I have always been a live music/entertainment fan. I have been to more concerts than I care to count, I used to get paid to work them off duty when I was a cop. Safe to say I have been to way more than average.

My wife is a Duran Duran fan. They were never really on my radar. I mean the obvious songs like Rio and Hungry Like the Wolf and certainly the Bond View to a Kill were hard to miss back when. But they never really were a band I was aware of much and never even came through were I was working so I never saw them.

Turns out they are still putting out music. They have been on the "Paper Gods" tour and my wife went to see them in Philly a few weeks ago. Then later that same week they were here in Vegas and she went and really liked it. I decided to be husband of the year and get tickets for the Glendale Arizona show 4 or so hours away.

Turns out that this band is still turning out some great music. "Paper Gods" is as valid as anything they have done. (Yes I guess you can argue the word "valid" or what not but it really is good.) I expected to see a band just playing filler between the radio hits they had from 30 years ago and what I got was a great concert. I was very pleasantly surprised.

The only problem I had was the lead singer Simon Le Bon looks so much like the guy who plays Hawkeye in the Avengers that it was distracting! No kidding from the 8th row it was his twin. Obviously Simon is about 57 or so and such but from that far, it REALLY was odd. Funny my wife though thought Jeremy Renner looked like Simon Le Bon. Guess it is just a matter of perspective!

Anyhow enough digression it really was a good show.

My friend's wife is a huge fan and has been for about 30+ years. They came to CA for a couple of weeks and saw the show this past Tuesday in Chula Vista, and the night before that, my wife and I took them up to the Castle to see Michael Vincent and Paul Vigil...talk about a good week.

That would be a good week.

I keep threatening to get back out to the Castle.

I'm waiting for the Roberto Duran tour.

Ron

Roberto got fat & happy. Gone are the days when he terrorized the lightweight division (and a couple of others). Still an all-time top-5 pound-for-pounder on my ballot, though.

Oh those were the days. The UFC would never have flourished in that Era.

Looking forward to the movie "Hands of Stone", coming out at the end of the month.

Roberto did get fat & happy, but what made him truly remarkable was his post "No Mas" redemption. One of my all-time favorites for sure.

And I agree that those were the days. The UFC has it's appeal, but nothing that compares to the boxing glory of the late 70s and 80s. On practically any given weekend, you could have watched championship caliber boxing on a major network - pay-per view was a rarity back then. I miss those days.

Sorry to sidetrack the thread, Danny.

Ron

I was a big Duran Duran fan. I saw them a couple of times at small clubs before they broke. They were big video pioneers.

They broke out in an interesting time musically.