Tuesday, April 12, 2016

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Yes, I went to the Duran Duran concert last night. It was lots of fun.

Many have given me odd looks, that I could/would do such a thing, as to go to a concert unaccompanied, but I am blessed with the ability to care little to nothing about what people think about what I do. Yes, I went to this concert on my own, but I can share my experience with it here afterwards. If my mobile device actually had a data plan, I could even have shared the experience while I was there, but I don't have a data plan so I don't have 'live feed' capability.

Duran Duran invited two bands to perform previous to their show, the first was Shamir pictured here:


It was neat to see how the stage was set up - Shamir's band's stuff was all at the front, crowding Shamir in a little. Immediately behind Shamir's stuff was Chic's stuff, and finally behind that was Duran Duran's stuff. Prior to Shamir coming on, this is what the stage looked like:
My mobile phone camera can only do so much, as you can see. Probably the above image would be best seen when the ambient lighting is dark.

Shamir's androgynous or countertenor voice carried very well at the Bell Centre. His songs altered between techno and ballad with some crossing both. After Shamir performed it was Chic featuring Nile Rodgers. Chic played a string of disco hits of their own and also played 'Let's Dance' by David Bowie as a tribute to him. They were really good and had the crowd moving. The best photo I got of them is this one:
On the stage, the person that is closest to the front is Nile Rodgers, a little behind him and on each side of him (closest to us she is dressed in white, furthest from us she is dressed in black) are his two main singers who did most of the vocals for the songs Chic performed. Behind them and around them are the rest of the band. I really enjoyed their performance but didn't know their songs too well.

And then finally after clearing off Chic's band equipment it was time for Duran Duran to come on. Here is the best photo of the ones I took of Duran Duran:
Starting clockwise from the bottom, in all dark clothes is John Taylor (bass guitarist), in the back is the drummer (Roger Taylor), just to the right of a suspended speaker set is Nick Rhodes on keyboards, above him to the right are two back-up singers, coming down the front at the top is the guitarist (Duran Duran doesn't have a standing guitarist and I don't remember his name when Simon introduced him) and then finally the lead singer, Simon Le Bon.

Throughout the concert they played four or five songs from their recently released 'Paper Gods' album and the rest were hits from the past. They did not play anything from 'All You Need is Now' their second most recently released album. It was clear that the people sitting around me had not listened to the Paper Gods album which we all got for free for having bought tickets to their concert. When these latest songs played, no one around me knew the words or recognized the songs; they only sang along and danced to the hits. I, on the other hand, had followed their setlist and had created a playlist of it on my mobile device and had been listening to it incessantly since about February. I knew all of the songs that the band would play.

Near the end of the concert the guy to my right called out 'Reflex!' asking for one of their hits, "The Reflex" to be played. I knew, based on their past performances, that this would not be on the setlist, but something happened at this concert that hadn't happened elsewhere. After they played their two encore songs (Save a Prayer and Rio) the audience cheered as one, calling out 'Reflex!','Reflex!' with such a resounding force that the band could hear this unmistakably. I couldn't tell who of the band made the decision, but they never really fully left the stage, though they had left their positions, and then they returned to their positions and played 'The Reflex'.

All in all it was a great concert; the band members still look fit and well, and if bands like Rush or the Stones kept playing, it seems to me this may not be the last Duran Duran concert I go to.

2 comments:

Zhoen said...

You never had to shout at yourself to hear yourself. Seems entirely reasonable to attend a concert solo.

Phil Plasma said...

I would guess that for those of us who persist in blogging this far into time since blogging began would probably be okay with attending concerts solo. Perhaps I'm generalizing.