B-52s (9:30 club, January 19th 2011)
Wow, this band despite all it's songs that drill themselves into you'r head are really good, when I found out my friend Katya and Dan Shore were going to go to this concert I Jumped at the opportunity for several reasons. Obviously one of them was because they were going and Alex Gamboa was going but also because I missed the 9:30 club. I only went to one concert in the 2nd half of 2010 (by that I mean one concert at the 9:30 club) so I was more than eager to revisit one of the three concert venues in the "D.C Area" which is really d.c and parts of virginia and maryland. Also who in their right mind misses seeing these guys. Even if it is for rock lobster. I went to the concert expecting it to be sub par with exception of when they played the hits such as Rock Lobster, Planet Claire and Love Shack. I head to the 9:30 club with Katya (Dan having dropped out due to perfectly legitimate reasons)and met up with Alex. Waiting in line I noticed I was probably the youngest guy there (well I later on found out that there was another guy who was probably a freshmen in high school). The crowd was definitely an interesting variety of people though, mostly older people obviously but there were also many transvestites in the crowd. I got a front row view and my preconception that the concert would be only enjoyable during the overplayed hits was wrong. The stage was extremely psychedelic, the lighting was psychedelic, the instrumentation was amazing on all the tracks and the band was quirky and out there as ever even in their 50s and 60s. Fun thing about their first song wig is that Fred Schneider pointed at random people singing "he's got a wig, she's got a wig" and who was the first person he points at? me thats right, the dude with the long hair right infront of him (got front row by waiting up front with alex for two hours sharing old war stories). Their antics again were hilarious. Their performance of songs though was flawless, each song was played with just as much if not more energy than expected. I rarely dance during shows... and I danceed.. i really danced. Planet Claire and other songs of that nature were very trippy but other songs were not only trippy but groovy as hell and made me want to dance along with everyone else. The show left us all in good spirits, how could it not, it was the most fun I had that week after Magfest was cancelled for me. I waited outside with Katya and Alex after the show for the band with 15 other people but ended up not seeing them much to our demise but that was still cool considering we heard more war stories from a guy who had seen more epic shows than anyone I know (and I know Dan Aboud, Alex Gamboa , My old man and another guy who was young during the 60s). Was it worth the risks that came with going on a weekday? oh hell yeah it did. Oh I also have the setlist thanks to Katya (awesome +1000) .
