Review: Duran Duran and Chic party with oldies at State Fair grandstand

Duran Duran pulled another switcheroo Thursday night at the sold-out Minnesota State Fair grandstand.

Last August, the newly elected Rock & Roll Hall of Famers were supposed to open their North American tour at Treasure Island Casino Amphitheater near Red Wing, but the concert was cancelled at showtime because of thunderstorms.

Then on Thursday, Bastille, a British pop-rock group, was supposed to open the State Fair gig. Instead, Nile Rodgers & Chic were moved to the kickoff slot, with Bastille in the middle. Maybe fair officials remembered that in 2001, Chic's three-act, nearly five-hour show ran so late that the '70s disco kings were still playing at midnight when the fairgrounds closed.

In the end, Thursday was a winning evening of diverse music — modern rock, post-punk, electropop, Top 40 pop, new wave and especially different flavors of dance music.

Chic was an outstanding opening act. In this incarnation of his 1970s New York disco ensemble, Rodgers, 70, has put together a stellar lineup that is part cover band and part groove machine featuring knockout singers Kimberly Davis and Audrey Martells. They are a cover band in the sense that they performed several hits that Rodgers wrote or produced for others, including Madonna's "Like a Virgin," David Bowie's "Modern Love" and Daft Punk's "Get Lucky."

But Chic also got the party started with their own "Le Freak," thrilled with "I Want Your Love" and wrapped it up with "Good Times" and the Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight." By contrast, Bastille's electropop didn't exactly ignite the crowd of 12,816. For some reason, lead singer Dan Smith seemed averse to facing the audience and instead paced back and forth across the wide grandstand stage.

Duran Duran looked sharp (they always do, even with big shoulder pads), played with precision and enthusiasm, and Simon Le Bon, 64, sounded better than ever singing a whole lot of songs from the 1980s.

More than half the set was taken from Duran Duran's first two albums that made the British quintet arguably the biggest MTV-launched band of the 1980s and Princess Diana's favorite band.

The program started a little slowly with "Night Boat," a deep track from DD's 1981 debut, as sluggish as a tugboat. But then Duran Duran exploded into 1984's "The Wild Boys," a riot of Bowiesque post-punk followed by the '82 smash "Hungry Like a Wolf," with Le Bon introducing it by saying, "a really good friend just turned up — the moon."

On both numbers and for the rest of the 110-minute set, it became clear that bassist John Taylor is the most essential member of the band. His bass — alternately liquid, elastic, walking, funky, groovy and always danceable — drove all the selections. And it was more apparent in concert than on Duran Duran's records.

Last seen in 2016 at Xcel Energy Center, the core quartet of Taylor, Le Bon, keyboardist Nick Rhodes and drummer Roger Taylor was augmented by DD's usual touring guitarist Dominic Brown, saxophonist Simon Willescroft and background singers Rachael O'Connor and Anna Ross.

Le Bon was the only musician who spoke. He dedicated the big ballad "Ordinary World," which evoked Phil Collins, to the people of Maui and the people of Ukraine.

There were deep cuts such as "Friends of Mine" and the moody "Lonely in Your Nightmare," which oddly segued into a mashup with Rick James' "Super Freak." And, of course, there were hits a plenty, including the new-wave-y "Planet Earth," the nostalgic "Is There Something I Should Know" (which was accompanied by photos of Duran Duran on teen magazines in 1985) and "Notorious," a groovy '80s funk wedding of Michael Jackson and Prince that was one of Thursday's highlights.

The set featured only two songs from 2021's "Future Past," DD's most recent album — the dark, futuristic disco "Anniversary" and the dreamy dance-pop "Give It All Up" costarring backup singer O'Connor (Tove Lo was on the recording).

Duran Duran offered no previews of "Danse Macabre," their new Halloween-themed album that was announced on Wednesday for an October release. And, disappointingly, the band wasn't joined by Rodgers, who has produced, recorded and performed with them on and off for years. Some nights he collaborates with them onstage and sometimes not. Talk about a switcheroo.