Iconic British new wave and synthpop band Duran Duran performed live in front of 7,000 infatuated fans at Starlight Theatre in Kansas City last night in support of its recent album, “Paper Gods” (2015).
After a rousing 30-minute DJ set by Los Angeles producer Tokimonsta, Nile Rodgers took to the stage with his band CHIC. The disco-funk group delivered an electrifying opening performance, one that was certainly worthy of headlining its own tour. The crowd packed out early in anticipation. It was a extraordinary and awe-inspiring moment to glance back from the pit and witness the entire house juking and jiving. From producer’s circle to terrace, everyone was on their feet with hands waving and bodies shaking. The crowd could never sit even if it desired.
Rodgers, aside from traveling with CHIC, is also a renown writer and producer. In fact, he even helped cultivate Duran Duran’s new release and later returned to the stage to play a few songs with the group, including “Pressure Off” (2015), which he co-wrote with Kansas City’s own Janelle Monáe. The set consisted of both hits of the band and others developed for artists such as Dianna Ross and Sister Sledge. Rodgers also co-wrote Daft Punk’s No. 1 dance hit “Get Lucky” with Pharrell Williams after receiving news that he had extremely aggressive cancer. Moving forward, he promised himself to write more songs and perform more shows than he ever had in his life. Today, five years later, he is thankfully cancer-free and still enjoying the music spotlight some 40 years into his career.
NILE RODGERS SETLIST |“Everybody Dance,” “Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah),” “I Want Your Love,” “I’m Coming Out,” “Upside Down,” “He’s the Greatest Dancer,” “We Are Family,” “Get Lucky,” “Let’s Dance” (David Bowie cover), “Le Freak” and “Good Times”
As a brief intermission followed, the weather started to set the mood in perfect cinematic fashion. Dark clouds rolled in and and the wind whisked through the amphitheater as if mother nature was preparing us for something larger than life. Soon, the purple lights began to flicker and the studio-produced thunder rumbled through the venue speakers. Cheers from the crowd amplified it as Duran Duran took to the darkened stage. The time had arrived and the band kicked it off with the title track to its newest record.
Interspersed with a couple of new songs and some heart-warming memorials to David Bowie and Prince, we were treated with all of those ’80s hits that drove Duran Duran to international stardom. We dearly missed keyboardist Nick Rhodes who returned home in the United Kingdom a couple of weeks ago to tend to an urgent family matter, and wish him and his loved ones absolutely all the best. In the meantime, he left the guys in good hands with band collaborator MNDR (Amanda Warner). Nile Rodgers joined the group for “Notorious” (1986) and “Pressure Off” (2015), both of which he helped produce. Confetti filled the front of the house as the joint performance neared its conclusion and as enamored fans picked up the exuberance.
DURAN DURAN SETLIST|“Paper Gods,” “The Wild Boys,” “Hungry Like the Wolf,” “A View to a Kill,” “Come Undone,” “Last Night in the City,” “What Are the Chances?,” “Notorious” (w/ Nile Rodgers), “Pressure Off” (w/ Nile Rodgers), “Planet Earth (w/ Space Oddity by David Bowie snippet), “Ordinary World,” “I Don’t Want Your Love,” “White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It)” (Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel cover), “(Reach Up for the) Sunrise” (w/ New Moon on Monday snippet), “The Reflex,” and “Girls on Film”; Encore – “Save a Prayer” (dedicated in memory of Prince) and “Rio”
The entire evening was positively indelible. There was a point early on in Duran Duran’s set, which was just so utterly surreal that it can only be compared to that permeating feeling amidst a long mid-night drive. With eyes wide, fixated on the road ahead, the music blares and the beat is totally consuming. The vehicle screams down the highway and one wonders if the moment is really even happening. That feeling never settled, but suppose that must be the nostalgia. The kind that only the new wave era could create and the style that only Duran Duran could ever deliver.
