A different Duran /British popsters' short but refreshing set leadssix-band

Paper: HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Date: TUE 05/30/95

AIDS benefit

By BRUCE WESTBROOK

After their road crew's one-hour set change to make sure they got it right, British popsters Duran Duran spent almost all of their short show Sunday night not being Duran at all. Rather, the former teen faves with the on-again, off-again career dumped their hummable hits in favor of a fiercely rocking posture and decidedly different songs.

Embarking on a one-month U.S. tour, Duran headlined KRBE's all-day Audio Barbecue at the Woodlands Pavilion, which appeared little more than half full. Benefiting the AIDS Foundation of Houston, the seven-band show became six when Adam Ant canceled, reportedly because of illness.

Sprinkles may have kept some fans away, too, and unremarkable sets by Toad the Wet Sprocket and Letters to Cleo didn't do much for the momentum.

But after 15 years, Duran has its faithful followers. And the band took the stage to a huge roar - then proceeded to disregard hit-hungry fans' conditioning. Only one of 10 songs - "Come Undone" - was a Duran original played in familiar form. Most of the others were cover songs, in keeping with the band's new album of such material, Thank You.

Yet even the covers were different, the exception being the new album's "White Lines," a hard-charging rap-rocker that powerfully closed the show.

Other covers included David Bowie's Rebel Rebel and some rap tunes that lead singer Simon Le Bon sang from a lyric sheet. Yes, it was that kind of show - at times rough around the edges, almost to the point of a glorified rehearsal. But at other times, the concert showed what this quartet (backed by drummer Steve Alexander and singer Curtis King) can do.

Duran has long been a better band than it's been given credit for, and relative newcomer Warren Cuccurullo on guitar seems to be having a big say in its direction. His hearty, stinging riffs and bassist John Taylor's reliable funk grooves kept the show pulsing, even when Le Bon had to stop and restart his vocals and keyboardist Nick Rhodes became lost in the shuffle.

Though some fans were yelling "Play Duran ," perhaps that's what the band was doing - the new, unpolished Duran , not the old, predictable one.

For a band long reliant on radio and MTV overkill, there was boldness if not valor in challenging the audience with reinterpretations in place of easily digestible big hits.

Actually, two big hits arose, but each was played so differently that you wouldn't recognize them without knowing the lyrics. Those were the early-1980s numbers "Girls on Film" and "Hungry Like the Wolf." With a skewered melody, the latter was transformed from a midtempo ditty into a brash, aggressive rocker with muscular work from Cuccurullo.

Girls on Film took the reverse course, changing from bouncy pop into a dramatically dreamy number with a minor-key melody. Rhodes' eerie synthesizer lines recalled the early "Nightboat," while Le Bon brought the song to a peak via howling wails.

Duran showed flashes of such fire in the old days, when it was more adventurous than its pretty-boy image and "new romantics" label suggested, often pounding away with such rockers as "Careless Memory." Now the old songs sound new again. And while fans have a legitimate beef with Duran for playing slightly less than an hour with no encore, they should appreciate the freshness and inventiveness that made this Duran show stand out from all others.

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