Yesterday, I briefly wrote about standing in line to see Duran Duran tape a performance for the Jimmy Kimmel show. It was the one and only time I’ve ever been to a taping with them. I don’t know why I haven’t done more of them, except that I’m sure timing had a lot to to do with it. Even in 2015, I had to contend with finding a way for my kids to get to and from school, and I can remember it not being easy to finagle a way to be there. Somehow, I managed though, and was there in time to wait in line in the 90+ degree heat that goes along with fall in So Cal.
I had ridiculously thought that wearing jeans and a sleeveless black top would be fine. I can remember feeling the sweat trickling down my back while I was standing on the black asphalt, enduring the waves of heat radiating around me. Thankfully, as the late afternoon turned to early evening and the sun ducked down behind the skyscrapers of the city, everything began to cool off. The lights of the city started to glow, and the band took the stage.
At the time, I could have told anyone exactly how many years, months and days it had been since I’d last seen the band. Having written the blog for all of the time between All You Need is Now and Paper Gods, a part of me had felt like I’d experienced every single second as though I’d been a fly on the wall for the process. Naturally, that wasn’t true. I was a fan like anyone else, waiting for their next record to be released, and the next show I would attend. That time had indeed arrived.
The taping itself was both a mini concert, and very different from anything else I’d attended. I think they had to play “Hungry Like the Wolf” at least twice, which was two times more than I wanted to see it (at the time). They played “You Kill Me With Silence”, and “Pressure Off”, and perhaps a couple of others – I can’t remember now. Their playing time flew by, and before I knew it they were waving at us from the front of the stage and I was thinking that it was a good thing I had tickets to see them the next night.
What I do remember though, was the excitement in seeing them in front of me again. I wasn’t at the show with Amanda, unfortunately her flight didn’t arrive until later that night, and we’d agreed I’d go to Jimmy Kimmel on my own. Once she and our friend Heather arrived, we did a circle tour of California on that road trip, attending shows in Hollywood, Berkeley, and back down to Palm Springs for a final show at the Agua Caliente Hotel and Casino. It was a wild, crazy trip with more driving than I care to remember.
That Jimmy Kimmel show is the one and only gig I’ve gone to by myself, although while in line I saw many other Duranies I knew. I definitely didn’t feel alone, that is for sure. It was just the beginning of many other concerts I would see during the Paper Gods era, and yet to this day I can still remember how thrilled I was when they took the stage on that particular night.
-R
I, too, was there as a guest of Jimmy’s. He and I went to school together in Vegas, and I’ve remained good friends of his sister’s. What a delightful event! We were backstage, and I had a chance to say “hi” to the band in between sets.