I've seen Duran Duran - say, six times or so. True. Travelled to Milwaukee, Indiana, UIC Pavilion, even the Metro. There have been other places, as well. Durannie, you say? Well, more along the lines of good friend to a total total durannie, MEP - who initiated squadrons of us going to shows over the years. So, I've been to shows w/ three ex's over the years and truly have enjoyed them. As a result of MEPS's efforts, i'll totally cop to being a duran fan. Plenty of songs I dig, tonnes of stories over the years- hell, I have about 5 of their CDs.
That first time seeing them, however, I most enjoyed the opening song of the then unheard of by me band Earsure. There was the stage, then there walked out four dudes - two backup singers in tails, one singer, and one dude - I knew him, it was the guy from Yazoo - w/ an acoustic guitar and a small synth in front of him (a look @ the video here shows that their stage setup hasn't changed in two decades). Instantly, when that acoustic, amped up w/ electricity thought he speakers started to hit - and, almost as importantly to me - the stupid stupid stupid staging - so absurd I loved it.
The song stayed w/ me, somewhat amusingly. Erasure? Oh, I love one of their songs... let me tell you... (see above for rest of conversation). In the run up to the famous "Ides of March" party in 1996, when women and dansing and hurting hearts and craziness and betrayal - and dansing - were all wrapped up in one party - that staging thing again took hold.
First off, the theme of the party was betrayal and murder. This was @ the height of the, um, Spanky era betwixt Jacob and I and that girl Spanky. As far as I'm concerned, the party was all and only about her. But it was about much more.
We tried to write a play for the party. We all thought up skits for us to do. We wrote a rap to the tune of "Straight outta Compton" about Julius Caesar. We tried to stage an actual "knifing" of me - which SO GLORIOUSLY CAME OFF ( i wandered off to the bathroom, came back, was 'confronted' by the Joker, who said as he 'plunged' an imaginary knife into my back "We have to do this" and was followed by 10 dudes doing same - a deeply cherished memory - that walking up to me w/ the "we have to ...." ). And finally, since they had a full drum set in the living room, the other skit we were gonna do was just JAM the song "Victim of Love" whilst I tried to keep the beat on the LOUD drums.
That first time seeing them, however, I most enjoyed the opening song of the then unheard of by me band Earsure. There was the stage, then there walked out four dudes - two backup singers in tails, one singer, and one dude - I knew him, it was the guy from Yazoo - w/ an acoustic guitar and a small synth in front of him (a look @ the video here shows that their stage setup hasn't changed in two decades). Instantly, when that acoustic, amped up w/ electricity thought he speakers started to hit - and, almost as importantly to me - the stupid stupid stupid staging - so absurd I loved it.
The song stayed w/ me, somewhat amusingly. Erasure? Oh, I love one of their songs... let me tell you... (see above for rest of conversation). In the run up to the famous "Ides of March" party in 1996, when women and dansing and hurting hearts and craziness and betrayal - and dansing - were all wrapped up in one party - that staging thing again took hold.
First off, the theme of the party was betrayal and murder. This was @ the height of the, um, Spanky era betwixt Jacob and I and that girl Spanky. As far as I'm concerned, the party was all and only about her. But it was about much more.
We tried to write a play for the party. We all thought up skits for us to do. We wrote a rap to the tune of "Straight outta Compton" about Julius Caesar. We tried to stage an actual "knifing" of me - which SO GLORIOUSLY CAME OFF ( i wandered off to the bathroom, came back, was 'confronted' by the Joker, who said as he 'plunged' an imaginary knife into my back "We have to do this" and was followed by 10 dudes doing same - a deeply cherished memory - that walking up to me w/ the "we have to ...." ). And finally, since they had a full drum set in the living room, the other skit we were gonna do was just JAM the song "Victim of Love" whilst I tried to keep the beat on the LOUD drums.
In the end, there was dansing, there was love, there was wine women and song - there was Spanky - and there was, totally, victims of love that nite.
and also, from closer to 1987:
No comments:
Post a Comment