Sunday, March 12, 2017

Duran Duran - Praetoria South Africa - 1993

Tonight's first show is a fun one.  I say that as it's not one of their best, but it's an interesting look at their evolution, and the definitive interpretations of their songs.  Duran2 had just reinvented themselves for the 90s and with great success.  The Wedding Album was like a breath of fresh air and it seemed at the time that the band had "promised" to deliver a decade of new superstardom and outstanding music.  I had great hopes!

We all know how history played out on that one.....

My best friend and I thought seriously about seeing this show when it came to Kansas City.  Wow!  Duran Duran in KC!  And, I had never seen them before!  BUT, the tickets were 26.00.  Holy smokes, I didn't know if I could part with 26.00, that was a lot of money!  Now, looking back, I kick myself for missing it.  26 bucks is nothing compared to a lifetime of memories.  I was stupid for not laying down my hard-earned and going to see them.....

I chose this show for a number of reasons.  Primarily, it's one of the only soundboard recordings that actually came out sounding good.  Most of the shows were either very shitty soundboard or audience recordings.  I also chose this one because their interpretations of their classics were genius, especially Hungry Like the Wolf.  I love this version.  I wish they still performed it like this, now.  Third, and final, in this leg of the tour we are starting to see the cover versions for Thank You pop up.  They still seem somewhat proto-primitive, but the essence of what they wanted to do for Thank You is there.  One of the only things I hated about this show (and all the shows I have from this tour) is that Warren seemed to play most of the songs acoustically, hardly any hard electric guitar at all.  I also hated the fact that Nick used the same synth settings for every song.  It sounds like that "orchestra hit" setting so it sounds like he's playing a lot of strings.  Good on some, a few, but not all of them.  It's like both Warren and Nick were stuck on that Ordinary World setting for the entire show.  And, Simon's vocal cords had been damaged prior to this, so he is really straining in a lot of places, but he doesn't sound too bad.

For the most part, though, this show really excites me.  I was just coming into my own in college.  My parents had moved away and I was alone to become my own person outside of them.  This was one of those albums that brought me through a lot, and I'll never forget it!

1 comment: