Back to the Future Past: Duran Duran Rocks Detroit’s Little Caesar’s Arena

Duran Duran - Detroit 2023 Duran Duran brought their Future Past – 40^th Anniversary Tour to Detroit’s Little Caesar’s Arena this past Saturday September 16 and it was a definite blast from the past.

Stepping out in silhouette form in a cloud of stage fog to the instrumental Velvet Newton from 2021’s Future Past, the band took their places and launched into the song Night Boat from their debut album. The crowd of mostly older new wave fans were hooked and for two hours transported back to the 80’s when music just seemed more fun.

The show was a mix of their biggest hits and several songs from their last release Future Past. From the second song we were treated to The Wild Boys, Hungry Like the Wolf, A View to a Kill and Notorious, and they were only getting warmed up.

The band sounded great, and Simon Le Bon doesn’t seem to have lost anything vocally. One of my favorite songs is “Is There Something I Should Know” and his vocals were stellar. The stage was loaded with spotlights and video screens and really was a spectacular presentation. I love it when bands with this kind of legacy show old clips of themselves on the big screens. It transports you back to when you first heard the songs and that’s a big part of the lasting appeal of the music. It brings back good memories.

Their debut album was heavily featured throughout the show as well as some recent songs from Future Past which were well received. They also performed Danse Macabre from their upcoming album of the same name for only the second time live. The idea for the new album was conceived on Halloween of last year during a performance in Las Vegas and is about a “crazy Halloween party”, apparently an interesting insight into the personality of the band.

For the encore, Le Bon came out wearing a Dylan Larkin Red Wings jersey and the band played Save a Prayer and maybe their biggest hit, Rio. The guys seem to really be having fun and they definitely have a few years left in them. Let’s hope they come back soon; it was a great show!

Taking stage before Duran Duran was Nile Rodgers and Chic, starting with a bang with the big hit Le Freak and turning LCA into one big dance party. Rodgers has a long history with Duran Duran having produced or co-produced many of their songs and even played guitar for them during times when the band needed a guitarist. The energy of this music legend who just turned 71 as I’m writing this is phenomenal and the performance was second to none. What a great combination for this tour and the great friendship he and Duran Duran have had for 40 years.

Opening the night was UK indie pop band Bastille with a spirited set that got the early crowd going. It’s a shame more people weren’t in their seats for them, they were really good. They’ve sold 11 million albums and they’ve been around for over a decade so they deserved a bigger audience.

All photos by Dan Boshart, 27th Floor Photography

Duran Duran – Detroit 2023