Review: The B-52s, O2 Academy, Birmingham
Kooky and kitsch with a retro sound and look that's back in fashion for at least the third time, America's finest purveyors of deviant party pop gave a short but sweet 75-minute set in their first visit to Brum in five years.
Opening with Planet Claire, shuffle beat contrasting with Kate Pierson's sci-fi B-movie wail, veterans from the new wave generation (reviewer included) were transported back to 1979 when the B-52s emerged from Athens, Georgia, to add a splash of colour to the austere British post-punk scene.
The B-52s, named after a bouffant hairdo, are now a trio with backing band. Fred Schneider, resplendent in sparkling shirt and rainbow trousers, declaimed his half-talked lyrics in his distinctive New Jersey drawl and generally acted like Sheldon Cooper's camp uncle.
Vermillion-haired Pierson and the blonde, black leather-jacketed, bongo-playing Cindy Wilson shared the band's trademark vocal sound, combining for a twin-holler attack that is still exhilarating after 35 years and 20 million album sales. But the 1960s-dancing is now mostly reduced to arm movements, even on fans' favourite Dance This Mess Around.
Highlights included Cindy's solo number Girl From Ipanema Goes To Greenland, emotionally dedicated by her to the band's late guitarist, her brother Ricky Wilson.
The main set came to a satisfying conclusion with that timeless good time pop number Love Shack but no one was going anywhere until THAT song.
So The B-52s returned for an encore to tease us with Party Out Of Bounds before the inevitable Rock Lobster and, as it turns out, Cindy can still do an impressive dolphin impression.
Leon Burakowski
