Geoff Carter

Mon, Aug 28, 2000 (11:23 a.m.)

"I'll take my chance, 'cause luck is on my side or something," goes Duran Duran's 1982 hit "Rio."

As I watched Duran Duran in action Saturday night at the House of Blues, I considered how many times the band had drawn, and continues to draw, on that ambivalent reserve.

There's more going against Duran Duran than in its favor. The band's last hit record came out over seven years ago; it lost several founding members, including the entire rhythm section; it had gone afoul of nearly every critic in the business with a horrible album of cover material -- yet there the band was, playing to a capacity house.

I'd hardly call it luck. Something else keeps Duran Duran going, and I don't think even the band knows what it is or where it's coming from.

At any rate, Duran Duran -- now vocalist Simon LeBon, keyboardist Nick Rhodes, guitarist Warren Cuccurullo (I still think of him as Andy Taylor's replacement and always will) and a complement of hired guns -- played a better set than I would have expected of the onetime teen sensation. Ignoring the band's new material -- easy enough; it's bargain-basement Radiohead -- Duran Duran came off as tight as it did in its heyday, and perhaps even more so.

Admittedly, that's not saying much of a band that's always been more substance than sound, but there's no denying that "Rio," "Girls on Film" and "New Moon on Monday" were imbued with real feeling. The band obviously still likes the songs, and plays them note-perfect.

And age has done Duran Duran's playing nothing but good. LeBon, once cursed with the vocal range of a pubescent boy, has grown into his talents; not once did he lose the melody or squeak his falsetto. Cuccurullo has reined in his tendency to showboat and played the material absolutely straight. Rhodes holds the melodies together. He's become the one the players look to whenever they slip up.

It's just a shame Duran Duran seems to have lost its song-writing chops. It began to slip away from the band after 1986's "Notorious," the last time the band sounded confident. Everything since has come off as so much confused struggling -- the bungled soft rock of "The Wedding Album," the atonal bump and grind of "Liberty" and "Medezzaland" -- and things are only getting worse. Proof: a novelty number entitled "Hallucinating Elvis." It's every bit as bad as you'd expect.

At least the band seems to know that it's coasting, and plays to its strengths. It was a real pleasure to hear "Skin Trade" and "A View to a Kill" treated so well -- the band live gave its album counterparts a run for the money. When the band feels up to it, Duran Duran can rock a house, and that's not luck at all. That's skill.