DURAN DURAN IS BACK ON DANCE-HALL TRACK
By Louise King


DURAN Duran began its current concert tour with as little fanfare as possible. Determined to shed their pretty-boy image, the three remaining original members - vocalist Simon le Bon, keyboards player Nick Rhodes and bass player John Taylor - began a low-key push of the harder-edged sound on their new album, ''Big Thing,'' complete with the backing of a new band consisting of drummer Sterling Campbell, ex-Missing Persons guitarist Warren Cuccurullo, a two-man horn section and two female singers.

Unhappily, media hype soon caught up with them. Now, even though the three are is playing much smaller halls than they once filled, the atmosphere surrounding those events is much the same as it was when the group burst on the music scene in 1982 - throngs of screaming teen-age girls and boys dancing in place to the rock-funk rhythms of such songs as ''Notorious,'' ''The Reflex'' and ''Rio.''

As dance parties go, Monday night's performance at Kiel Opera House wasn't half bad. The light show was a splendid effort, especially the way lyrics and graphics from the cover of the new album were translated to the stage. At times, the special effects and theatrical gyrations were almost too mesmerizing, as when the girls changed costumes behind a screen onstage, throwing suggestive shadows during the song ''Skin Trade.''

Most of the evening's more clever moments revolved around new material, including ''I Don't Want Your Love'' and ''All She Wants Is.'' The most vivid impression was left by a surrealistic interpretation of ''Palomino,'' a lushly romantic song that featured a brooding saxophone solo.

With the notable exception of ''Planet Earth,'' a very early Duran Duran song that was totally reworked for the show, the remainder of the group's catalog got its usual dance-hall treatment. It was a disappointment for those of us expecting a bit more evidence of musical growth.

A band called the Pursuit of Happiness opened the show with an abbreviated set of basic thrash tunes. The songs were unpolished and forgettable, and delivered in a half-sung, half-spoken manner that seemed to distance the group from the audience.

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