April 9, 2005
Controversial Duran Duran at the Patriot Center
My not-so-proud effort at shooting Duran Duran last night from our seats in the second-to-the-last row. This is during their first song, Reach Out for the Sunrise.
Controversy appears to be building over political comments by Duran Duran lead singer Simon le Bon at the group's performance Friday at the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Va.
He introduced the group's new single, "What Happens Tomorrow," with a bizarre statement, paraphrased: "I don't know if you remember what was happening two years ago today ... your 'wonderful' [facetious tone] president was going to begin dropping bombs on Iraq ..."
A strange noise filled the Patriot Center. I anticipated overwhelming cheering from the crowd in attendance (average age seemed to be about 21, much younger than I expected -- so I thought they would be typical liberal college kids).
But on interpretation, it seemed an angry murmur, with some flat-out booing and very scattered cheers. Didn't seem like the audience was in the mood to have a foreigner take a verbal shot at the president so near the nation's Capital.
One can only imagine that the reaction surprised Le Bon, but it was something of a grievous misstep, for several reasons.
First, he showed a tone deafness that he was in politically conservative Northern Virginia, and near the Pentagon, hit on Sept. 11.
Second, who on God's Earth goes to a Duran Duran concert to hear preachiness?
Bad enough that U2 and Springsteen think their fans look to them for political wisdom; a bunch of Birmingham, England, art school grads who flew to fame on the basis of riding a yacht around Antigua for their breakthrough "Rio" video have simply got to be kidding to think we take their views on anything weightier than best brands for blue eyeshadow very seriously.
"Simon needs to keep his political views to himself," posted Batdog on a Duran Duran fan site (a sentiment echoed by two others):
He is an entertainer not a war activist. If he hates America so much, why come here? Oh and has he forgotten who got his career off the ground? MTV and the American public started the popularity of their music. I am not saying you can not express your opinion, even he has rights under the Constitution, however quit a few of the crowd were not overjoyed in his rendition of the President. Iraq is a safer country and America is safer today then it was 4 years ago.
I almost couldn't figure out what Simon was driving at. Any applicability of the song, "What Happens Tomorrow," to the war in Iraq is certainly opaque to me, because it says:
You've got to believe
It'll be alright in the end
You've got to believe
It'll be alright again
I sat rather puzzled in my seat, knowing the song lyric's optimism fairly well, and after a while wondered if Le Bon's song dedication meant to indirectly praise Bush for leading us into Iraq, which has now conducted its first ever elections.
And the band's official Web site posts a pic of Nick Rhodes, Andy and Roger Taylor in what looks like the press room at the White House prior to the concert.
So who knows what point the remarks made. There are 219 messages on this fan message board, under the headline "Simon booed in Fairfax," but it costs $35/year to join. If anyone can forward some of the thread to me, I would be most interested!
Last December I had obtained tickets to Duran Duran, thinking it would be nice to have the concert to look forward to -- by the time April 8 rolled around, spring would be in full bloom. The Washington Post had praised their comeback album, Astronaut (see "Duran as in Durable: With 'Astronaut,' the '80s Band Recharges"), and it seemed like with a lot of hard work, the band had updated its danceable, fun sound.
Indeed, my sister and I rolled out of D.C. to what she calls "Farfax" to George Mason University's Patriot Center amid cherry blossoms and a perfect evening.
I haven't been to a concert, that I recall, since seeing George Clinton at Baltimore's Pier 6 in May 2000. Not knowing if Duran Duran would start right at 8 p.m. -- not remembering much about concert protocol at all, we took our seats in the two-thirds-empty Patriot Center, wondering if there was little market for an Eighties group. Not to worry though -- DD at this point is far more than a revival band, and we soon figured out where the fans were.
An opening act called Juliet appeared. Sharon wandered off to get bottled water and reported that the concourses were jammed by true fans. We were headed for a full house. The true fans, she said, wore DD shirts reading "Mrs. John Taylor" and "John Taylor Fan Club."
That was my ulterior motive in going, to see an absolutely beautiful man. John Taylor, who I believe lives in LA, needs to set his bandmate straight on showing some tact when addressing an American audience as a foreigner.
Le Bon has noted ("The Ridiculous Life of Simon Le Bon") that the tall bass player was once a young geek named Nigel wearing glasses:
The first time I saw him he was this speccy geek with nicotine-stained fingers, trembling with fear at the prospect of having to meet people. And his name wasn’t even John. It was Nigel. He was a Nigel with glasses, poor sod. I remember staring at his face and slowly realising that he was rather beautiful, exquisite in fact. I mean, this was the best looking guy I’d seen in years, maybe my whole life. Losing his glasses and changing his name to John was the best thing he ever did. He was a man transformed. To see him in action was incredible. He could charm the knickers off anyone.
Once we took our seats in the farthest reaches of row V, section 109, we could see (as you can tell by the above picture) only the tiny figures of the band. Note to self: Splurge on the $100, not $45, seats, next time you want to see a true rock hottie, even if you are so old you remember paying about $7 to see The Who at Merriweather in 1970.
I am not alone, a Washington Post writer named Jen noted she would be focused on the "bass god:" "If you happen to notice a woman in section 116 holding a pair of binoculars so she can get a better look at John Taylor, that would be me. Although I suspect I won't be alone."
One of the interesting aspects of such a venture back into the world of concerts is, what will be the audience be like? I had expected the grey-ponytail brigade, or older women. My amateur anthropology survey revealed that instead, the average audience age seemed to be about 21, apparently a lot of George Mason students who wanted to dance the whole time and knew every single lyric. Mostly there were swarms of pretty blond NoVa* girls, but also some couples (including many where the male half looked reluctant), and some gay fellas.
* Northern Virginia
At 8:50 p.m., Duran Duran came on to "Sunrise," off the new Astronaut CD. Excellent sound, lighting, background movies and pacing for two hours. Simon Le Bon looked like a gym rat -- the pudgy look is gone, and he struck plenty of Elvis-like straddle poses. John Taylor was having a bad hair day -- anyone as tall and skinny as him should not have hair short at the sides and piled to the top. Andy and Roger Taylor played with tons of energy, and Nick Rhodes was, as ever, a statue (he is the bottle blond who plays the Moog).
Here is the play list, from the band's Web site:
- SUNRISE -- Very energetic, great light show.
- HUNGRY LIKE THE WOLF -- How did they manage to keep up the enthusiasm after 20 years of playing this song?
- PLANET EARTH -- I think this is their first hit.
- HOLD BACK THE RAIN
- ASTRONAUT -- Good job on the title track of their most recent CD.
- I DON’T WANT YOUR LOVE -- Catchy and incredibly shallow song, "I don't want your love, to bring me down." Kind of the polar opposite of the message of the late Pope John Paul II, on what commitment in marriage means.
- COME UNDONE -- Fabulous vocal by guest singer Anna Ross, who appeared in a slinky leather outfit with mesh stockings. She and the sax player added a lot to their sound.
- WHAT HAPPENS TOMORROW -- Here was Le Bon's downfall.
- REFLEX -- Took me a while to figure out they were playing my favorite song, because it started with a new arrangement! But the kids around us knew right away.
- TIGER TIGER -- instrumental lead by the sax player.
- CHAUFFEUR
- A VIEW TO A KILL -- Their Bond theme.
- ORDINARY WORLD
- SAVE A PRAYER
- BEDROOM TOYS
- NOTORIOUS
- NICE
- CARELESS MEMORIES
- WILD BOYS -- Very loud, I have never much liked this song, but the band seemed to up their energy for this one -- seems to be their personal favorite.
Encore:
- WHITE LINES -- I've never heard this song before, but it was the most danceable of all, fabulous.
Update: Yes, in reply to the comment by Otis below, this is a cover of Grandmaster Flash's version, which I just heard on XM Radio's 80s channel ... really, this was almost the highlight of the whole night, got everyone's funk on.
- GIRLS ON FILM -- With background movie of Marlene Dietrick era models.
- RIO -- Well done, but I could tell this would be their last song, and I had wanted them to do my other favorite instead, "New Religion."
We had a lot of fun dancing to everything that was danceable, most especially "White Lines" which I hadn't heard before, watching the kids slow dance and sing along karaoke style, and seeing Simon Le Bon clamber into the crowd after introducing the other band members to demand an introduction from a college-age girl in the audience of himself, coaching her to describe him as sexy and wonderful.
On our departure, we saw the band's giant cruising bus, painted with pictures of the band from the cover of the Astronaut CD. Skanky punk girls and others were waiting to meet their idols. If I were a bit younger, I would have stayed as well to see how rock stars behave nowadays.
Rock on, dudes. Even if you're out at George Mason, having to yell "hello Fairfax" instead of "hello D.C." after your first song, the concert was a fabulous success. Kudos to Nick Rhodes for pushing to keep DD together, working to come up with a fine new album, top arrangements for the live act and a variety of visuals.
- posted by jbelliveau at 4:58 PM in Books, Music, DVDs
