#Duranlive Is BACK!

If these dates weren’t enough, DDHQ also announced that they were hoping to schedule one final show on the East Coast of the US before the end of the year.  On top of that, I have seen some rumblings about a South American tour next year.  Of course, there are lots of part of the world, like Europe, Australia, Asia to name a few, who are anxiously awaiting tour date announcements for their neck of the woods.

While I personally hold no tickets to any of these announced shows, I love to see others’ excitement about their upcoming shows.  I know lots of people traveling or getting ready to travel.  Other friends are searching the internet for any indication of whether or not the tour rumors could be true.  Still, others are contacting us about planned meet-ups.  Did you know, for example, that there is a meet-up being planned for the September 10th show?  There is!  You can find details here.

Do I wish that I could go to these shows?  Without question.  When I typically think about touring, the first thought that comes to my mind is about the fun I have.  It feels the ultimate freedom despite having jobs like doing this blog and organizing and hosting meet-ups.  Work, on the other hand, does not equal fun or freedom for me.  Does it for anyone?  It is time consuming and stressful.  Yet, when I think about both touring and work, I recognize the reason I keep doing both.

While touring is, of course, about seeing Duran Duran perform live, it is more than that.  It is about traveling and partying.  Yet, at the end of the day, what really keeps me going back is having connections.  Every show provides the feeling of connection between the band and the audience.  A great show for me always include the band interacting a great deal with each other and with the crowd.  A beyond great show is when there feels like more of a personal connection with me personally, which can happen by locking eyes with a band member or laughing with a band member.  Again, though, the connections go beyond the band on stage.

Duran shows remind me of all the connections that I have made with other Duranies over the years.  I could go to a show anywhere in the country and I suspect that I would find people I know there.  I remember being in Minneapolis this summer and spending a lot of time before the show roaming the floor greeting people I know.  Then, I think of the times in Vegas with a crowd of people  filling up the Eye Candy bar at Mandalay Bay to hang out with each other.  At those moments, I feel very connected to others.  There is no better feeling for me than to feel like that.

Then, when I think of teaching, connections keep me in the classroom.  Connections with colleagues help me to push through the changes and the stress of a new school year.  Then, after the first few weeks, connections with the students form.  The connections with the kids give me the real joy from the job and keep me in the classroom despite the crappy pay, disgusting treatment by too many politicians and devaluing of what teachers do by too many of the general public out there.

Despite being a person who is content to be by myself a lot, I need those connections.  They motivate me at work and they motivate me with maintaining my fandom.  Maybe that need is why I hope that the East Coast show happens at such a time that I’m able to go.  I want to keep up the connections I have and make new ones.  In the meantime, I anxiously await to hear about these shows from the people there.  In fact, every post, tweet, update makes me feel like I have an indirect connection, which is better than no connection at all.

-A