2025 promises to be a year of turbulence and uncertainty. At the time of this writing (January 1st, 2025), the United States has already seen two terrorist incidents, including one in Louisiana that has killed 15 people (at last count) and another suspected car bombing involving a Tesla Cybertruck in Las Vegas. 2025 is off to an ugly start so far…

Las Vegas hit home for me, as my wife and I just returned from there this morning after a wonderful, three-day New Year’s Eve trip. During that time, we put aside the world’s issues and struggles for a couple of hours and enjoyed a blast from our shared Gen X past; a Duran Duran concert at the brand new FountaineBleu hotel just off the main Vegas strip–a beautiful hotel/shopping/restaurant complex, with a state of the art live theater.

Fitting for a sci-fi blogger-columnist to enjoy a concert from a group named after the antagonist “Durand Durand” from the iconically camp 1968 sci-fi film, “Barbarella” (and to which they named their single, “Electric Barbarella”).

Of the two of us, my wife is easily the greater Duran Duran fan, but I certainly enjoy their music; it’s part of the musical tapestry of my high school years, and 1993’s “Ordinary World” is one of my favorite songs of any decade. I also have memories of sitting in a theater seeing the James Bond flick “A View to a Kill” the summer after I graduated high school, and hearing Duran Duran’s titular song playing over the main titles. Their music is generally ear-pleasing, feel-good ’80s pop with just a bit of edge and soul, as well.

When my wife threw the idea of going to see them in Las Vegas on December 30th, 2024, I paused for a moment and thought, “Why not? Sounds like fun.” So, we bought the tickets, reserved a room at a Marriott hotel (better amenities for creature comforts, not luxury) near the FountainBleu, and that was that. After a smooth but taxing three-plus hour drive to Las Vegas, we gave our middle-aged selves a day to settle in. The concert was our belated Christmas gift to each other.

The night of the concert, the winter desert of Las Vegas left a slight chill in the air, which only heightened the anticipation and excitement. Once inside the FountaineBleu, we quickly took the escalator up to the theatre and found our comfortable, if somewhat nosebleed seats. However, with my trusty iPhone’s zoom, I was able to get some nice shots, along with a couple of videos, as well (see above).

However, with my trusty, handy-dandy iPhone 14, I was able to get nice shots of Simon Le Bon (lead vocalist), John Taylor (bassist), Nick Rhodes (co-keyboardist), Roger Taylor (drummer), with Simon Willescroft joining in on the sax. Backup singers Anna Ross and Rachael O’Connor also contributed as well, as Ross even joined Simon Le Bon for a duet.

For this atypically brief column, I’ll let those images and videos tell most of the story. Enjoy!

Full playlist:

Night Boat
The Wild Boys
Hungry Like the Wolf
The James Bond Theme (John Barry)
A View to a Kill
Notorious
Black Moonlight
Come Undone
Lonely in Your Nightmare / Super Freak (a Rick James cover)
Evil Woman (an Electric Light Orchestra cover; another favorite of mine)
Ordinary World (my favorite!)
Union of the Snake
Planet Earth
White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It), (a Grandmaster Melle Mel cover)
The Reflex
Girls on Film / Psycho Killer
Encore:
Save a Prayer
Rio

All of my photos from the concert can be found on my Flickr album here:

Duran Duran Concert, FountainBleu Hotel, Las Vegas; December 30th, 2024.

Summing It Up

The concert was serious nostalgic fun, though the volume in the relatively small indoor venue made my old ears ring a bit; most of the concerts I’ve been to have been outdoors, so the indoor sounds tended to blast a bit louder than normal for me. However, the ringing in my ears subsided the following day, and as of this writing, my hearing has reverted to its current state of age-induced loss (haha).

Putting my critic’s cap on, I prefer the current Simon Le Bon over the one I grew up with; his voice has a bit more grit now at age 66 (only eight years older than myself), and his slight paunch only helps to make him look a bit more personally relatable, and less “pretty.” The other members of the band have aged with similar grace too, and they more than delivered, with an energy I could only dream of. Seeing this remarkable British band from my youth still playing their hearts out, and still getting their groove on after forty years was downright inspirational.

Everyone in the show gave their all, including saxophonist Simon Willescroft and backup singers Anna Ross and Racheal O’Connor (a musical prodigy from Derry, Ireland). The talent and energy onstage was a shot in the arm, crossing multiple generations. In addition to the expected oldsters like myself, there were also a surprising number of younger people in the audience, and they were digging it, too. Good music is good music, and it doesn’t remain confined to a single decade.

The show was a great way to say adieu to a troubled 2024 and welcome in an equally uncertain 2025. It was a time to briefly forget the troubles of the world and rejoice in a celebration of feel-good music. Our world is positively fraught with tragedies both major and minor (as Le Bon reminded the audience before playing “Ordinary World”), but we can always find momentary solace and pleasure in music and the arts. In fact, that’s been a driving force behind this column for the past eight years, as we seek to briefly escape the anger and pains of our world, and indulge in a little nostalgic and current escapism.

May we each indulge in our respective jams to make 2025 better for us all.