Friday, July 18, 2003 | 9:24 a.m.
What: Duran Duran
When: Thursday
Where: The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel
Rating (out of five stars): ****
Nineteen years later I finally got my Duran Duran encore.
Prior to Thursday's show at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel, I last saw the band way back in 1984, on its "Seven and the Ragged Tiger" tour.
I was 11 years old. And I learned my first important lesson about concert protocol the hard way.
My parents, appropriately uncomfortable with the idea of their prepubescent son and one of his friends attending the show without supervision, bought two extra tickets and chaperoned.
Strange as it might have been to sit in the fifth row with my mom and dad, my first rock concert was everything I hoped it would be. Aside from two notable omissions, that is.
When I got to school the next day, I asked another friend who caught the show why Duran Duran had skipped over two of its biggest hits, "Rio" and "Girls on Film."
He stared at me in disbelief, and responded, "They played them in the encore."
Whoops. In my parents' haste to get ahead of traffic, they had steered us out of the arena before the house lights went up.
So on Thursday, when Duran Duran's original lineup brought its reunion tour to The Joint, you can be sure I was one of the last to exit the place.
The encore wasn't quite identical to the one I missed. This time the five Brits played "The Reflex" and "Girls on Film," with "Rio" closing out the main set.
Regardless, it provided a fantastic finish to a lively two-hour show, leaving a rabid near-capacity crowd of 2,000 satiated and, in many cases, visibly exhausted.
From the start, the five men -- singer Simon LeBon, guitarist Andy Taylor, keyboardist Nick Rhodes, bassist John Taylor and drummer Roger Taylor -- appeared elated to be sharing the stage again.
There were smiles all around, as bandmates shared inside jokes and paired off for short musical interludes.
"It's really great getting back together with friends," LeBon announced early. "I missed these guys so much."
Thursday's gig was the seventh on the quintet's 25th anniversary tour, coming after five Japanese dates and shows in Southern California on Tuesday and Wednesday. Before that, the original Duranies most recently played together at 1985's Live Aid benefit concert.
Early in the show, you'd never have guessed it had been that long. The five musicians came out flying, thrilling the crowd of mainly thirtysomethings with early '80s favorites "Friends of Mine," "Hungry Like the Wolf" and "Planet Earth."
LeBon remains the group's charismatic lightning rod. Flanked on either side by the black-clothed Andy and John Taylor, LeBon shined extra-brightly in his white sport coat. He twirled, high-stepped and strutted, playing up to the screaming diehards in the front of the crowd.
Borrowing a page from one-time FM peer Corey Hart, Andy Taylor wore sunglasses all night. He had no trouble seeing his guitar strings, however, adding some edge to the band's sound with his solos and fills.
As I recall, in 1984 Rhodes' sythnesizers dominated the instrumental mix, no surprise given the tastes of the time. The retooled Duran Duran sounds far more organic, with the rhythm section -- particularly the booming John Taylor -- guiding the band in a variety of different directions.
The concert's middle third was home to most of those excursions: the trippy, creepy "(Waiting for the) Night Boat"; a cover of Grandmaster Flash's "White Lines (Don't Do It)" and the back-to-back ballads "Save a Prayer" and "Ordinary World."
The former Tiger Beat cover boys -- now all in their 40s -- also stayed current, introducing three songs expected to be on their upcoming album. Crunching rocker "Virus" showed some promise, and the Brit-poppy "Reach Up for the Sunrise" left the most lasting impression of the new material.
As could be expected of a band that has been apart far longer than it was originally together, there were several ragged moments. "Is There Something I Should Know?" and "Wild Boys," most notably, both sagged at times, though most of the crowd seemed too delirious at the chance to sing along to care.
LeBon's voice also lost some of its luster as the night wore on, no great surprise considering the extent to which he pushed it throughout the show.
But the singer, and Duran elder statesman at age 44, reharnessed his instrument in the nick of time, leading the final charge with spot-on renditions of "Careless Memories" and the aforementioned "Rio," "The Reflex" and "Girls on Film."
If you didn't get your fill of Duran Duran on Thursday, or if you simply didn't get in, don't fret. The band will be back at The Joint on Saturday night at 8 for what else? An encore performance.
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