Post by ©DURANMANIA Board Team on Mar 28, 2005 13:09:17 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]Duran Duran shakes off boredom ...[/glow]
by Gil Kaufman/ Enquirer contributor-Monday, March 28, 2005
Back in the mid-1980s, when Duran Duran rocked coliseums with their synth-heavy new wave anthems, the girls screamed as if the Beatles had been reincarnated with an extra member. The band sold millions of records by slathering on the lip gloss, shaking their frosted hair and singing mostly nonsense lyrics about wild boys, girls on film and unions of snakes.
Saturday at Music Hall, the girls, now women, still screamed, but the reunited Duran Duran often came off like mild boys during a two-hour set heavy on hits.
Playing to a near-capacity crowd, the original five members emerged amid a blitz of strobe lights and basked in the applause for a full minute before launching into "(Reach Up for the) Sunrise," the first single from last year's comeback, "Astronaut."
Singer Simon LeBon, dressed in black pants, a black jacket and white collared shirt looked more like a than the sensual, dapper frontman who helped usher in the age of the telegenic music video star. In fact, for much of the first hour of the show, the stiff singer came off more like a bored LeBon impersonator.
The reunion album is the band's first in 21 years. Luckily, they still have plenty of hits to rely on between such middling new tracks as the silly sex toy romp "Bedroom Toys" and the tepid "Nice." Their biggest hit, "Hungry Like the Wolf" still had an irresistible snap, and a techno-rock version of "Hold Back the Rain" proved they could update their sound with a punkier edge.
But at times it appeared as if two bands were sharing the stage. One, led by LeBon, lanky bassist John Taylor and unsmiling blonde keyboardist Nick Rhodes, was intent on reliving their '80s dance-hit glory. The other appeared to be looking for rock bar band cred, with drummer Roger Taylor mostly forsaking his signature electronic drum sound for arena-rock thumping, and mop-haired guitarist Andy Taylor chain-smoking cigarettes as he added noodly hair-metal filigree to nearly every song.
It wasn't until nearly 40 minutes into the show, during the early hit "Planet Earth," that LeBon finally took fire, bouncing around with his old swagger.
After an instrumental break, LeBon returned wearing all black, including a chauffeur's cap for the moody dirge "The Chauffeur," one of the few times the band stuck to its early strengths as a synthesizer pop band.
LeBon finally showed off his signature hip shaking nearly an hour and a half into the show during a riotous "Notorious."
The show ended with the knockout punch "Wild Boys," "Girls on Film" and "Rio," hits that are still so seductively catchy they were reason enough for one mother of two to shout "I touched Simon's arm!" as if it were 1984 all over again.
by Gil Kaufman/ Enquirer contributor-Monday, March 28, 2005
Back in the mid-1980s, when Duran Duran rocked coliseums with their synth-heavy new wave anthems, the girls screamed as if the Beatles had been reincarnated with an extra member. The band sold millions of records by slathering on the lip gloss, shaking their frosted hair and singing mostly nonsense lyrics about wild boys, girls on film and unions of snakes.
Saturday at Music Hall, the girls, now women, still screamed, but the reunited Duran Duran often came off like mild boys during a two-hour set heavy on hits.
Playing to a near-capacity crowd, the original five members emerged amid a blitz of strobe lights and basked in the applause for a full minute before launching into "(Reach Up for the) Sunrise," the first single from last year's comeback, "Astronaut."
Singer Simon LeBon, dressed in black pants, a black jacket and white collared shirt looked more like a than the sensual, dapper frontman who helped usher in the age of the telegenic music video star. In fact, for much of the first hour of the show, the stiff singer came off more like a bored LeBon impersonator.
The reunion album is the band's first in 21 years. Luckily, they still have plenty of hits to rely on between such middling new tracks as the silly sex toy romp "Bedroom Toys" and the tepid "Nice." Their biggest hit, "Hungry Like the Wolf" still had an irresistible snap, and a techno-rock version of "Hold Back the Rain" proved they could update their sound with a punkier edge.
But at times it appeared as if two bands were sharing the stage. One, led by LeBon, lanky bassist John Taylor and unsmiling blonde keyboardist Nick Rhodes, was intent on reliving their '80s dance-hit glory. The other appeared to be looking for rock bar band cred, with drummer Roger Taylor mostly forsaking his signature electronic drum sound for arena-rock thumping, and mop-haired guitarist Andy Taylor chain-smoking cigarettes as he added noodly hair-metal filigree to nearly every song.
It wasn't until nearly 40 minutes into the show, during the early hit "Planet Earth," that LeBon finally took fire, bouncing around with his old swagger.
After an instrumental break, LeBon returned wearing all black, including a chauffeur's cap for the moody dirge "The Chauffeur," one of the few times the band stuck to its early strengths as a synthesizer pop band.
LeBon finally showed off his signature hip shaking nearly an hour and a half into the show during a riotous "Notorious."
The show ended with the knockout punch "Wild Boys," "Girls on Film" and "Rio," hits that are still so seductively catchy they were reason enough for one mother of two to shout "I touched Simon's arm!" as if it were 1984 all over again.