*Warning the following contains positive opinions about 80's Pop recording artists.

Last night I went to the Duran Duran Reunion concert in Tampa, Florida and I may have seen the best show of my extensive concert experience. But before I get into why the show was so good, allow me to give you some background information for your evaluation of my opinion.

Up front, you should know that I love the music of Duran Duran. The only groups/artists that I hold in higher regard are Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, and maybe the Doors. That is not to say that I do not think that individual songs or albums often rank higher than any specific work by Duran Duran, but when their entire discography is taken into consideration, these are the brightest stars in my personally preferred music constellations.

The second thing that you should know to properly evaluate my opinion is that I did not come to love Duran Duran until after they had passed from the MTV/screaming girls phase of their career and had moved on into far more experimental music. In fact, the album that did it for me was a side project called Arcadia that did include tracks from all of the band members, but also had help from the likes of Sting, Herby Hancock, David Gilmore, etc. From that album on, I was hooked.

Third: You should know that I have a rivalry with the Duran Duran lead singer, Simon le Bon. (Although I doubt that he is remotely aware of it.)

In the 80's Simon and I were both playing the same kind of music, wearing the same style of clothes and even shared an affinity in the visual arts. He, on the one hand, was on MTV about every half hour, was touring in exotic locales and playing to sold-out stadiums, while I, on the other hand, was spending my time in Holiday Inns, traveling in an old and tired International bus, and was trying to play artsy pop music in clubs across Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, and Kansas. (Not the ideal venue for my kind of music ... insert drunken scream of, "Play Freebird, you freaks!" here.)

But this was not the basis for the rivalry; it only set the stage. The real contest between us came one night, back-stage, at one of their concerts. I had left touring and had returned to art school, but still maintained enough contact with the entertainment industry that I was able to get in for the back-stage hoopla.

The short of the story is this: I left the lovely Mrs. Bennett alone for just a few minutes. I was no more than out of sight, when the charming and famous Mr. le Bon approached my wife. From the tale told me by another person, it sounded as if the poor guy didn't know what hit him. Please understand that Mrs. Bennett is exceptionally beautiful; so much so, that my colleagues at the college good-naturedly refer to her as my "trophy wife" even though they know we have been married for going on a quarter of a century.. and poor Simon was setting eyes on her for the first time when she was about twenty years old.

The most amusing part of the story is that she did not recognize him. To her, he was just another musician type.. and she already had one of those,... what in the world would she do with another?

Of course her aloofness made her all the more desirable to him.. I wonder how long it had been since the unbelievably famous Simon le Bon had been treated like "just another fresh guy"?

Anyway, after an exchange, they parted; he went on with his glamorous world of fame and money, and I kept Mrs. Bennett as my wife. (From my point of view, I was the real winner and would never consider trading places, but there is a moral to the story: Never leave your wife alone back-stage at a rock con cert... no matter how much you have to visit the restroom!)

About last night's concert:

The potential for a bad show was pretty high..

1. It was early in the tour after a couple decades without the original line-up. Who knew how they would play together.

2. Andy Taylor's (guitarist) doctor had ordered him to skip the first half of the tour after a recent collapse.

3. We had nose-bleed seats. (Thank you ticket lottery system!)

4. At the last Duran Duran show we had seen (twenty years ago) we were in the V.I.P. section at the front of the stage.This concert would be in direct competition with that experience.

The opening act came out. Their name was Clear Static. I had never heard of them, but they were exceptionally tight. I have to say that they impressed me more than any band I have never heard of.

I did some checking on the net and found out that they are unsigned and literally, right out of high school, but they played as if they had been doing arenas together for ten years. After they finished their set, there gear was cleared away and the moment of truth was about to begin.

Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome Duran Duran.

There were no flash pots, no rolling fog-machines, no hype. The guys just walked out to the front of the stage and stood at the edge, smiling and looking into the crowd. The best thing that I can compare it to is like bumping into a long forgotten friend at the mall. "Hey! Wow! How have you been? Its great to see you again!"

Except they did it with five thousand people.

Their faces were humble and appreciative. (And Andy was with them, contrary to doctor's orders.) They then took their places and got down to business. For two hours they played their hearts out. They covered the hits, but also brought out a lot of the dusty stuff that only the die-hard fans would have even heard, as if they were saying, "screw the top 40 -this is about the fans!" ...and they had fun with all of it. So much fun, that on more than one occasion they would be in the middle of one of their own big hits, slightly shift the music in a parody, and it would become some other cover song like: We Are Family, by Sister Sledge.

There was still plenty of light show and video screens like the old days, but this time the flash took a backseat to the music and the musicians. From where we were, I couldn't even really see the screens, but I don't think I missed much.

Ye s... their hair was thinner and they were all a little thicker around the middle, but they seem to have gotten over it and decided to do what they do be st... play music. The only weakness that I saw was that Simon rested heavily on the back-up vocalist -not on the important parts, but for fill. For this I forgive him. His sometimes, "cracking-yodel" style is murder on the throat and I have heard him mid-way through other tours with his voice in ruins. (I always wondered why his vocal cords never called the union in on him.)

After the concert, Mrs. Bennett declared that it was the best concert she had ever seen.

I was still considering its rank in my own mental "concert hierarchy" when we began a friendly debate:

"Better than Van Halen with David Lee Roth?" I asked.

"Yep."

"Better than Soundgarden, Pearljam, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers in Miami?"

"Yep."

"Even better than the last Duran Duran concert?"

"Yep. Those were all good, but I am talking about performance and music," she said.

I thought about it and she was right.

As we were leaving the stadium and walking outside she said,"You know, this may be their last tour. I was thinking that maybe we could follow them for a bit and catch a few more shows."

For a moment, I was actually considering it, but before I could answer, we were interrupted by a teenage boy. He walked up to my wife and presented here with a string of Mardi-gras style beads. He was extremely nervous, but I could tell by the look in his eye that he was in love -or at least in lust. She thanked him and he half ran/half skipped back to where his friends stood with a huge smile on his face.

I looked at her and then at the beads. "No Honey," I said. "That sounds fun, but those days are gone."

There was no way that I was going to give Simon le Bon a second chance.