Duran Duran performs at Chase Center in San Francisco on Sept. 4, 2022. Sean Liming/STAFF.

SAN FRANCISCO —  Eighties pop music legends Duran Duran played songs from every period of their nearly five-decade-long music career Sunday night at Chase Center. Wearing sport coats with shoulder pads, the British band delivered a set heavy on nostalgia, but also featuring several songs from their latest album, 2021’s Future Past.

As vocalist Simon Le Bon took the stage during the band’s encore, he strapped on an acoustic guitar and told the crowd it’d be singing the next song’s chorus.

“It’s a bit like going to a Korean restaurant and cooking your own food,” Le Bon said. He then instructed attendees to turn their cellphone flashlights on and, “Change the Chase Center into the milky way.”

The crowd complied and erupted in cheers as the band played the intro to ballad “Save a Prayer,” from 1982 album Rio. When the time came, the crowd sang the chorus with the kind of total commitment that owns the room at karaoke night.

Duran Duran performs at Chase Center in San Francisco on Sept. 4, 2022.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, which pioneered the use of music videos in the 1980s, used three giant video monitors; one behind and two flanking Le Bon, bassist John Taylor, keyboardist Nick Rhodes and drummer Roger Taylor, as well as touring guitarist Dom Brown, to add to the spectacle of their performance. White doves appeared on the screens along with live footage of the band during “Save a Prayer.” At other times, song lyrics, processed video and varied ’80s imagery appeared on the screens.

The band’s earliest material included the new wave intensity of “Careless Memories,” the eco-prescience of “Planet Earth” and the vaguely malevolent titillation of “Girls on Film,” all from their self-titled 1982 album. The percussive guitar strumming of Brown, who’s toured on and off with the band since 2006, provided the songs with a sense of urgency that kept the crowd on its feet.

The audience responded most powerfully to hits produced during the quartet’s heyday, when viewers of MTV couldn’t watch the channel for more than 15 minutes without catching one of its videos. “The Wild Boys” and “Union of the Snake,” from 1984’s Wild Boys, both elicited big reactions.

Songs from last year’s Future Past received a more muted reception. “Invisible,” the first single from the latest album, featured some beautiful vocal harmonies that managed to capture some of the band’s musical drama. During the upbeat funk of  “All of You,” strange female androids appeared on the giant screens.

Duran Duran played two haunting songs off its second self-titled album, from 1993, more commonly referred to as The Wedding Album. Le Bon introduced “Come Undone,” telling the crowd it was about to get a lot hotter in the arena. The audience swayed to the song’s sultry romanticism. After drawing attention to an audience member’s pants by asking, “Is somebody wearing sparkly trousers?” Le Bon dedicated “Ordinary World,” to the people of Ukraine, wishing them “life, happiness and peace in their country.”

The band closed out its set with a frenzied cover of Grandmaster Melle Mel’s “White Lines.” The two-song encore concluded with one of the band’s most popular hits, “Rio,” from the 1982 album of the same name. The combination of John Taylor’s signature slap and pop bass and the iconic Patrick Nagle painting projected on the screen, which pushed fans into a frenzy. The woman behind this reviewer sang the song’s iconic saxophone solo note for note at the top of her lungs.

Nile Rodgers and Chic perform at Chase Center in San Francisco on Sept. 4, 2022.

The evening’s opening act was Nile Rodgers and Chic. In addition to playing guitar in Chic, Rodgers has penned and produced hits for everyone from David Bowie to Madonna to Daft Punk. During the band’s hourlong set, Rodgers and company offered up ample evidence of the man’s absolute domination of the musical charts over the last 40 years. During a medley of Madonna songs, moving from “Like a Virgin” to “Material Girl,” Rodgers added his signature scratchy guitar strums in place of the bubblegum synths, revealing the solid songwriting craft underneath the poppy schmaltz.

Before vocalist Kimberly Davis launched into a slow and soulful a capella intro to Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky,” Rodgers, dressed in white with brightly painted pants, told the audience that he had been recovering from cancer nearly a decade ago when he got the call from Daft Punk and Pharrell Williams, asking him to write some songs. When he said that he’s still cancer-free 10 years later, people erupted in cheers. As Rodgers closed his set with Chic hit “Good Times,” from 1979 album Risque, the song’s positive energy captured the evening’s vibe.

Follow photographer Sean Liming at Twitter.com/SeanLiming and Instagram.com/S.Liming.