Duran Duran to the rescue
by: Polly Coufos
From: PerthNow
March 25, 2012 9:19AM
There were precious few, if any, mullets and perms to be seen at Sandalford last night but Duran Duran created a perfect back to the future moment. For a couple of hours the years retreated in an amiable fashion as MTV's first hunks rolled out hit after hit for an adoring, and predominantly female, crowd.
The only break to this solid gold pop parade came with a handful of songs from their latest album, All You Need Is Now. Truth be told while the recognition factor may not have been as strong for these tracks, they sounded neither better nor worse than what surrounded them. After 30 years they know what they are doing, they know what their audience wants and they know how to deliver it to them.
If the title song to the new album shows a little of the bratty influence of Oasis, otherwise the recent material remained pretty faithful to the high gloss sound they rode to the top of the charts in the ‘80s. What that meant to the casual observer was that the two hour set flowed almost seamlessly and that at any point you were only ever one song away from one of their many platinum successes. Eerything was played with faithful attention to detail.
Singer Simon Le Bon is undoubtedly a charming front man. The 53-year-old went among the crowd on a couple of occasions. The first was to invite a young man to sing The Reflex with him. The other occurred during the band member introductions when a young woman was given the task on introducing him.
He was found to be at his best though when a lighting malfunction brought proceedings to a standstill. Le Bon’s spotlight was still working and he corralled as many band members as possible to share his spot as they lurched into an impromptu and very energetic Careless Memories.
These are the moments that make concerts memorable. The persistent lighting problem led to a 15-minute intermission. When the band returned they misfired by offering Girl Panic!, which, as was immediately obvious, was not sufficiently well known to be the crowd singalong they had planned. This was followed with The Man Who Stole A Leopard and it looked like the desire to follow the lighting script was squeezing the life out of the show. The band’s confidence was repaid next song in when the capacity crowd found itself in full voice for Notorious and the night was back on track.
This was followed by their hit version of Grandmaster Flash’s White Lines featuring Dom Brown’s thundering guitar. It may not be rap’s greatest moment but that riff sure belongs in some hall of fame somewhere. A tender Ordinary World brought the audience firmly back to the palm of Le Bon’s hand and he didn’t let them go and hit by hit they created increasingly louder reaction. By the encore, which featured Girls On Film and Rio, the night had been well and truly rescued.
Courtesy Perth Now
