Duran Duran Concert
Review
5th April 2005, Toronto,
Ontario Canada
Some Information
As of late
the eighties seem to be back in fashion and this shows
especially with music. Legendary bands such as Blondie,
The Pixies, and Culture Club amongst many others have
returned and not to escape current trends one of the biggest
acts of the eighties Duran Duran have reformed with their original line-up.
The band never
really spilt up but never the less changed into different
configurations which even spawned spin off groups, such
as Power Station (with the magnificent late Robert Palmer)
and Arcadia, until June 2001 when the band reformed with
its original members.
They consist
of:
Simon Le Bon: Lead Vocals
Nick Rhodes: Keyboards
John Taylor: Bass
Andy Taylor: Guitar
Roger Taylor: Drums.
Fast forward to the present and our review which takes
place at the Air
Canada Centre in Toronto, Canada where Duran Duran
were performing at as part of their US and Canada tour
which promotes their new album “Astronaut”.
The venue,
which is normally used for NHL Hockey, and NBA Basketball
and other sports, was packed to capacity with a crowd
close to 20,000 people.
The
Concert.
The lights
go out, the crowd roars, and together with special effects
lighting a heartbeat sound slowly gets louder while the
members of the band appear on stage in the shadows.
Simon Le Bon
appeared to a thunderous applause and sings “the music
between us…” and breaks into “Reach Up for the Sunrise”
the bands latest hit single which is well received.
The light show was impressive with a UFO type rotating
unit which keeps gyrating in every possible direction.
This was also enhanced with images projected at the back
of the stage which suited each song.
The sound
is slightly muffled for the first few songs but thankfully
it clears up perfectly to provide a perfect concert going
experience.
The band then
breaks into hit after hit after hit, with songs such as
“Hungry Like a Wolf” and “Save
a Prayer”, which the crowd enjoys immensely.
Towards the
middle of the concert Nick Rhodes showcases his keyboards
skills, while he played the instrumental “Tiger Tiger”
on his own. Simon Le Bon then joins him “The Chauffeur”
for which the full band joins for the climax of the song.
This was followed
by the crowd favourite “View to a Kill” from the 007 movie
of the same name, and my own personal favourite “Ordinary
World” from the unofficial titled “Wedding Album”
This was continued
after by another string of hits to end with a song recently
covered by the band “Phixx” “Wild Boys”, to lead into an encore after
a short pause, which draws the concert to an end with
“Girls on Film” where the band intros took place.
Aside from
the five original members of the band a special mention
must also be made for Andy Hamilton on Saxophone and Ana
Ross on backing vocals.
The Gear
John Taylor
exclusively used a Peavey Cirrus Bass throughout the performance,
a fine bass indeed. Andy Taylor mostly alternated between
a Fender Telecaster and a Gibson Les Paul, also using
a Gibson 335 and for one song a Line 6 Variax
to great effect mixing acoustic and distorted sounds in
one song.
Nick Rhodes
had an impressive array of keyboards including the recently
released Korg Triton Extreme,
his trusty old Roland Jupiter 8 and also an Apple Powerbook Laptop, which contained samples of sounds and effects
for many of the songs.
Summary
An
excellent concert both in the audio and visual aspect.
By Ernest H Slade
