Duran Duran live: Teeny talents
By John Milward
Fri., June 26, 1987

NEW YORK - High-pitched screams greeted Duran Duran at the sold-out Madison Square Garden, but the band's teeny-bopper constituency is aging. Some girls even brought their boyfriends! Still, like true girl-toys, the group got its biggest response Wednesday for pretty-boy camaraderie, as when singer Simon Le Bon snuggled up to bassist John Taylor and keyboardist Nick Rhodes.

Duran Duran, which has lost two charter members since its '84 tour, has beefed up its presentation with horns, two background singers and a couple of crackerjack instrumentalists.

Drummer Steve Ferrone is particularly deft at the funky, Chic-like grooves of the group's last album, Notorious. Guitarist Warren Cuccurullo almost steals the show with smoldering solos. They give the group its much-desired musical credibility, but that can't rescue the stillborn songs.

For all but the most devoted fan, humming a Duran song is often limited to a snippet of chorus with the name of the tune (Hungry Like a Wolf). Verses sound interchangeable.

Le Bon, a colorless vocalist, takes an understated approach to the role of lead heartthrob. He rouses screams with any movement at all, but his choreography is just a leap here and a pirouette there.

Yet the kids in the Garden loved the hit-packed show, which includes tunes from Duran splinter-groups Power Station (Some Like It Hot) and Arcadia (Election Day).

- A high-tech grid of 49 video monitors provides a telling image of a group that resents being tagged as a video phenomenon. While the band plays The Chauffeur, eyes are glued to a clip banned by MTV that features three whippet-thin models dancing in black corsets.

During an encore of Wild Boys, Le Bon sings the first verse via video, and completes the song in the flesh. Live and on-screen, Duran Duran remains a professional victory of style over substance.

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