Forget MTV: Duran Duran reiterates it’s music, not videos, that drives the band
Most any kid who grew up in the ’80s and ’90s was familiar with the splashy videos of Duran Duran, the ultra-popular new wave band whose tunes, it seemed, were part of an endless loop back when MTV’S format was predominantly focused on videos.
There was “Hungry Like the Wolf,” giving off its vibes of the rainforest and ”Indiana Jones.” Don’t forget “Rio,” where the pastel suit-and-tie clad members of the band sang while cruising along the ocean waters in a yacht. And remember the two versions of “Girls on Film” — one to be played during the day for general audiences and one at night for MTV’S “more mature” viewers.
Fast forward to the 2020s: Duran Duran’s roster has changed. The pastel-colored suits have given way onstage to a more casual jacket, T-shirt, pants and sneakers look. And the long locks of Duran Duran stalwarts Simon Le Bon, John Taylor, Roger Taylor and Nick Rhodes now are short and cropped.
But the talent behind those glory days continues to flourish, as witnessed this past week at Encore Theater.
Duran Duran, in town for stops on its “FUTURE PAST” 40th anniversary tour, rocked its way through Las Vegas with shows Thursday and Saturday.
Encore Theater — as intimate a setting as you’ll find among the major casino showrooms — reverberated with synth-popnew wave melodies made famous in part by those MTV videos. Le Bon, the charismatic lead singer of the band, joked about how small the venue was. But the crowd, like the band, was raucous throughout the night. Song after song, members of the audience sang, shouted, shook and danced to just shy of two hours’ worth of the band’s hits, ranging from the aforementioned “Hungry Like the Wolf” to the James Bond “A View to Kill” movie theme, to “The Reflex.”
From their latest album, “Future Past,” Duran Duran slipped in four tunes, “INVISIBLE,” “ALL OF YOU,” “GIVE IT ALL UP,” and “TONIGHT UNITED.”
The night also included a shout-out from Lebon to “our brothers and sisters in Ukraine.” In dedicating the 1995 smash “Ordinary World” to them, Le Bon said, “We wish them peace, love and a return to their ‘Ordinary World.’”
For the concertgoers, the night provided proof that decades after their videos helped launch them into music stardom, it was Duran Duran’s music that made the difference.