When Sarah e-mailed last week to see if I liked Duran Duran and whether I wanted some free tickets in exchange for a blog post, I was on it like white on rice. Or butter on bread. Or leather pants on a rock star. I mean, I was only a kid in the 80's, but Simon LeBon? Will always be Simon LeBon. I couldn't wait to see if he'd aged as well as I'd hoped or if maybe all his band photos had just been photo-shopped. All I had to do to get these tickets was agree to write about it and seriously, I WOULD HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT IT ANYWAY. Win-win.
So on Saturday, after a lovely afternoon BBQ with some good friends, two guitars and a half dozen bottles of wine, we arrived at the venue and had to wait until the band sent our tickets down to will call (which honestly, right there, made us feel purty speshl). We entertained ourselves with my camera, a park bench and, as per usual, some dangerously inappropriate PDA.
(He's not as think as you drunk he is...)
(But I was EXACTLY as think as you drunk I was.)
(AWWWWWW.)
We were DUMBFOUNDED when the tickets finally arrived and we got inside the Theater of the Clouds (which is really just half of the Rose Garden Arena where the Trailblazers play) because they were DEAD CENTER, 6TH ROW. I've never had better seats to anything. EVER. It was hard not to let it go to our heads. Our shiny, sweaty heads...
I'm happy to report that the years have been kind to Mr. LeBon.
(I'd hit that.)
Duran Duran played a tight set. Unlike a lot of bands of their ilk, instead of only focusing on their latest album, they played mostly hits. I can only imagine that must be the bane of their existence after performing WILD BOYS and the REFLEX thousands of times, but it was exactly what the audience wanted.
Our only complaint was that Simon could've talked more in between songs, but other than that, they sounded the same as they do on the radio and that's pretty much as good as it gets for a rock concert. The crowd also made us both feel exceptionally YOUNG. For me it was because at age 35, I actually AM YOUNG. At least as far as Duran Duran fans go. Joel, on the other hand, is 45, but just knowing he would always be younger than the band members put a spring in his step.
We ended up running into more than one group of friends. Most notably, our friends Magik and Precious, who saw me jumping up and down Kriss-Kross style in the sixth row and texted us this photo from their luxury box seats above. It was my favorite shot of the night.
(The blonde and baldman! Stealthiness will never be one of our super powers.)
After the summer of strife we've had, it was nice to feel - even for just one night - like we'd arrived.
Well played, Duran Duran. Well played.
I think it's really interesting (and cool!) how DD has really hit up the blogging community for press with their tour. I've seen so many ticket giveaways/reviews of the concerts on blogs. Nice tactic. Cuz otherwise-I would have had no idea that they were on tour or even had a new album.
Posted by: Jules | September 29, 2011 at 09:31 AM