Live

THE B-52S

UA CENTENNIAL HALL

Wednesday, June 24

The B-52s’ local appearance last week was one of those good news/bad
news kind of affairs.

Good news: In a departure from most shows at Centennial Hall, no one
stepped in to stop anyone from dancing—and to varying degrees,
the audience, indeed, did dance. Bad news: A security guy did chastise
a father for letting his (approximately) 8-year-old daughter step into
the aisle on occasion while doing so.

Good news: The sound didn’t seem to be hampered by the room; in
fact, at the Wilco show the week before, the sound was great. Bad news:
The engineer running the soundboard clearly didn’t know how to deal
with the room, because the mix was mostly a muddy mess. Occasionally,
he’d get it right, and one was reminded how it should have been
sounding. Or, for example, when lead shouter Fred Schneider tapped out
a few notes on a glockenspiel, the clarity of the sound was almost
startling compared to the din that surrounded it.

Good news: The B-52s played what was essentially a greatest-hits set
that spanned their entire career. Bad news: The first part of the set
was frontloaded with relatively lackluster, formulaic songs from
Funplex, their first new album in 16 years.

The crowd skewed older and was there for the hits. When “52 Girls,”
a beloved cut from the group’s first album, was performed with more
gusto than perhaps any other song of the evening, only pockets of
dancing erupted. The next song, the somewhat lame “Roam”—which
just happens to be one of the B-52s’ biggest hits—was given a
rote treatment, as if they really didn’t want to perform it, but felt
obliged. But never mind that: The entire hall on its feet within its
opening notes.

The B-52s have always been a party band, a dance band, and a wildly
energetic band. But with the members now well into middle age, there
were some odd moments, not to mention a distinct lack of energy in
spots. When the group performed “Strobe Light,” one of the goofiest and
sexiest songs in their catalog, one couldn’t help realizing it was
coming from aging hipsters with expanding waistlines trying to
replicate the same sense of silly seduction that came so effortlessly
30 years ago.

This article appears in Jul 2-8, 2009.