On an average night at the Vic Theater’s Brew and View, frat boys and twentysomethings unite to enjoy cheap beer and wholesome action movies. But Nov. 5 was no ordinary night at Brew and View. In lieu of explosions, high speed chases and escalating body counts, the suds-splattered silver screen featured teased hair, Hammer pants and effeminate men.
That’s right, it was the release party for Duran Duran’s Greatest DVD, a compilation featuring more than three hours of the ultimate ’80s boy band’s over-the-top, sexed-up videos, plus intimate interviews with the aging stars.
While the Duran boys’ make-up is toned down, their hair de-poufed, and the obligatory post-fame weight gain has begun, not much else has changed. While the “fab five” never officially broke up, they splintered and petered out in typically excessive mid-’80s style — in a haze of supermodels, cocaine and infighting. But the rising tide of ’80s nostalgia and a newfound, grudging (and quite possibly deserved) respect for the band’s early records spurred the original lineup to reunite this year for the first time in more than a decade, launching a world tour in order to once again play the songs that made them famous and defined an era.
DD’s barely pubescent fan base and jet-setting lifestyle did not exactly breed credibility, but it did inspire fervent loyalty in the adolescent hearts that took in every second of videos like “Rio” and “Hungry Like the Wolf,” elaborate clips filled with exotic women, wide-eyed foreign children and faraway locales — videos that, like it or not, paved the way for the MTV staples of today.
Without the vaguely sadomasochistic dancers in “The Chauffeur” or the budget-breaking production of “”Wild Boys,” there would be no “Dirrty” or “Sabotage.” Lead singer Simon LeBon, hot bass player John Taylor, fashion-disaster keyboardist Nick Rhodes, anonymous guitarist Andy Taylor and equally anonymous drummer Roger Taylor set the bar for elaborate plotlines, videos on location and gratuitous nudity.
For this alone the band deserves celebration. And celebration there was at the Vic, as more than 130 people showed up hungry like the wolf for a healthy dose of Duran Duran.
Attendees, mainly Gen-Xers in thick-framed glasses and combat boots, were greeted at the door with Duran Duran posters, a promise of $2 Fosters and purple glowstick necklaces. Where was the excessive eye make-up? The fluffy mullets? The neon? Sadly, nowhere, apparently replaced by post-cards and complimentary copies of The Onion.
While the setting is anything but climactic, that didn’t take away from the crowd’s excitement — albeit somewhat ironic excitement — about the night’s festivities. “I don’t care what anyone says, I love them,” LaToya Wynn insists to friends Monica and Peter Carter. Sporting a black newsboy cap and bracelet-size hoop earrings, Wynn proudly displays a handmade denim purse featuring photos of the band at the pinnacle of its popularity, big hair and all.
Wynn met the Carters at a Duran show in Portland, Ore. in 2000 and the three have been friends since. They have tickets for the band’s sold-out show at the House of Blues on Nov. 18, and the Carters are flying to San Diego to catch the final date of DD’s North American tour. “They’re like the [Grateful] Dead but with eyeliner,” Peter jokes. “Seriously though, I met two of my best friends because of this retarded has-been band,” Wynn admits.
Has-beens or not, Brew and View director Dennis Borowski insists Duran Duran still holds a place in many people’s hearts. “They’re cultural icons. Mostly everyone here is a Gen-Xer and they grew up watching their videos,” he says. “It’s not like these people are waiting for the newest Duran Duran record. They’re reliving their childhood.”
One person reliving her high school years is Michelle Clairmont. “I wore these gloves to my prom,” Clairmont admits with a giggle, showing off her pair of white lace fingerless accessories fit for “Like a Virgin”-era Madonna. Sporting crimped hair, fishnets and blue eyeshadow, Clairmont offers me a piece of cake.
It’s her birthday (she declines to divulge her age) and she and friends united at the Vic after work. “I’ve been a fan of Duran Duran since eighth grade and I thought, what better place to come for my birthday?” she says, teetering from high heel to high heel. And what is it about Duran Duran that drew her to this event? “It’s a combination of hair, pirate shirts and really awesome videos,” she says with a straight face. “It’s a romantic thing. They capture a romance of the ’80s.”
As the lights of the Vic dimmed the romance was rekindled with the opening multi-layered synth chords of “Planet Earth.” Under a purple-blue glow the band appears in silhouette. The lights raise and bleach-blond Nick wildly swings his elbows on a giant glass orb.
It’s only during the second video, the infamously pornographic “Girls on Film,” that the true Duran Duran personality emerges. Bare nipples and drug references abound in the video, an obvious testament to the band’s early MTV success. Set in Tokyo, the video shows the band sashaying across the screen as girls writhe in thong leotards, fighting in vats of mud.
On the floor of the Vic a more tame performance gets underway as a crowd of women dance shamelessly, gyrating in circles and twirling complementary glowsticks.
However, the highlight of the evening arrived when Duran Duran slowed it down, broke out the double-neck guitar and hit the power chords for its last big song and video, 1993’s comeback hit “Ordinary World.” During the final solo of wailing guitar chords, lighters slowly rose; by the last note of the song, more than half the crowd was on its feet, blatantly disobeying the soaring chorus of “I won’t cry for yesterday” and mourning the loss of an era. An era of hilarious videos, celebrated sexual ambiguity, hedonism — and eyeliner. Lots of eyeliner. But it’s okay. As LeBon sagely notes in “World,” they will learn to survive.
