‘Boy band’ Duran Duran proves they were always so much more at packed Dallas show
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The term “boy band” has often been used derisively to describe pop music acts that appear to be manufactured from the backrooms of opportunistic record company executives devising a way to sell an image to impressionable youths.
Whether the music has depth, is clever, or offers anything new to the world is irrelevant.
That was never really the story of Duran Duran, despite being slapped with similar descriptions when they blew up into worldwide popstars in the early 1980s thanks to a series of catchy, synth-laden pop hits, the emergence of MTV and, let’s face it, pretty boy good looks.
And while the five-piece band long-ago proved they are much more than a pretty face, their nearly two-hour set Saturday night at American Airlines Center served to underline the point and remind anyone still holding doubts.
Yes, Duran Duran is gaining something of a resurgence of respect of late. And it’s about time.
Four of the five original or longtime members, including vocalist Simon Le Bon, keyboardist Nick Rhodes, drummer Roger Taylor, and bassist John Taylor, plus guitarist Dominic Brown and saxophonist Simon Willescroft, sounded crisp and tight but loose in all the best ways. The sound has rarely been as even and smooth as it was Saturday night at the AAC. So hats off to the band and their audio engineers.
It’s easy for a synth-heavy band such as Duran Duran to get washed out with a smeared and messy mix in a packed arena with about 17,000 in attendance (the entire seating behind the stage was curtained off). Instead, Rhodes’ keyboards, which serve as the backbone of much of the British’s bands catalog, sounded pristine and appropriately mixed.
Le Bon, who turns 65 in October, looked fit and trim in a sparkly white suit over a black t-shirt, his hair cropped short and a tightly-trimmed beard. His voice still sturdy as if the past 40-plus years have left no wear and tear. This was especially obvious during the band’s five-song opening of up-tempo tracks, including “Night Boat,” and “Hungry Like the Wolf,” both of which are more than 40 years old.
“How do you feel about bondage in Texas,” Le Bon quipped ahead of a brief James Bond theme intro to their 1985 Bond soundtrack hit “A View To a Kill.”
Background vocalists Rachael O’Connor and Anna Ross kept moving around the stage in red miniskirts and took turns dueting with Le Bon.
The emotional highpoint of the night came with arguably the group’s crowning achievement with 1993’s “Ordinary World.” Le Bon dedicated it to the people of Ukraine, who are still fighting off a Russian invasion.
“We have a song which brought the band back from the brink when we were written off,” he said. “A song that helps people feel that they’re not alone in this world. This songs brings people together. It’s about accepting the life that you’re given, not the one you planned for, or the one you hoped for, but the one you have.
“I’d like to dedicate this song to the people of Ukraine. It’s been 500 days now they have been suffering, enduring, unspeakable terror at the hands of a tyrannical regime. One great big bully next door. It’s important that we don’t forget them, that we keep them in the front of our minds. All they want is to live in their country in peace. All they want is an ordinary world.”
Brown’s soaring guitar punctuated the poignancy in the lovely melody as Le Bon’s falsetto soared the song’s coda “And as I try to make my way, to the ordinary world, I will learn to survive,” he sang.
John Taylor’s nimble bass shined throughout the night, particularly on “A View To a Kill,” “Careless Memories,” and show closer “Rio,” the title track from the band’s second album, released in 1982.
Willescroft’s sax propelled “Planet Earth” and “Rio” to add an understated funkiness to synthesizer-infuzed New Wave dance pop that somehow still makes aural sense 40 years later.
Except for some high-tech videoboards that could be lowered and raised on either side of the stage and a videoboard behind the stage, the theatrics and lighting were never overbearing or more interesting than the music. Images were displayed to augment specific tunes, including a string of images of the band from their “boy band” ‘80s heyday during “Is There Something I Should Know?” one of five songs performed from the band’s self-titled 1981 debut.
Duran Duran has played a slew of shows in Texas going back to 1984, including last August when they played Dickies Arena in Fort Worth as part of a mini-tour that eventually turned into the 26-stop Future Past Tour, which supports the band’s 15th and most recent record of the same name, released in October 2021. They last played Dallas at Fair Park’s Music Hall in March 2017.
They first played North Texas at Dallas’ Reunion Arena in February 1984.
At the time, they were arguably the most famous pop band in the world. But probably not given their proper respect for their artistry.
That isn’t the case anymore. These “boys” have long been men and have proven over and again that they have the pretty tunes — and the chops — to go along with the pretty faces.
Duran Duran setlist, Dallas, Texas, June 10, 2023
Night Boat
The Wild Boys
Hungry Like the Wolf
A View to a Kill (With 007 theme intro)
Notorious
Give It All Up
Lonely in Your Nightmare / Super Freak
Is There Something I Should Know?
Anniversary
Friends of Mine
Careless Memories
Ordinary World
Come Undone
Planet Earth
White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It) (Grandmaster Melle Mel cover)
The Reflex
Girls on Film/Acceptable in ‘80s
Save a Prayer
Rio
