2001: The Duran Odyssey

By Claudia Rebaza

(c)2001

JANUARY 3 2001, CLEARWATER, FL – A venue may be acoustically perfect and still dampen a show. When you add a rather perfunctory performance, and few surprises in the set list, there isn’t a whole lot to recommend it.

The Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater is just such a fine arts hall, and the band, perhaps tired from the New Year’s Eve show at Pleasure Island and the previous night’s performance in Clearwater, seemed to be going through the motions. The set list was essentially the same from the previous year, and it was hard to tell who was more disinterested by show’s end, the band or the audience, some of who didn’t wait for the second encore.

As much fun as the first July show at the House of Blues was, this show in Clearwater lacked energy and lacked the intimacy that helped entertain the audience at the former show. The show started promptly at 8 PM with a local opening act, Joseph Graye. Apparently the singer usually performed as part of the Orlando band Average Joe, but this evening was going solo with his guitar. He sang some eight songs, frequently checking his watch to be sure he wasn’t going overtime, or perhaps trying to figure out how much more material he had to come up with. Nevertheless he had great stage banter and the audience was receptive. Aside from several good original numbers, he also did covers of “Sexual Healing” and Bryan Adams’ “Heaven”. One original number was “American Son”, the title track of their latest album, which was one of the best songs in his set. In it he sang about wanting to be like musical heroes Bob Seger, Jackson Browne etc. and, in his continuing rapport with the audience, slyly tossed in Duran Duran’s name in the final chorus.

He also referred to Duran once or twice during the set, saying he’d seen them backstage and they were looking good. Some girls in the front agreed and he told them to keep their shirts on, at least during Duran’s set. Some of the group were attired in vivid zebra print and had made it onto the front page of the Orlando Sentinel’s local coverage of New Year’s celebrations.

During the intermission, Graye signed CDs in the lobby. An interesting point about his appearance was referred to by Star 95.7’s morning DJ Chris in his introduction. He said Graye was one of the best unsigned artists around and might be one of the first big successes to come from Internet radio. The difficulty of radio exposure is just as much an issue for Duran Duran, who despite longevity and continuing name recognition, are finding it exceedingly difficult to parlay these strengths into radio airplay. In some ways artists like Graye may be better off because there is always the desire for a fresh face and sound, and sometimes prejudice against a known artist who is considered to have had his day.

Of course, Duran Duran didn’t do themselves any favors with their set on January 3rd. At 9 PM the DJ returned with announcements that the band had been on Star 95.7’s morning show and had touched lots of stuff that he would be selling on Ebay the following day. About ten minutes later the band appeared and began “Last Day on Earth” followed by “Hungry Like the Wolf.” LeBon appeared in tennis shoes,a large silver chain, and a sleeveless denim outfit whose rhinestoned top apparently was either too tight or too short, because he kept fidgeting with it until finally changing into a t-shirt later. It was just as well as it had not been a flattering choice. Warren Cuccurullo was in a red flowered white muscle shirt, jeans and a backwards cap and Rhodes sported a maroon suit with a double breasted jacket that almost reached his knees.

The lighting set up was quite basic and there were no effects on the back screen. Rhodes was apparently having some sound problems, and at some point during “Hungry” gestured offstage to someone with a gesture for “little bit” regarding the keyboards. “Hungry” also had light problems, specifically annoyingly flashing the audience with bright lights.

“Good evening, how you doing?” Simon asked the audience prior to “Notorious.” “Speak to me!” he exhorted. During the song it looked alarmingly as if he was checking his watch, but he just kept fidgeting with his leather wristband. He put down the mike at the end and punched out at the audience.

“Thank you, very nice,” he said at the end. “Our job is to make your evening go back if that’s possible.” They then went on to perform “Playing With Uranium.” Unfortunately the plodding pace of the song did nothing to keep the audience with the band. The whole crowd had been standing from the first bars of their appearance, but having to carry the whole band is proving increasingly difficult for Le Bon.

“I’d like to make the next song for any lovers out there or people feeling a bit frisky tonight. It’s quite a sexy song, it’s called “Come Undone,” le Bon prefaced. “I always think about sex when I sing it,” he added, going on for several more lines of introduction. Scattered pockets of people were getting into the song. Le Bon went for a drink at the end and the band launched into “Electric Barbarella”. He tried doing a little robotic dance during the number and a march during its opening bars.

Le Bon went for a break at the end, perhaps tea, was not very subtle and Nick’s attempt at a solo seemed to leave people cold. If anything it highlighted how little was going on on stage if le Bon wasn’t there to focus on.

“Hello Nick, Hello NICK” le Bon said on his return to stage. “How are you tonight, alright? I said alright?” Screams and calls came in response to attention to the synthesist, who responded in his usual deep rumble which was largely unintelligible. “Much quieter outfit for you tonight, isn’t it?” he asked in a moment of hyperness which barely allowed a response from Rhodes. Le Bon then asked him if he would like to introduce the next song, “You’d better because I’m not.” “Alright I will then,”Nick agreed, then joked “This is the part where you usually say something profound, isn’t it?” “You tell me,” Simon replied, and he Nick laughed. “Alright, this is ‘Ordinary World’.”

The song gave a lot of people an opportunity to sit down although some couples hugged and swayed along. Simon adjusted his wristband again, shaking his head. He seemed amused near the end at Warren’s enthusiasm. “Save a Prayer” followed, during which Nick and drummer Joe Travers attempted in fun to synchronize their playing, Joe holding a drumstick in his mouth for some moments. Warren sat on the drum riser and Simon totally screwed up a verse and simply shrugged “blah, blah.” He caught Warren’s eye as he went to the riser and took something out of his mouth. Then he ran offstage at the end, leaving the band a little lost for the moment. However, Warren began “Hallucinating Elvis” and Simon returned with sunglasses. Warren, too, put on shades.

The song picked up the set a bit, giving le Bon a chance to do what he does best, ham it up. “White Lines” followed, with le Bon finally giving up on the denim top and substituting a blue soccer shirt. Nick appeared to sing the “Freeze” intro and then chuckled with bassist Wes Wehmiller. The song, while usually a great pick-me-up, also provided the show’s most surprising moment, at least to some viewers. Le Bon, in a fit of … something, ran over to Nick and not only sang the “rang dang diggidy dang de dang” parts with him, but practically jumped on top of him until Nick laughed and squirmed to avoid Simon’s kiss. Many fans ate it up, of course, but other members of the audience seemed unsure what to make of the display. This probably had nothing to do with Simon’s inability to cajole the audience into joining him in the “White lines, don’t do it” chant, but it probably didn’t help either. (Nick ran back to talk to Wes at the end of the song. One can only speculate if it was to ask him to step in and body slam Simon if he kept trying that move.)

Of course some fans may have felt the same. At the song’s end where Simon has been in the habit of taking a mouthful of water and spewing it out over the audience, some girls in the front row didn’t seem too pleased. But if one girl was in the audience, she likely was…

“We got a request last night, I don’t know if she’s here, the girl who was in the audience last night,” Simon began, “But she was holding up a big sign that said ‘Late Bar’. So we’d like to dedicate this song to our lighting designer, Alex Reardon, ‘Late Bar’.”

Nick seemed to be having difficulties finding a pedal during the number. Simon also burst out cackling at Joe at one point. The audience responded enthusiastically at the song, even though many probably didn’t know it, but Simon cut them off with “Thank you, that’s enough.” The band then moved on to “Skin Trade.” However, either le Bon’s energy or his interest seemed to be waning. During the song he did a few of the now usual arm waves but then gave it up and seemed to dismiss the audience members who tried to do the same. He also seemed to wave off the audience as a whole at the end, walking away from the mike and offstage. It rather set the tone for the rest of the show.

The fans themselves were trying to stay with the program. A group in front held up six copies of Cuccurullo’s recent nude layout in the Brazilian magazine, G during the song. Although they were standing right in front of the guitarist he largely ignored this rather appropriate demonstration. Le Bon, curious said, “Let me see that” and then circled around pretending to look over the layout while singing. Then during the “ha, ha, ha” part he added, “I think you better have this back.” He then sang to Joe at the drum riser and seemed, curiously, somewhat jealous of the momentary attention to Warren, who got no respite as the girls opened the magazine to the layout.

There was also an older man in the first few rows who despite his advancing years, was very enthusiastically keeping up with the music. Some other fans whirled phrase lights spelling out “Duran Rocks”, “Is There Anyone Out There” and “Duran Kicks Ass.”

This last seemed possible as the band moved into “All She Wants Is” which was certainly capable of getting people dancing, and the whole band chanted the “All she” chant. Simon made extra effort with his gyrations and then they played “A View to a Kill” which is generally an audience favorite. But in the middle of the song le Bon simply looked tired, and was breathing hard. He drank a lot of water during “Too Much Information” and spit a lot during the show as well. The crowd cheered “Rio” lustily as the band continued on, but Simon appeared to be having problems with his mic. A tech hurried on stage to try and get it ready as the finale surged. Le Bon tried to get the crowd going at the end and called “Now you have to make some noise!” He introduced the band and then they wrapped up, everyone swigging water and chatted as they exited the stage.

Nick raced out on stage to get the encore going which was the lovely remake of “Secret Oktober”. While the longtime fans no doubt appreciated this inclusion, it wasn’t a very good choice for an encore, being even slower than the original version and unknown to more casual listeners. Le Bon did a nice job, however, giving it a dramatic ending and the light job contributed to the performance, washing from all green to stark white, then spotlighting le Bon to darkness as he looked up, arms raised.

While cheers accompanied the intro to “Girls on Film” the band already seemed to feel the show was over. Le Bon even looked at Rhodes at the end as if to ask “stay or go” and Rhodes shook his head and indicated “off”, so they all left the stage again, with le Bon saying “See you soon, good night.” Some audience members left too, despite the continued dimmed house lights and majority waiting for another number, chanting “Re-flex”.

The band indeed returned and performed “The Reflex”, with le Bon saying “We’d like to play, we have a very special little boy who’s a real survivor, and we’d like to dedicate this song to him because it’s his favorite Duran Duran song, ‘The Reflex’.” Although le Bon tried, he couldn’t manage much during the number with the exception of some of his trademark turns on the “roundabout” line. He went to Rhodes to sing the “Why-y-y-y” parts, but after two rounds Nick looked at him seeming to say “I can’t do it” and Simon said “It doesn’t matter.” Le Bon then tried to interact with Cuccurullo, but it didn’t really work. When the song finally ended, le Bon pulled out his rhinestone earplugs and Rhodes yawned at his keyboards, possibly putting him in synch with the audience for the first time since the early part of the show.

There were reports that the first show had a lot of press and dead weight in the audience, and perhaps the first show had set the mood for the second. But the audience on the 3rd was fairly willing to go along if they were being entertained by the performance. Some overheard comments weren’t very favorable about activity on the stage and some clearly felt the band wasn’t trying very hard.

One other problem pointed out by this show was that their reliance on so much prerecorded music to perform with their stripped down band does not allow them to deviate much from the musical script. What’s more, during “Hallucinating Elvis” it became disturbingly obvious that Simon was not singing some parts, although he was lip syncing them. It brought to mind the unpleasant prospect of one day seeing the band doing little more than miming their hits to crowds of aging contemporaries there to hear “Rio” and “The Reflex” one more time.

In their early stardom, Duran Duran’s biggest problem with its audience was that it seemed too demographically narrow. They no longer have this problem, but instead they now have a very divided audience. One part is having serious nostalgia throwbacks, and others are longtime fans who have seen a lot of what the band does before and really appreciates musical growth. It’s difficult to please both and the band has limited energies 20 years later. Either way the band could certainly work on building more rapport with their crowds, because when they do the shows really work well.

For other stories, visit http://www.geocities.com/mrebaza/duranfic.html

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