Duran Duran - Part Two

Shelley and I were among 6,000 Duranies, many of whom never quite made the transition to adulthood, which made for some interesting scenery. It's safe to say that nearly everyone in the crowd was over 30, and those who weren't were the 12 year-old daughters of the New Romantic throwbacks who managed to fit into their black baggy pants and white skinny ties or their Duran Duran "Seven and the Ragged Tiger" tour t-shirt, circa 1984.

Shelley wanted to kill me because I wouldn't stop playing with my phone, which I was using to either take pictures, call Audioblogger, or record some of the concert using my voice memo (all of the audio files sound horrible, so I'll spare you); but other than that, we were immersed in two solid hours of nostalgia. And though we didn't know one another back in 1984 when we both first saw Duran Duran (she at Key Arena me at The LA Forum), our experiences were identical.

I've seen a few of my favorite "old" bands perform recently and I can honestly say that out of all of them, The Cure and Duran Duran have stood the test of time and still sound amazing (and they look great, too--John Taylor somehow managed to lose his middle-aged paunch and Simon LeBon looks as though those Botox treatments are working wonders).

I love music that catapults me back to the first time I'd ever heard it. During the concert, "Planet Earth" was one of those songs--and I can remember, during the summer of 1982 when I saw the video on MTV. For me, it wasn't just about that song, I knew that there was new music out there, just waiting for me to get my little hands on. Sure, my older cousin Lori had already turned me on to Split Enz, Squeeze and the Police--but there was more...much more and at the time MTV was my gateway. That's how I first learned about The Cure, Depeche Mode, Simple Minds, Fun Boy Three, The Specials, The Jam, and The English Beat.

I remember how, during the summer of 1983, I was so nutso over Duran Duran (I was 15), my mom had flown to California to go house hunting and she left me in the care of my neighbors for the weekend with about one hundred dollars for "incidentals". As soon as she left the house, I went to Crazy Eddie's on Route 17 and bought Duran Duran's "video album" for $80. Never mind that I didn't have a VCR, I used my neighbors' instead.

During the show, I enjoyed the anime playing on the large video screen behind the band during "Careless Memories," where the band teamed up to conquer EMI (in this case "Endangered Music Industry"), blowing the building the smithereens.

Of course, the only thing missing at this concert was what I experienced during the '84 show in LA: I didn't get to meet Ricky Schroeder or C. Thomas Howell. After the Forum show, as my cousin Guen and I were waiting for my mom to pick us up, a sea of girls stood around a green Delta 88. Curious, we walked up to the car and said "hi" to the driver and passenger. They smiled and told us to get in the back. We did (again, um, I was 15...didn't say I was exceptionally bright). Upon introductions, we learned we were with "Rick" and "Thom" who proceeded to invite us to a party in LA. My response? "We can't cuz my mom'll be here any second..." (Guen and I had a good long laugh about this two weeks ago when I saw her at brunch in Huntington Beach...she said, "what the fuck were we thinking?")

We blew it. Our fifteen minutes of fame were up before we even knew it.