Durandatory Duran: Nathan’s First Concert

by Chris McGinty (According To Whim .com)

You may have heard the term “opposites attract,” and that may explain how it is that I’ve been friends with a guy for, let’s see I think we met in 1999 and it’s now 2011… that I’ve been friends with a guy for 6.88 years, give or take, who has never been to a concert. Until now. And “All You Need is Now.”

On March 18, 2011, Nathan and his wife drove up to Winstar Casinos in Thackerville, OK. At roughly the same time, my dad and I were picking up my brother and sister, and we all drove up to the same casino. Was it to gamble? No, though Nathan and his wife did a little. Was it to look at boobs? No, though I did a little. Was it to see the greatest band ever, perform live? Well, according to me, yeah. It seems others have a different belief. An online friend once told me that her friend said that Duran Duran was the second greatest band ever, but she couldn’t remember what he said the first was.

Anyway, there is so much to talk about. When I saw Duran Duran in February, I wrote well over 2,000 words about it, and one of these days I will certainly post that up. Luckily, having attended with Nathan, we were able to do an audio show about the whole sordid affair. Well, it wasn’t really all that sordid. It was just fun.

Nathan will post a link here to the audio show.

This is the set list for the Duran Duran show for those of you who are interested in that sort of thing:

All You Need is Now, Being Followed, The Reflex, Notorious, Safe (In the Heat of the Moment), Friends of Mine, Leave a Light On, Ordinary World, Mediterranea, Girl Panic, Careless Memories, Sunrise, Wild Boys, and Rio. Then the encore was A View to a Kill and Girls on Film.

As a quick side note, I saw Helmet with Miguel on March 17, 2011. We also did an audio show, but since we rode together we did it on the way to and on the way from. I have to upload the files to the website.

At which point, Nathan will post a link here.

I also saw Uh Huh Her on March 20, 2011. There is no audio show for that one, so let me tell you a little about it. My biggest disappointment about it was that I wasn’t very familiar with much of the set. I’m only really familiar with the “Common Reaction” album. They didn’t play much from it, and what they did play weren’t my favourites. They didn’t play “Common Reaction,” “Covered,” “Say So,” or “I See Red.” Those are the songs that kept me listening to them, though I like all the songs, and those song made me feel I had to see them live when they toured.

Aside from that, I did really enjoy the show. I made the mistake of thinking I would get a t-shirt after the show, and then they announced that they would be doing a meet and greet at the merchandise booth. So everyone lined up, and I found myself having to stick around a bit to get a t-shirt. I got their new EP, which is really good, and they signed it.

Camila Grey was in a band called Mellodrone before. I’d never heard of them, but when I listened to some of their stuff I thought they were pretty good. The problem is that the online information was pretty unclear about what albums she played on if any. So I asked her, since she was there, when she was with Mellodrone. She said that she joined when they were touring for “Box.” I asked, “So you weren’t on the album?” She said, “No.” Ok, good enough right. I thanked them for playing. They thanked me for coming. I left. I later realized that what I meant to ask was if she was on any albums. What I asked was whether she played on “Box.” Doh! They way that the timeframe falls with “Box” coming out in 2006, and the first Uh Huh Her EP coming out in 2007, I’m presuming her entire time with Mellodrone was as a touring musician.

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