When I found out the boys were playing once again in New York City, I had to jump on the chance at seeing them live again. After their successful show at the Barrymore Theater last year, I was definitely ready for another concert. They played two nights here but my friend and I only went to one show. It was a great night and absolutely perfect weather! It was not too hot nor too cold and the skies were perfectly clear which proves again that the sun always shines for Duran Duran! I guess you can say it was a "Perfect Day"....hee hee! Anyway, my friend and I had a blast at this show. This was my friend's second Duran Duran concert. His first was last year at Barrymore. :)
Okay, so if you have been reading my reviews, in the last two reviews I said that I was never doing a general admission show again. Well I suppose I lied....LOL! Well, okay, I figured since it was in Central Park that it wouldn't be too bad (plus there were bleachers in case you wanted to sit down and I had heard that the venue was very small).
I have never been to Central Park before. I've seen it and passed by it while driving, but I've never actually been inside it. I definitely knew that Central Park was HUGE; so I decided since my friend and I were going to be in the city a few days before the show for the Mets Game, that we would check out where the venue is so we would know exactly where to go the day of the show.
I am glad we decided to check it out because it took us awhile to find the venue! After about walking for about 15-20 minutes, I tried texting a friend because she had been there the weekend before; but there was no answer; so finally we found a map. I looked at it and realized that we may have passed it twice and not even know it....LOL! This was going to be our last resort since we had to get to the game and didn't want to be late. Sure enough, we found it. Overall, it took us 30 minutes to find the place, but hey better for it to happen that day than the day of the show....LOL! At least we knew where to go when the day came.
Speaking of the day, when it finally arrived, I was not going to hang out in Central Park all day long like I did at Hammerstein. That I knew for sure I wasn't going to do. I was not in the mood for that. I wanted to leave the house around 12:00pm to avoid rush hour (we're coming from New Jersey in case you didn't know), but my friend tells me at the last minute that he has to take his sister someplace and wouldn't be able to get to my house until 3:00pm. I wasn't happy about that, and I told him so. This was planned months in advance and I told him specifically that we were going to leave in the afternoon to avoid rush hour traffic and that he did not want to be caught in rush hour on the subway. He is not familiar with the subways in NYC, so I warned him ahead of time. Well because I had to wait for him, we first got stuck in rush hour traffic on the bus (even with the alternate route he took!). We took a 3:30 bus and didn't get into the city until a little after 5:00pm. Then we had to take a subway to get to the East Side once we got off the bus, so we got caught up in that as well. He experienced a subway ride during rush hour for the first time. I am sure he does not want to relive that again. Subways during rush hour are NOT FUN! Luckily, though, it was a short subway ride.
We finally got to the venue around 6:00pm. We met up with Rachael and her friend before actually going inside. They were waiting to see if they could find the boys before the show. Well, apparently, while my friend and I were crossing the street walking towards them, there was a black car behind us. She pointed and was like "I think that's them" and I turned around and looked, shrugged my shoulders, and just kept on crossing the street....LOL! They had to wait for me to cross....LMAO! That was just way too funny, so we ended up seeing their car drive in. I guess I'm just special because they had to wait....LMAO! That was great - a highlight for me. I should have taken a picture of the famous van and the car but I didn't. Oh well. Rachael ended up winning the meet and greet the next day so her dream came true....LOL!
I was concerned about how they were going to let people inside because it was such a small venue but it was all good. I did not, nor was I in the mood, for anyone pushing or shoving around me, or screaming in my ears; so my friend and I went towards the bleacher section. We were so glad we stayed back there and we had a great time where we were!
The boys played, basically, the same songs as they did at Barrymore Theater - except it was more of their old hits mixed in as opposed to playing the full RED CARPET MASSACRE album. They opened with "The Valley", then "Red Carpet Massacre", and then going into "Nite Runner". I felt like I was in Barrymore Theater again. For some reason, they played the short version of "Falling Down" as opposed to them playing the album version last year. I don't know why they did that. The reason why I am talking about Barrymore is because, in case some of you didn't know, the two week run on Broadway at Barrymore Theater started off their RED CARPET MASSACRE TOUR.
The Electro Set was basically the same songs they did at Barrymore minus "Showroom Dummies". However, they added "Tempted" to the electro set list in replace of that song which sounded really good. I wasn't sure how that was going to work out. I did hear, though, that "The Chauffeur" was crossed off the set list for the encore but it was played the second night (and it was dedicated to Katy - awwww!). It didn't matter to me as I got to see that song performed live three times on the Astronaut tour. Black jacket, hat, and all ladies....hee hee! The Chauffeur is all about Simon, true that!
When Simon started talking about Timbaland and Justin Timberlake and how the album, RED CARPET MASSACRE, started I knew they were going to play "Falling Down". Timbaland is hot (TIMBALAND NOT TIMBERLAKE! THEY ARE TWO TOTALLY DIFFERENT PEOPLE....LOL!). Have you seen the brother (TIMBALAND THAT IS)? Mmmmm-Hmmmm!
Anyway, back to the boys (hee hee)! There were a couple of hightlights in the concert, but the big one for me was "Save a Prayer". I love Simon's guitar....LOL! I missed that song at Barrymore and I'm glad they put it back in the set list. I'm all about JoSi, but this performance was once again all about Simon....hee hee! I was ready with my cell phone when Simon told everyone to take it out by saying, "not only you get to sing the choruses, you get to waste the battery on your cell phones!" He and John made sure that everyone who had one took it out too by saying "we are not going to play until everyone has theirs out!" They did too, they waited for everyone to take their cell phones out - those who had one that is....LOL! John was like "we are wasting energy here" and Simon was like "just don't tell Al Gore all right?" LMAO! I loved it.
In my opinion, it is not a Duran Duran show without the following songs (and I've probably mentioned this before in previous reviews): "Ordinary World", "Save a Prayer", "Notorious", and "The Reflex". I felt that there was something missing because they did not play "SAP" and I was expecting to hear it last year so thank you for playing it this year boys! However, I could have done without "Hungry Like the Wolf", though, but that's okay. Simon saying "That's what we came to do. Suck you in!" before the song started made up for that....LMAO!
Speaking of Timbaland, I loved it when Simon was singing Timbaland's part in "Skin Divers" (as opposed to them having Timbaland's voice do the singing like they did last year). That was awesome. I love that song, so there was another highlight. Simon said, "the next song we're going to play for the ladies for the simple reason you know what this song is about!" Hee hee, we do don't we girls?
The boys were wearing their usual RED CARPET MASSACRE outfits in the beginning except instead of the white shirts that they had last year, they had shirts with black and gray stripes with the same designs (by the way, nice pants boys!). Personally, I liked the white shirts because you could see the designs better. Then for the electro set, they had the same black outfits. John, later on, displayed an Obama t-shirt which, I couldn't tell what it was at the concert because of where I was. Someone told me later on. That's hilarious!
Another highlight was when John was like "Okay you motherfuckers, put your hands in the air" during "Planet Earth". Classic! John's the man, baby! I loved the many JoSi moments in "Wild Boys" and I also loved it in "Sunrise", but then again who doesn't love those JoSi moments? Hee hee!
Somewhere in "Warm Leatherette" Simon coughed. I was like "u-oh". That is never a good sign when he does that, and I did get concerned; but they band played on and he was still in fine form.
Simon did the famous tambourine toss in "Sunrise" but he didn't catch it this time. He tried to, but when he saw where it was going he didn't bother. It went backwards and landed somewhere on the stage. I hope it didn't break....LOL! Luckily it didn't land on anyone.
During "The Reflex", when that part came "why don't you use it?" Nick was like "you have to go to page six to find out!" LOL! Loved it! He always has something different to say there. I enjoyed the audience participation for this song as well.
I guess Simon coughing during "Warm Leatherette" was a sign of things to come bcause I was wondering what was going on somewhere between the end of "Girls on Film" and before "Ordinary World" started. Since we were by the bleacher section (and I wanted to be by the bleachers), I couldn't tell what was happening. At one point, he started coughing and spitting like crazy off the mike and at one point he had to sit down. I don't know if he choked on something (I saw things flying around onstage - paper or something - I don't know where they were coming from) or if it was the after effects of a cold he had last week. That was reason to be concerned. However, I was glad that whatever it was didn't stop the show or anything and that he was okay.
The introductions during "Girls on Film" are also always a highlight. When Simon introduced Roger, Roger played a really big solo - that was the biggest drum solo I ever did hear him play out of all the times I have seen them live and when they do this introduction. Roger is the only man to play drums for this group - no question! Nick's turn was next, and this time, not only did Simon said that he was from outer space (again), but he also introduced him as a "soul brother"....LOL! Then it was John's turn and we all started the "play the fuckin' bass, John" chant even before Simon did (with Simon encouraging the audience to keep going). I am telling you, like I said, John is the man!
When it came for Simon's turn to be introduced, he starting singing "Papa was a Rolling Stone" and then was like "so tell me, who's your daddy? What's your daddy's name?" and everyone called out "Simon!" I just cracked up laughing when he was like "who's your daddy?" Then he was like "what's my fuckin' name?" Okay, Simon, you're the man! (Wait, John's the man! Wait, I mean Simon is! No John, no Simon! Aw hell, they both are! LOL!)
There were these two police officers that kept walking back and forth who were kind of cute and I will admit, they did distract me a little bit but then I quickly focused on the main attraction....Simon and John....LOL!!
So, overall, as I mentioned, this was an awesome, AWESOME SHOW! This was one of their best yet! You know, I probably say that in every review but it's true - sorry folks....LOL! I have to say this and the Barrymore Theater are my favorite Duran Duran shows (as of this moment)! Of course, that is bound to change whenever they do another show. I love you boys! Come back to NYC again (and do NJ too while you're at it)!
However, getting out of that place was a total madhouse. I was going to meet someone after the show, but it was just too crazy to do that. I am also glad I brought the tour book from Mike Fevergeon (Mike is the man!) as I did not see where you could buy stuff at the show - although I wasn't looking to buy anything since I had what I wanted....LOL!
I took pics of the venue itself. I did not bother taking pictures at the show because of where I was, but if you're interested in seeing these pics anyway, click here.
INTRODUCTION (CLOCKWORK ORANGE)
THE VALLEY
RED CARPET MASSACRE
NITE RUNNER
HUNGRY LIKE THE WOLF
PLANET EARTH
FALLING DOWN
COME UNDONE
SKIN DIVERS
THE REFLEX
SAVE A PRAYER
VIEW TO A KILL
**Brief intermission to set up the Electro Set with some instrumental song playing in the background**
ELECTRO SET:
LAST CHANCE ON THE STAIRWAY
ALL SHE WANTS
WARM LEATHERETTE
I DON'T WANT YOUR LOVE
SKIN TRADE
TEMPTED (Electro set ends here)
NOTORIOUS
GIRLS ON FILM
**Encore**
ORDINARY WORLD
SUNRISE
WILD BOYS
**Second Encore**
RIO
