Oct. 12, 1979 review: The B-52s in the Fillmore Room at UB

 


Once it finally got underway, another glorious night 45 years ago.

Oct. 12, 1979 

The B-52s’ Impact Is Raucous, Weird

No doubt about it, the B-52s and the Jumpers add up to a punk-rock happening in the Fillmore Room of the University at Buffalo’s Squire Hall Thursday night. Furthermore, it’s sold out, all 600 tickets. Lined up outside the door is a garish legion in funny sunglasses, skinny ties, tight pants and weird makeup. And how about that bunch over there with their hair colored a tacky maroon.

Like most university rock concerts, this one moves with a highly independent sense of time. That’s why there is this long line waiting to get in at the scheduled 8 p.m. start. The sound checks finish about 8:30. The Jumpers go on about 9:30 and the B-52s finally appear at 11.

When the punk-rock fans aren’t making the floor bounce with their jumpy, twitchy, free-form dances, they stand – there are no chairs – and they sweat – there is little ventilation – and they wonder why somebody doesn’t turn on the stage lights and turn off the bloody chandeliers.

The Jumpers are no strangers to this crowd. This is the first visit home for the hard-driving Buffalo quartet since they moved to New York City last month to seek a record deal. They sound more aggressive and assured, but otherwise they haven’t changed too much. Lanky singer Terry Sullivan still paces the stage like a caged animal. The band still needs to develop some kind of dramatic impact.

Now the B-52s, they’ve got impact. Germinated in Georgia, nurtured in New York, this is one band so strange that it has the power to break the bounds of conventional behavior. The quintet looks weird enough in their trashy, flashy ‘60s styles – particularly Cindy Wilson in her bouffant wig. They sound even weirder.

They enter to the electronic bleeping of a walkie-talkie. They play whimsical, pun-filled songs about lobsters, volcanos and all those crazy dance crazes. Singers Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson specialize in shrill duets and bizarre warbles behind frontman Fred Schneider.

The instrumental constants are an amazingly efficient rhythm guitar (Cindy’s brother Ricky) and drums, to which the others add percussion, keyboard bass and, in one number, a plinky toy piano. It makes for a raucous but rather one-dimensional performance, tighter but not much different from the one they gave in McVan’s in March. They even do the same encore, “Private Idaho.” Could it be that the B-52 are a one-shot wonder, fun today and gone tomorrow?

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTO: Cover of the B-52s debut album.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: We all know the answer to that last question. They may not have evolved much, but they’re still around, except for Ricky Wilson, who died from AIDS in 1985. They even had a residency in Las Vegas last year.

The big difference for the group since its McVan’s date earlier in the year was the July release of their debut LP, which is ranked among the greatest albums of all time.      No record of this show at all on setlist.fm, but I'll wager that they played what they played a week earlier in Minneapolis:

Planet Claire

52 Girls

6060-842

Devil in My Car

Hero Worship

Lava

There's a Moon in the Sky (Called the Moon)

Runnin' Around

Rock Lobster

Strobe Light

Private Idaho

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