bowl concert-palooza: show #1 - duran duran

Last weekend I spent three of four nights (Thursday, Saturday and Sunday) at my now most-attended EVER concert venue, the historic Hollywood Bowl. 

Before and after the shows, I battled traffic, herds (yes, herds.. as in "mooo, mooove out of my way people!"), food and beverage lines so long I nearly starved one night (thanks for the organic strawberries Matt ;), and the elements of both rain and pot smoking 50 and 60-year-olds determined to relive their '80s youth via the return of "Diamond Dave." 

But between all that, I saw three awesome, completely different musical extravaganzas that pretty much sum of the range of my musical library :) 

Here's the scoop on Show #1:

October 1, 2015 -- Duran Duran "Paper Gods" Tour

To kick off my Bowl "concert-palooza," I went to the sold out Duran Duran concert Thursday night. 

I don't think I've ever been to the Bowl when it's been completely sold out before. This is something I NEVER want to experience again (ie: this is the night I almost starved because the lines were insane and I had a minor claustrophobia attack going to the bathroom). But I powered through in order to relive my tweens, screaming for the first rock star named John I ever loved :)

------- Minor Sidebar ------

Because I meant to post this as a #tbt photo on the day of the D2 concert, but was too crazed and forgot, may I now present two-thirds of the one wall of the Shelton, CT bedroom my parents allowed my 13-year-old-self to put posters on... proving my former obsession with all things Duran Duran.. well mostly John Taylor ;)  (Hey, I was only allowed to decorate one wall, so I picked the biggest one and used every inch of it! And now, looking at this eons later, I think this is where my OCD started... look how lined up everything [other than the two photos I just badly cropped together] is. That took planning people! :P)

                                                     ------- Back to the Concert Stuff ------

The original JT and and his Duran Duran-mates performed a few songs from their new Paper Gods album and then so many of their hits (but not "Wild Boys" or "Save a Prayer" HELLO!?!?) that Simon LeBon checked in on the crowd halfway through the show to make sure we weren't starting to suffer from "hit fatigue." 

Um, the answer to Simon's q, would be a no :)  

(Forgive the crappy images.. only had my cell phone. But it still sounds awesome!)

In fact, I could've done without the few non-hits toward the end of this set list ("White Lines," "Danceophobia," "TMI") ....

.....in exchange for some "Wild Boys," "Save A Prayer" and "Is There Something I Should Know" (just for you Erin ;). Please, please tell me now why you would play those bleh songs instead of "Wild Boys" and "Save a Prayer" Simon, John, Nick and Roger?!?! 

I'm kinda sad. D2, you're just lucky you ended with this...

PS: There were two opening acts, one of whom (Clean Bandit) we totally missed due to the traffic, lines, crowds of people trying to get to the Bowl by 6:30 on a Thursday. But we did get to see the funk-alicious Chic, featuring Nile Rogers, who helped write and produce "Paper Gods" in addition to a billion other hits, many of which they played. They were a pretty awesome surprise :)

PPS: For those who wanted to be there but couldn't be, YouTube just suggested this video of the complete concert to me. Those people had much better seats that I did. I hate them.