The Duran Duran Tribute Concert
Concert Review by Lyndsey Parker (Launch)

After being submitted to a three-and-a-half-hour marathon of adolescent ska-punk, the crowd was more than ready for the lush, swooshy, dance-happy sounds of their beloved Birmingham boys. When sharp-dressed dandies Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes and Warren Cuccurullo approached the stage, via a route that took them along the circumference of the audience, screams and squeals of delight welcomed them every step of the way. Nick was splendidly femme-y with his new crop-cut hairdo, giant bug-eye sunglasses, flamingo-pink dress shirt and tinfoil-silver jacket. Simon was looking damn good for a fortysomething ex-teen idol--slim, trim and not at all like the StayPuft Marshmallow Man to which he is sometimes likened. Warren looked pretty much like he had since his Missing Persons days, right down to his foot-high poodly pompadour. These Boys On Film provided some much-needed rock-star glamour after the endless array of suspenders, wife-beater tank tops and Dickies workpants that had been trotted out onstage all afternoon.

The band took a risk by opening their set with their new single, "Electric Barbarella, " but the song had been piped in over the PA system in such constant rotation all afternoon that the masses had no trouble singing along word-for-word. Another new Medazzaland tune, "Big Bang Generation," made the audience anxious for an oldie, so D2 gave the people what they wanted--in the form of that quintessential '80s epic of melancholy, "Save A Prayer," and their more recent VH1-friendly hit, "Come Undone." The downtempo, wispy ballad "Who Do You Think You Are?"--another Medazzaland track--brought the mood down a notch or two, but then the Wild Boys whipped out their big finish: the sure-fire crowd-favorite, "Hungry Like The Wolf" (which, trust me, put Reel Big Fish's rendition to shame).

Though I personally feel that a Duran Duran tribute record has been a long time a-comin', I would have preferred a more varied selection of Eurotrash-inspired delights over the one-note, slapped-together tribute Mojo Records is offering. A compilation that included an eerie, wintry rendition of "The Chauffeur" by moody minimalists Low, a sludgy deconstruction of "Is There Something I Should Know?" by noisemongers the Melvins and a cheese-rock arena-anthem version of "Girls On Film" by Urge Overkill--or a tribute entitled You're Welcome (a response from the artists Duran Duran honored on their all-covers LP Thank You) with Iggy Pop crooning "A View To A Kill," Grandmaster Flash scratching turntables on "The Reflex," Bob Dylan nasally caterwauling a tone-deaf "Save A Prayer" and Elvis Costello having his vengeful way with "Ordinary World"--would have been more entertaining than the unimaginative rehashes of the Duran Duran Tribute Album. But then again, there's nothing like the real thing.

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