Duran Duran took a while to warm up their crowd for their Melbourne V Festival appearance.
While the caliber of hits this band has had throughout the 80s and 90s is unquestionable, the placement of songs on the setlist was.Duran Duran needed to work faster to warm up the crowd. They were placed on the second stage at the festival in between the Queens of the Stone Age and Smashing Pumpkins timeslots.
The second half of their set overlapped with the Pumpkins, so they were not only working the crowd, they had to try and keep them too.
That was one hell of a challenge to the vintage pop band.
The first half of the set was top heavy in sounds that didn't connect with the crowd.
Opening with one from little noticed 'Astronaut' and then the placement of two from the recent (and even more unnoticed) 'Red Carpet Massacre' had the crowd wondering what they had come to see.
To make matters worse, asking the audience to sing along to 'Save A Prayer' when, despite being a hit, the crowd did not seem to know, really brought the impact of the Duran Duran setlist down.
The second half of the show from 'A View To A Kill' through to 'Rio' was what the audience was after, but by that time it was too late.
As 'A View To A Kill' was starting, a good chunk of the crowd started to leave to head over to the main stage for Smashing Pumpkins.
The V Festival was a hard one for a band like Duran Duran. At their own gig with their own audience, they can comfortably work a room. The V Festival just wasn't their room.
Duran Duran setlist for V Festival, Melbourne, April 5, 2008:
Sunrise (from Astronaut, 2004)
Hungry like the Wolf (from Rio, 1982)
Planet Earth (from Duran Duran, 1981)
Red Carpet Massacre (from Red Carpet Massacre, 2007)
Nite-Runner (from Red Carpet Massacre, 2007)
The Reflex (from Seven and the Ragged Tiger, 1983)
Save a Prayer (from Rio, 1982)
View to a Kill (theme from the Bond movie)
Notorious (from Notorious, 1986)
Girls on Film (from Duran Duran, 1981)
Ordinary World (from The Wedding Album, 1993)
White Lines (from Thank You, 1995)
The Wild Boys (from Arena, 1984)
Rio (from Rio, 1982)
