Man, how the times have changed. Duran Duran’s twenty-two city Red Carpet Massacre tour kicked-off in Vancouver last night (April 29) at the General Motors Place concert bowl and when Simon Le Bon asked the crowd to spark up their cigarette lighters for their 1982 hit "Save A Prayer," most fans reached into their pockets and opened up their cell phones to light up the vibe. WTF? Since I'm used to hauling out lighters for outdoor shows, it was definitely a weird, real life Twilight Zone moment I wasn't quite expecting. Seeing how Vancouver is almost a smoke free city, I suppose that’s all a fan has at his or her disposal to light up these days. Depending on what type of phone you have, at least you don’t need to burn your fingers off. Still, I did see a few open flames scatted throughout the crowd, which added just the right amount of old-school spice to set the retro tone.

Say what you will about the former '80s chart toppers. Although Duran Duran has undergone several transformations and reformations over the years, the former #1 band in the 80s universe has always found a way to do what’s most important - make new music, even if it was popular or not. Since their heyday back in the 1980s when they were on top of the music world, Duran Duran has managed to crank out a hit once every decade just when you thought they were nothing more than a cool retro memory (Ordinary World, Sunshine). Add to that, the band also turns up at some of the most high profile benefit concerts to stay relevant and in the public eye (most recently Live Earth). Their latest release, Red Carpet Massacre, which you might not even know about, takes the band to new heights after years of keeping pace with the ever-changing music industry. With Timbaland and Justin Timberlake lending their producing talents, Red Carpet Massacre is one of the most innovative and diverse Duran Duran albums of their career.

For those that don’t know, a lot of North American tours either kick off or wind down in Vancouver. In most cases you’re either seeing a "work out the kinks" show or a "thank God it’s over" gig. Having seen The Police kick off their world tour here last year with a somewhat shaky but awesome start, the former certainly applied in this instance. When Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor, and Roger Taylor took to the stage at GM Place, it was obvious most of the kinks had already been worked out... most. If you’re sitting there wondering whether the band has lost a step or two over the years, they haven’t. That was my main concern and question before the show - are they still as good as they were back in the day? During the late-90s, it was questionable. Given the relentless, high-energy, nearly seizure inducing strobe-fest of a set in Vancouver, it’s clear Simon and the band are in the best shape of their lives. Hell, when the lights came up after almost two and a quarter hours, I was drained.

The lights went down somewhere around 8:30pm and the band kicked off their twenty-something song, three act set with three new tracks from Red Carpet Massacre - "The Valley," "Nite Runner," "Red Carpet Massacre" - before launching into their early mainstream hit "Hungry Like the Wolf." As you’d expect, that’s when the place went ape-sh*t. Although I’m willing to bet 90% of the crowd hasn’t heard the new material, you couldn’t tell by the rowdy reception the new songs received. The fact is - their new album doesn’t sound out of place. The band was wise to get the new songs out of the way first since - let’s be honest - almost everyone was there to hear an endless supply of pop-culture hits. Still, Duran Duran sprinkled such new tracks as the Justin Timberlake collaboration "Falling Down," "Tempted," and "Skin Divers" timely throughout the set, which invariably gave fans a break from the intensity of the retro favorites.

Duran Duran's "Red Carpet Massacre" in Vancouver Page 2