Duran Duran closes 2019 Tahoe series amid Harvest Moon

As the sunset colors faded, giving way to the full moon on a Friday the 13th, Duran Duran took the stage for the final night of the 2019 concert season at Lake Tahoe Outdoor Arena. And as the next 90 minutes unfolded, it turned out to be a party worthy of sending summer on its way.

Opening with “Hungry Like The Wolf,” singer Simon Le Bon emerged wearing a bright jacket that was perhaps an ode to the gaudy neon of the 1980s era that made the band famous. Or maybe it was fashioned from the same green material used to make tennis balls.

From those beginning moments through the end of the show, the crowd was on its feet. In fact, in years of attending shows at the Harveys venue, I’ve never heard a crowd so loud.

It was quickly apparent that the energy would be high on this night – and anyone unlucky enough to need to head toward the bathrooms mid-performance had to contend with walkways jam-packed with people dancing.

“A View To A Kill,” “The Reflex,” “Notorious” — the group kept an arsenal of hits and worked its way through a set list that tread almost evenly upon all of their albums, incorporating “Pressure Off,” “Ordinary World” and “(Reach Up For The) Sunrise.”

Le Bon’s vocals, complemented by the soulful backups of Anna Ross and Erin Stevenson, hung playfully in the mountain air, while a pulsing light show and tailored video accompanied each song. Nick Rhodes held the warm tone with his synths, segueing from one song immediately to the next toward the end of the set, with the audience movement reaching a fever pitch during the band’s cover of Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel’s “White Lines.”

Following the band’s encore and final song of “Rio,” the cheers reverberated off of the stage backdrops, as Duran Duran lingered onstage just a little bit longer thanking those in attendance. When the production lights dimmed and the stage lights came on, the full moon cast its glow over Heavenly Valley, and the Harveys outdoor summer concert season came to a climactic, if reluctant, end.

— Shaun Astor

• Duran Duran
  Harvey’s Lake Tahoe Outdoor Arena
  Friday Sept 13, 2019
• Hungry Like the Wolf
  I Don’t Want Your Love
  A View to a Kill
  Come Undone
  The Reflex
  Last Night in the City
  The Chauffeur
  Ordinary World
  Notorious
  Pressure Off
  Planet Earth
  (Reach Up for the) Sunrise/ New Moon on Monday
  Girls on Film
• Encore
  The Universe Alone / Save a Prayer
  The Wild Boys
  White Lines (Don’t Do It) Grandmaster Flash Melle Mel cover
  Rio
  —