MUSIC TAKES CENTER STAGE AT LAST FOR DURAN DURAN
Published: Monday, August 3, 1987

By HARRY SUMRALL, Mercury News Pop Music Writer

VERY STRANGE behavior at the Shoreline Amphitheater Friday night. The fogging machines were fogging 15 minutes before the start of the show. Infectious Latin and African rhythms were blasting from the stage speakers. Spotlights would pop on and off, inciting the near-capacity crowd to newer and louder bouts of screaming. Was this a buildup or what?

Yes, it was a buildup. Duran Duran has always been a band for which the presentation is as important as what is being presented musically. Nothing wrong with that, per se. Pop's imagination revels in looks as much as sounds.

But at this show in Mountain View, Duran Duran actually pulled off a performance that did both -- looked and sounded. Far removed from its budding teen idol heydays (and with two of the original five musicians removed in the process), Duran Duran played down the teen histrionics and played up its songs, which -- as it happens -- are occasionally quite delectable.

No one in their right ear would say that Simon Le Bon is a stunning singer. But at this show, he displayed a melodic sleekness that was the perfect complement for the slickly chic pop of his group. On a mild funker like "Notorious," he was aloof and reserved in a fevered sort of way, his voice playing off John Taylor's throbbing bass.

At center stage, for a change, Nick Rhodes was really aloof, pounding at his synthesizer with a Cybernautic preciseness that was almost a stage prop in itself. Backed by a drummer, vocalists, a guitarist and a stupendous three-piece section of blasting horns, the group forged its way through its hits, leading in with a dramatic rendering of "A View To A Kill."

As the hits played on, it became obvious that, the teen hysteria of a few years back notwithstanding (and the teens at this show screamed as loudly as their predecessors), Duran Duran is a pop group with a certain charm. Now that they don't feel like they must play up to the teens but simply to them, Le Bon, Taylor and Rhodes come off as performers with something to say . . . and play.

Their songs do have a superficiality that is at times annoying, but they also display a melodic inventiveness and a presentational playfulness and sleek seriousness that is provocative in its contrivance. Duran Duran is either the worst serious pop group or the best trivial pop group of the day. In trying to decide which is the pleasure of seeing and hearing Duran Duran.

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