The current leader in fan votes for a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction this year, British pop-rock vets Duran Duran will cash in their career-revival chips and join Minnesota's growing outdoor-concert calendar Aug. 19 at Treasure Island Casino Amphitheater.
The Red Wing area casino landed the kickoff date to the '80s hitmakers' 14-city U.S. tour, which will feature the same legendary opening act as Duran Duran's last Minnesota date in 2016, Nile Rodgers and Chic.
Tickets for the Treasure Island date (a Friday night) go on sale next Friday, March 25, at 10 a.m. via Ticketmaster for $39-$159. The cheapest of those prices is for the general-admission area in the back half of the amphitheater, which holds 16,000 people overall with reserved permanent seats for about half of them.
In the six years since its well-received performance at Xcel Energy Center, Duran Duran had its busiest year last year with the release of a new album, "Future Past," and TV appearances like its popular "Austin City Limits" episode. The band pretty well set the prototype for big-buck, high-fashion music videos on MTV in the early-'80s with hits like "Hungry Like the Wolf," "Rio" and "The Reflex." It still features 4/5th of its heyday lineup, including singer Simon Le Bon and much-liked bassist John Taylor — the latter of whom fondly recounted the wilder early days of the band when it played First Avenue in our interview with him in 2016.
Duran Duran is currently leading in the Hall of Fame fan-vote ballot with 623,000 votes, about 80,000 more than the next contender Eminem.