rock band over the years and don't we know it.
I've been to several of the so-called ''superannuation tours'', now a fixture on the Australian concert scene, and few have been as raucous as this one.
Many of these screaming women would have been camped outside 301 studios on Castlereagh Street, the location where Duran Duran recorded and mixed their third album in 1983. And they should thank the band for returning to the venue they opened in that same year. Anything larger would have seemed cavernous and tacky. This was the perfect size and cosseted their music to make it big, brash and perfectly outlandish.
Their rock-heavy, synthed-up, oh-so '80s style translated seamlessly into 2012, in part thanks to the recent resurgence of young bands recycling '80s synth-pop and new wave, in part because they have actually never stopped making music. The crisp electro of Blame the Machines, taken from their 2010 album All You Need Is Now, nestled in comfortably beside the dreamy chillwave of 1983's Tiger Tiger and the anthemic first song from their first album, Girls on Film.
There were moments that bordered on the abysmally lame (Simon Le Bon's demi-god pose as the final applause raged, his daggy dad dance moves, a couple of recent songs like Before the Rain and All You Need Is Now which are just plain bad) but wouldn't you be disappointed if there weren't? Nostalgia ain't nostalgia if there's no cringe factor. By the two-hour mark, the fab five had roared through a mini-medley of Hungry Like a Wolf, Sunrise, a cheeky glimpse of Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Wild Boys and still had energy to go.
In between the hits, the burning sax solos and the irresistible guitar riffs, there was banter that made this ol' gal, Sydney, feel like we were the only one. Most of all, it felt like they actually wanted to be there. They were actually enjoying themselves. And so were we.
Duran Duran is also playing at the Tempus Two Winery in Pokolbin on Saturday.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/old-stagers-put-super-in-superannuation-20120328-1vyle.html#ixzz1qYxlKWhC
