The B52′s at Radio Alice’s Now and Zen Festival
I first saw the B52′s at the Warfield Theater on their Wild Planet tour in 1980. It was one of the most energetic and fun shows I have ever seen. There were probably a few hundred people there, if that. Having only two albums under their belt, they had no choice but to play every song. They were all great.
The second time I saw them was in 1998 at San Jose State Events center. There were about the same number of people there as when I first saw them. They had some bizarre dating game gimmick going on, and the opening band was a competent, but very cheesy tribute to the 80′s new wave and punk rock music scenes. Each member dressed up in a different outfit; skinny tie guy, sid vicious look-alike, stray cat dude, and so on. The B52s were good, but lacked the energy, fun and enthusiasm of their early years. Singer, Cindy Wilson, had an old-lady haircut and a business suit-looking outfit on.
So going into it, I figured the B52′s would continue their decline and be a bunch of old people forcing out another set to get the green. I was wrong. Their song selection was impeccable IMO. They mixed their strongest songs from the early years throughout the set, with their big hits of later years. They “forgot” to play Rock Lobster, which I got sick of about 20 years ago.
They opened with “Planet Claire” from their self-titled debut The B52′s. We were far away:
From where we were, Fred Schneider looked like a little speck running around with a nice tan and no shirt on. The music drew us in for a closer look. We got reasonably close to the stage with little effort. From our new vantage point we could see the old B52 fun, energy and sense of humor that made them such a great band back in the 80′s. No encore this time though. Maybe that’s what they were saving Rock Lobster for, but the Alice show Nazi told them “no encore.” Didn’t matter. I’d see them again without a doubt. And Fred was wearing a brown shirt.
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