Duran + Lynch

March 25, 2011 9:47 AM

Earlier this week, nearly 30 years since the release of their first album, Duran Duran played a concert which was streamed live online, directed by David Lynch.

The concert and livestream were to promote their new album, the video of the first single from which can be seen here. Also, a "making of" video for the new album.

The online setlist is as of yet incomplete, but a majority of the concert can be watched on YouTube.

All You Need Is Now
Notorious (with Beth Ditto)
Blame the Machines
Hungry Like the Wolf
Safe
Friends of Mine
Planet Earth
Leave A Light On
Voyeur
Ordinary World
The Man Who Stole a Leopard (w/Kelis)
Girl Panic!
Careless Memories
(Reach Up For the) Sunrise
Rio
Come Undone
Encore:
A View to a Kill
Girls on Film

David Lynch also engaged with the band in various ways before the night of the concert, including having band members keep dream diaries (Nick Rhodes Part 1 2 3, Simon Le Bon, John Taylor), getting them to reminisce about their early music memories (1, 2, 3, 4), and a VERY Lynchian Twitter Q&A session.

posted by hippybear (39 comments total)

Man, this takes me back. My very first concert was a Duran Duran concert in 1985. Thank you for sharing!
posted by headspace at 9:51 AM on March 25, 2011

I like the part where Simon LeBon pulls out Nick Rhodes' heart plug.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:52 AM on March 25, 2011 [4 favorites]

I didn't like Duran Duran back in the day, and I really don't care for them now. But for some reason this makes me happy.
posted by marxchivist at 9:57 AM on March 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

What's next, Jodorowsky directing a Billy Joel concert?

Low blow, item. Low blow.
posted by shakespeherian at 10:05 AM on March 25, 2011

What's next, Jodorowsky directing a Billy Joel concert?

Already been done.
posted by Fizz at 10:05 AM on March 25, 2011

And they didn't cover Bobby Vinton's Blue Velvet?
posted by three blind mice at 10:07 AM on March 25, 2011

For the record. I was there from the very beginning pretty much. Duran Duran started out as an interesting "New Romantic" outfit that was pulling off some cool stuff, particularly production-wise. But by the time they HIT BIG with Hungry Like A Wolf etc, they were sheer, silly bubblegum. That is, anyone over the age of thirteen that took them seriously was viewed with suspicion.
posted by philip-random at 10:12 AM on March 25, 2011

I was not a fan back in the day, and was dead center of the target demographic: female graduating high school in 1985. I mellowed a lot on them in the early 90s, though, and have really enjoyed their recent records. The new one is a big return to form, and The Man Who Stole a Leopard may be in competition for my favorite Duran song ever. I missed them at Stubb's during SXSW (no surprise, there was a badge line), but I've seen them on their last tour and they still work to put on a show.

Thanks for posting this, since I missed the livestream (and I can stream the videos to my TV, but I haven't figured out how to do the livestream stuff).
posted by immlass at 10:13 AM on March 25, 2011

I wasn't much of a fan in the 80s, because we thought it was cool to hate on the stuff that the girls went nuts for, but Duran Duran has really grown on me over the years and I have to say that even the bubblegum stuff seriously beats out some of the pop nonsense that's releasing today. Having said that, I can't watch the grills, hotdogs, mice and masks floating around.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to eat something before I take my back pills.
posted by jquinby at 10:29 AM on March 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Somewhere in an attic there is a portrait of Duran Duran where all the group members are looking pretty scary by now. That is what David Lynch should make a movie about.

But these are cool meanwhile - especially good to hear they can still make a good job of 'Careless Memories' - their best IMHO.
posted by rongorongo at 10:37 AM on March 25, 2011 [4 favorites]

I actually like their music, but I have to hate Duran Duran because my little sister liked them. Even after all these years.

It's just... The Reflex.

sunglasses


YYYYYYEEEEEAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
posted by GuyZero at 10:46 AM on March 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

Duran Duran is the 80s, and anyone who says otherwise either wasn't there, or was there and disagrees with me.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 11:04 AM on March 25, 2011 [16 favorites]

Duran Duran is the 80s, and anyone who says otherwise either wasn't there or was there and disagrees with me.
posted by Civil_Disobedient

once FTFY i can say QFTMFT

:)
posted by liza at 11:16 AM on March 25, 2011

There is a "Rio" edition to the British "Classic Albums" documentary series. This series is interesting as it spools up the source tapes, fires up the board, and they get the band members and producers out to talk about how the album was made.

Several times they had John Taylor, bass in hand playing along with the source tapes and I was flat out impressed by the tightness and fluidity of his feel.
posted by sourwookie at 11:23 AM on March 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Duran Duran is the 80s, and anyone who says otherwise either wasn't there, or was there and disagrees with me.

Oh, I was there, all right. I don't disagree that they were the 80s as much as Patrick Nagel and Bret Easton Ellis were. Doesn't mean that I can't shudder thinking about it.
posted by blucevalo at 11:44 AM on March 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Meh. They didn't do White Lines.
posted by pianomover at 11:51 AM on March 25, 2011

I saw them in 2009 and their version of White Lines was kinda lame, so you didn't miss anything.
posted by vespabelle at 11:57 AM on March 25, 2011

Best use of Duran Duran ever is the disjointed audio of Ordinary World as heard from the point of view of a guy being beaten to a pulp in Layer Cake. Evar!
posted by Babblesort at 12:01 PM on March 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

I also fall into the "liked 'em before they were successful, rejected them when they were successful, went back 20 years later and discovered there was really an awful lot to like" camp.

I am glad maturity has finally made me able to genuinely appreciate the music that the 15 year old girls in my life in 1984 enjoyed.
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:18 PM on March 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

blucevalo mentions what I was going to, with a Nagel print it's not the 1980s. (I always associate The Cars with Nagel prints, for some reason.)
posted by maxwelton at 12:20 PM on March 25, 2011

It's fascinating how the old hipster templates persist:

For the record. I was there from the very beginning pretty much. [musical group] started out as an interesting "[buzzword description]" outfit that was pulling off some cool stuff, particularly production-wise. But by the time they HIT BIG with [mainstream success] etc, they were sheer, silly bubblegum. That is, anyone over the age of thirteen that took them seriously was viewed with suspicion.
posted by Slap Factory at 12:47 PM on March 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

I watched the Rio link, Nick Rhodes loks like he is hoping the Pet Shop Boys will call and offer him a gig.
posted by biffa at 12:56 PM on March 25, 2011

If this had come out in 1990, my head would've exploded.
posted by brand-gnu at 1:14 PM on March 25, 2011

oh man, I loved them -- like, had fights with friends over who was going to grow up and marry Simon vs. who was going to grow up and marry John -- during the reign of those first two albums. Then I hit 9th grade and realized that there were divisions between serious music (read: the Clash) and unserious music (read: Duran Duran) and I went all in for Serious Music and wrote a scathing -- scathing, I tell you! -- review of Seven and the Ragged Tiger for my junior high newspaper in which I accused them of selling out in order to make a career of being asinine. (Yes, I had just learned that word, and yes I was going to show it off!) I had believed that this would somehow magically win me Serious Alternative Music Cred with the 20something hipster record clerks downtown at Wax Trax (to which I devotedly rode the bus from our house every weekend), but really all it did was win me the further enmity of the cheerleaders at school. (Insert sad trombone here.)
posted by scody at 1:15 PM on March 25, 2011 [8 favorites]

(oh, and of course at some point in the '90s -- probably around the time The Wedding Album came out -- I realized that my stance was ridiculous, and I wholly re-embraced the glory that is the Duran squared, along with Adam and the Ants, whose first couple of albums are actually seriously the best, you guys.)
posted by scody at 1:19 PM on March 25, 2011 [3 favorites]

Having endured Arcade Fire's Terry Gilliam-directed live-streamed concert, I believe I can safely avoid this.
posted by progosk at 1:26 PM on March 25, 2011

Definitely count me in the original Duran Duran haters as a teenager, but really that was a reflex move because for a boy at the age of 13, it was not cool to admit liking them.

There was also no seeing past the packaged artifice, they played that part really well. Then, about 6 or 7 years ago I heard "Save A Prayer" and actually listened to it. Damn, that's a good song. I then stumbled upon this acoustic version stripped of the keyboards, echos and studio production and you know what, the shit stood up. Great song.
posted by jeremias at 2:42 PM on March 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

There is a part of me deep down, despite the fact that I'm now pushing forty and am happily married with four children, that still believes that I am going to grow up and marry John Taylor and be best friends with Andy Taylor. This video sounds like something I would enjoy watching, but it's going to take me a while to psych myself to watch it. I'm afraid it might replace the image I have in my head of my first "true love" - which for now is still the poster of John that was closest to my pillow in seventh grade. Sooo pretty.
posted by Dojie at 3:18 PM on March 25, 2011

I saw them at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last year and I touched John Taylor's leg. I'd like to point out I wasn't the only thirty something technology PR/journo desperately grabbing onto that ankle that night.
posted by Summer at 3:48 PM on March 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

There is a "Rio" edition to the British "Classic Albums" documentary series. This series is interesting as it spools up the source tapes, fires up the board, and they get the band members and producers out to talk about how the album was made.

available on youtube for those who are interested: 1,2,3,4
posted by rongorongo at 4:27 PM on March 25, 2011 [3 favorites]

That's how he has always looked.

I'm pretty certain he didn't used to wear tweed.
posted by biffa at 4:54 PM on March 25, 2011

At least in dying you don't have to go through New Wave a second time
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 6:57 PM on March 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

with a Nagel print it's not the 1980s

Huh? The cover of Rio was Nagel.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 7:00 PM on March 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

I was at the show- it was really fun! I was asked to dance in the funhouse cam- you can see me during Planet Earth! They also had a fish-eye cam. The special guests Beth Ditto, Kelis and Mark Ronson were great. Gavin from My Chemical Romance was ok. i also was at the Tonight Show with Jay Leno taping the day before. Rebecca Black was very scary!
posted by cherryflute at 8:31 PM on March 25, 2011

Excellent new material, awesome performance. Hopefully they'll do a full-on USA tour and I'll get to see them live -- just hope fucking David Lynch doesn't show up.
posted by wallabear at 9:11 PM on March 25, 2011

Meh. They didn't do White Lines.
posted by pianomover at 11:51 AM on March 25 [+] [!]


I saw them in 2009 and their version of White Lines was kinda lame, so you didn't miss anything.
posted by vespabelle at 11:57 AM on March 25 [+] [!]

Exactly.
posted by pianomover at 9:37 PM on March 25, 2011

Meh. David Lynch should have done a film about the Japan reunion that should have happened, in the universe in which Mick Karn outlived every member of Duran Duran...
posted by TSOL at 9:38 PM on March 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm going to watch this on my fucking telephone.
posted by pashdown at 9:39 AM on March 27, 2011

I was a complete Duranie back in the day so I'm really happy to see that their musicianship seems to be getting more respect than it used to, though it's not like my 12-year old self was all that interested in "musicianship" either. Then, as now, Roger seems to be the most unappreciated and I am happy to have him all to myself. Back then I lived in a small town far from anyplace any "good bands" ever went to play and had no hope of seeing them live - and then Roger left! My teen heart was broken. So when they reformed the Fab Five lineup a few years back (though I think Andy has since left again) and I could see them it was, no lie, a total childhood dream come true. I was nervous that they'd somehow suck live (and now I do know musicianship and oh it would really have hurt) but they were really really fun and sounded great. I wish Ordinary World was one of the released videos as it was one of the songs I never really liked but when I heard it live I was really moved by it.
posted by marylynn at 6:10 PM on March 27, 2011