I had one of those “God, I feel kind of old moments” last week. I had tickets to see The B-52’s at the House of Blues here in Cleveland, and I realized that it’s been 16 years since the last time The B’s and I saw each other.

I was in high school in 1992, and we assembled the largest group of friends that I can remember ever going to see a show with, to go see The B-52’s, who were co-headlining that summer with the Violent Femmes at Blossom Music Center. The group had lost founding member Cindy Wilson, who had retired from life on the road, and though their new album at the time Good Stuff was indeed quite good, it lacked a bit of the spark provided by the dynamic duo that was Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson.

16 years later, Cindy has been back with The B-52’s for a number of years, and the band finally have released the very excellent Funplex album. If you were wondering if The B’s still had a good album left in them, Funplex answers that question with a resounding YES. Currently, The B-52’s are in the midst of a short tour of small hall shows that brought the band to Cleveland for a sold out date at the House of Blues that was pure magic.

Pierson, if you can believe it, had just celebrated her 60th birthday two days prior to the House of Blues show, and you’d never know it. Many a fan in attendance could be heard discussing the hotness of Pierson, and debating between Pierson and Wilson, who was the “hotter of the two” back in the day. Meanwhile, Fred Schneider looked as usual like he might have just stepped off of one of the UFO spaceships that have been sung about so often in B-52’s song history. As for guitarist Keith Strickland, he did a great job of being almost the “quiet Beatle” of The B-52’s, i.e. his usual role. Backed by their always capable band, the four B’s threw a memorable party at the House of Blues that kept everyone in the audience, young and old, on their feet and dancing for 90 minutes, opening with the lead track from Funplex, Pump, one of six tracks that they would spotlight from the album in a set that was mixed with old favorites like Party Out of Bounds and Mesopotamia, a good healthy dosage of tracks from Cosmic Thing including Roam, Channel Z (!) and of course Love Shack, which served as the closing number for the main set.

Sadly, Deadbeat Club was not one of the “cosmic tracks” that they pulled out, and it would have gone really nicely on the tail end of the Wilson/Pierson sung double shot of Juliet of the Spirits (from Funplex) and Roam. Alas, it was not to be on this particular night. The new tracks, particularly Juliet, sounded great live, although one fan made note that it seemed like all of the new material was slowed down a bit compared to the recorded versions on the new album.

The set wrapped with a 3 song encore set that opened with a version of Planet Claire that might have some pulling out their copy of the original thinking “I don’t remember it sounding like THAT!” And, as you can probably guess, they wrapped things up with a version of Rock Lobster that had EVERYONE dancing…no actual dancing ability required!

Here is some choice live B-52’s stuff that was allegedly recorded for a live album that was shelved. Great quality, and it’s got that Deadbeat Club that I was wishing for!!

The B-52’s – August 11th, 2001 – Live in Atlanta, GA

zipped download – AAC files for Ipod – complete show

disc one: zipped download – MP3

1. Is That You Mo-Dean
2. Dance This Mess Around
3. Good Stuff
4. Lava
5. Roam
6. Quiche Lorraine
7. Deadbeat Club
8. Hero
9. Private Idaho

disc two: zipped download – MP3

1. Revolution (Mother Earth)
2. Pluto
3. Strobe Light
4. Love Shack
5. Whammy Kiss
6. Cosmic Thing
7. Rock Lobster

The B-52’s are on the road this summer as part of the True Colors tour with Cyndi Lauper and many others. Grab a copy of the new album, and grab a ticket to one of the dates in your area. You’ll have fun, guaranteed!