Duran Duran kicks off North American tour at BottleRock Napa
Simon Le Bon felt a little lost.
It appears that several revisions were made to the setlist earlier today and the Duran Duran vocalist hasn’t received the finalized document.
“We got to the No. 7 or 8 version,” he remarked to the crowd. “And I have version #6.
“Now I really don’t know what song we’re going to do next.”
That proved to be the only hiccup in what was an otherwise pretty much flawless opening night of Duran Duran’s 2023 North American Tour on Saturday, May 27 at BottleRock Napa Valley.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band – which was also scheduled to perform at the SAP Center in San Jose on Sunday – delivered a thrilling 100-minute set that nicely balanced big hits with deep cuts and new songs.
Duran Duran certainly held nothing back at the start of the show, opening this headliner on the festival’s big Verizon stage with two of the new wave band’s most beloved songs – “The Wild Boys” and “Hungry Like the Wolf.”
From there, Le Bon and his longtime mates – keyboardist Nick Rhodes, bassist John Taylor and drummer Roger Taylor – amped things up even further by launching into a stellar version of the No. 1 hit “A View to a Kill” (from the 1985 James Bond film of the same name). The title track from the band’s fourth studio album, 1986’s “Notorious,” soon followed, sending the crowd even deeper into ’80s nostalgia.
Le Bon sounded loud on these four rhythmic hits, nicely reproducing what you hear on the original recordings that were made, in some cases, more than 40 years earlier. He also did a good job on slower material, like when he brought backing vocalist Anna Ross to duet with him on a lovely rendition of the 1993 hit “Come Undone.”
The crowd got a bit of a break when Duran Duran played a new song — “Anniversary” from 2021’s “Future Past” — which sounded pretty good, but obviously wasn’t met with the same kind of fan enthusiasm. than those like “The Reflex” and “Planet Earth” later in the show.
The band played two covers, both of which really connected with the crowd. The first was a version of “Super Freak” funky enough to appeal to a Rick James fan. The second came later in the evening as the group rocked through their popular version of “White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It),” the old-school hip-hop classic by Melle Mel that Duran Duran featured on the 1995 cover album. “Thank you.”
“Ordinary World” – a reliable highlight of just about any Duran Duran show – was even better than usual this time around and could have been the song of the night.
“It’s a song about trying to find some peace when everything around you is crazy,” Le Bon said, dedicating the song to the people of Ukraine.
“Ordinary World” was painfully intense and emotional, in stark contrast to just about everything else played on the night, soaring high over Le Bon’s poignant vocals and his touring bandmate’s beautiful guitar work. Dominic Brown.
Duran Duran played another song from his latest album, which resulted in the couple some fans were hoping for.
“We are about to welcome a very special guest,” said Le Bon.
He then brought in Tove Lo — who had just played her own set on the Verizon stage before Duran Duran — and they nicely resumed their duet on “Give It All Up.”
The group closed out the 16-song main set with “Girls on Film,” which left the thousands of avid fans clamoring for more.
“There’s no alcohol involved in that, is there?” Le Bon remarked on the excitement of the crowd as the band returned to play some more music.
Duran Duran used virtually every second he could to show fans a good time during the two-song encore, starting with a nice version of “Save a Prayer” and then racing “Rio” all the way to less than a minute from the hard 10 of the festival. afternoon curfew.
In addition to the BottleRock and SAP Center concerts, Duran Duran will return to Northern California later this year to perform at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento on August 24. See duranduran.com for more information.
Prior to performing their set at BottleRock, the band’s John Taylor and Roger Taylor appeared on the festival’s Williams Sonoma food stage, whipping up lots of fun (as well as food) with celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern and host Liam Mayclem.
Set list:
1, “The Wild Boys”
2, “Hungry as the wolf”
3, “A view to kill”
4, “Famous”
5, “Defeat”
6, “Birthday”
7, “Alone in Your Nightmare”
8, “Super Monster”
9, “My Friends”
10, “Careless Memories”
11, “Ordinary World”
12, “Give It All Up”
13, “Planet Earth”
14, “White Lines (Don’t)”
15, “The Reflex
16, “Girls at the Movies”
Bis:
17, “Recording a Prayer”
18, “Rio”
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