Beth’s Music Moment: Ironing Simon’s Pants

And you wanted to dance so I asked you to dance

But fear is in your soul

Some people call it a one-night stand

But we can call it paradise

~~ Duran Duran, “Save A Prayer”

Before I get into the story of the rather strange title of this entry, I’ll give you a review of my beloved Duran Duran at Ravinia Park Pavilion north of Chicago on Saturday, July 9th! (Click on a picture to embiggenate.)

When Ken and I saw Duran Duran at Berkeley last October, the show immediately rocketed into my Top Five concerts ever. The concert at Ravinia also rocketed into my Top Five and even passed the show at the Greek!

Why was this one better? Well, they were both fantastic. But this one was a bit of a bigger production. I think the first leg of the tour last year was a test—an attempt to see how well they would be received, how ticket sales would be, what songs, both old and new, would go over well. When they expanded this year’s tour, a continuation of the “Paper Gods” tour, they added a few songs, the lights and video seemed more fleshed out, and it seemed a little less stripped down than the show we saw at the Greek. This was two hours of sheer entertainment and I danced my ass off!

First, the venue. It was my first time at Ravinia Park and it was absolutely gorgeous! It really is a park and the stage and pavilion are surrounded by grass and trees. The lawn was absolutely packed with people having elaborate picnics, including tables with tablecloths, huge spreads of food, drinks...I said it was like a fancy version of tailgating at Notre Dame! Duran Duran posted on their Facebook page that a couple had even gotten married and had their wedding reception there and that they were happy to be a small part of the couple’s special day. Awww!

Our seats were in the pavilion, though, not on the lawn. Seeing them up there onstage for real is much more fun than seeing them on a big video screen! Our seats were great (I got us VIP tickets via the DD website because I’m a club member) and we settled down with Shane and Matt to wait. The show started right on time, with the opening band Chic and Nile Rodgers taking the stage promptly at 7 PM. They opened for DD when we saw them at the Greek, too, and they blew me away then. They didn’t disappoint this time, and Nile Rodgers is an absolute legend. Not only is he an amazing producer and songwriter, he is an incredible showman. He knows how to get a crowd moving and his smile just lit up the whole joint. He talked about being a cancer survivor as an introduction to the song he wrote about that, “Get Lucky” by Daft Punk. It’s not often that I stand for the whole time for an opening act, but I honestly don’t know how anyone could sit down for that set!

After a brief break between bands, in which we got to see my cousin Michael and his husband Mike, the lights went down and the opening to “Paper Gods” started. There was lots of fog and dramatic lighting as the band took the stage, and then the lights hit Simon as he started to sing. Ooo, I get chills just writing about it! For the next two hours, it was hit after hit, and on the songs that weren’t hits from the new album, I danced my ass off, anyway! I sang, I pumped my fist in the air for “Wild Boys,” I yelled, “Play that fuckin’ bass, John!” I had a TOTAL BLAST. In Berkeley, I didn’t get to hear “Wild Boys” or their cover of “White Lines,” but I got both in this show! They had also not been playing “The Reflex” on some of the European shows, but it was back in the setlist, as was “Save A Prayer” which was surprisingly not on the Nashville setlist. The band dedicated that song to Nick Rhodes, who sadly was not there due to a family emergency back in England. You were missed, Nick, but the woman filling in for him, MNDR, did a great job in his place!

One of the coolest parts? Shane mentioned it first, but it was my feeling upon seeing them in Berkeley: they were really having fun up there. Simon was smiling and joking, John was grinning, the backup singers were dancing around and having a blast, and they were all loving us for loving them. Of course, Roger was his usual stoic self, but he flashed a big grin when they came out to take a bow! Like I always say, “Show the band some love!” You’ll get it back a thousandfold with an incredible show, and that’s what happened here. John was wearing a t-shirt with a sequined “Rio” smile on it, and at one point, cheeky Simon went up and kissed him on the chest. Made me laugh!

They are absolute professionals and incredibly talented musicians. The show was perfect, with no technical glitches or sound problems. I kind of lost myself for a couple of hours and what better way to do it? This show reaffirmed my love and respect for the band. Not that it needed reaffirming!

Oh, and have I mentioned Simon Le Bon’s tight white pants yet? No? Shame on me! That became a bit of a joke, because for a while there, practically every review I read of their shows included a mention of how good Simon looks in his “tight white trousers” or “tight white jeans.” (It’s true. He does.) That is what led to the title of this entry. After we checked into the hotel, the four of us were sitting around talking before we went to dinner. I said, “I wonder where the band is staying? Palmer House, maybe?” Either Shane or Matt said, “They’re staying right here!” There was an adjoining door to the room next door and one of them said, “John is staying next door!”

We were cracking up because it was funny to imagine Duran Duran staying in a Courtyard Marriott. Then Shane took it to another level and said, “Simon is probably opening the closet, pulling out the iron and ironing board, and ironing his tight white pants right now!” I don’t know what it was, but that struck us so funny that I fell over laughing on the bed. Not only imagining them staying in a Courtyard Marriott but picturing Simon ironing his own pants. Probably in his underwear, right? Right!

But wait, there’s more! The next morning, as we’re getting ready to go grab some breakfast, I get a text from Shane: “New band name: Ironing Simon’s Pants”! I about died!

But wait, there’s even more! When I mentioned that on Facebook, our friend Tim came up with an album cover for us. I’ll let you know when it’s released! (Don’t hold your breath!)

I experienced a bit of post-showital blues, but I’m back to my usual self. It was a total kicky blast of a weekend. Thanks to Saint Ken for putting up with our shenanigans, thanks to Shane and Matt for aiding and abetting in said shenanigans, and thanks to Duran Duran for making me smile for so many years. I don’t think I could adore them more. Fangirl is happy!

Get ‘em to the Greek

You’ve gone too far this time

But I’m dancing on the valentine

~~ Duran Duran, “The Reflex”

Play that fuckin' bass, John!

Whoops, I had really intended to write before this, but after getting back from our whirlwind San Francisco trip, I was occupied with laundry and other things around the house, as well as re-adjusting to my usual time zone (I seem to be very time zone sensitive), and just generally recharging my batteries. As much as I love to travel, it does seem to wear me out being around all that humanity.

We had a wonderful time in the city! It was so great to see Todd and we’ll make sure the next visit doesn’t take us as long as this one did. We had lots of delicious seafood and I had a little too much fun at the Tonga Room (Beware the Lava Bowl!)! But it was a ton o’ fun and San Francisco is still one of my favorite cities to visit. We rode the cable car one day, and something about it was just so iconic that it made me verklempt. Hearing the rumble of the wheels on the tracks, the clang of the bell, the creak of the car as it took the curves, and seeing the hilly side streets going up and up...ahhhh. It was a lovely moment.

Do I look happy and excited? I was!

Anyway, the impetus of our trip was to see Duran Duran at the Greek Theater at UC Berkeley! We took BART over to Berkeley fairly early so we had plenty of time to find a place to eat. We decided on pizza and beers and sat outside in a pleasant little courtyard. We ended up talking to the women at the next table, Sarah and her girlfriend Crystal from Bend, Oregon. They were just so sweet and so fun to talk to and we are now Facebook friends! I bet we’ll see them again at some point, maybe on a visit to Portland. Then we talked to a woman sitting next to me, who was originally from Slovenia. We had a nice conversation with her, too. Then we talked to a group of three women a little further away who were also going to the concert and they were also super nice! It was such a lovely dinner because everyone was in a very happy mood and it was so much fun to talk to everyone! (Although some of that might be why I was so exhausted when we got home!)

Then it was time to make our way to the venue. The UC-Berkeley campus was gorgeous (at least what we saw of it), and the Greek Theater is a beautiful open-air theater with a capacity of about 8,000. The seats around the perimeter seem to rise fairly steeply, so I suspect that there isn’t a bad seat in the house. Ours certainly weren’t, because we were in the fourth row! To make it even better, we were on the left, so we were in front of John Taylor (insert automatic swoon here)!

I had to wait a while for Duran Duran because there were not one, but two opening bands. The first was Clean Bandit, who are apparently causing a bit of a buzz among those who like dance music. I had seen a couple of their videos and liked them, and they had a lot of energy and were very fun! Next up was none other than Nile Rodgers and Chic, and they blew me away. Nile Rodgers is an amazing musician and performer. He had us all up dancing and got us perfectly primed for the main act! I knew we’d see Nile again since he was a producer on both Notorious and the new album, Paper Gods.

Finally, it was time. Duran Duran opened with the title track from Paper Gods, as I knew they would, and it was fabulous. We were off and running! I can’t say that I screamed like a teenager—I don’t think my voice reaches that register anymore—but I did my share of yelling and I know there were moments when I had my hands on my head in a sort of “Oh my glob!” gesture. This is a band of consummate professionals, people who know how to not just play, but how to command a stage. It helps, of course, that they were a veritable hit machine for quite a few years, with so many of the songs indelibly familiar to many of us.

Some of the most magical moments (yes, I said magical...and they were for me!) were when the crowd was singing along. I’m not always a fan of singalongs, but when they work, they work. It’s a moment of shared experience with other human beings and a communal vibe that just feels good. We all sang to “The Reflex” and to “Rio,” with a little bit of singing for various other songs. The new songs sounded great and the party vibe of “Pressure Off” (with Nile Rodgers joining on guitar) was aided by a big ol’ confetti explosion that made it feel like New Year’s Eve. The older songs didn’t sound tired or dated; they were as fun and danceable as ever.

Let me just say again how talented this band is as musicians and performers. You can tell they’ve been doing this for a while (35 years, in fact), and they’ve got it figured out. In some bands of this longevity, that can come across as stale or “calling it in.” That is not the case with Duran Duran. They seemed to be genuinely having fun out there and made sure to put on a good show for the crowd. The sound and visuals were great, no one sounded off or off-beat, and Simon’s voice was phenomenal. He hits some high notes on some of the new songs and it wasn’t just digital manipulation because he hit those same high notes live. I think his voice has matured as he’s gotten older, and I read that he worked with a vocal coach to “rebuild” his voice a while back. He learned to not force it as much and just let it go. I noticed that on the new album and it was also very noticeable in concert.

This show immediately rocketed into my Top Five concerts of all time. If you know me or have been following me here for a while, you know that I’ve been to a lot of concerts! I know I was primed for it because I’ve been on such a DD kick for a while now, so that may have had something to do with it. But I went into this with high expectations, partly because I was so excited to see them and partly because I’ve heard that they are a fantastic band live. They did not just meet those expectations. They exceeded them. It was just a great, great show. I could have listened to them play for another hour and a half and would have stood and danced on the valentine the entire time!

Oh, and they looked kind of nice, too.

[video from Concertkid found on YouTube]