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Travel back in time to a carefree Labor Day weekend in 1982, when The B-52s: Live At The US Festival comes to DVD and digital platforms on September 4^th, from Shout! Factory. The performance features all five founding band members, and the film is dedicated to Ricky Wilson, who passed away 5 years after the US Festival performance. In brand-new interviews included in The B-52s: Live At The US Festival, band members Fred Schneider, Kate Pierson, and Cindy Wilson talk about Ricky, and what he meant to their unique sound, along with memories of performing at the US Festival.

Dance this mess around with the all-time, good-time party band The B-52s in a wild and unforgettable live performance. This hour-long set, recorded at the inaugural US Festival in 1982, had the crowd dancing from start to finish, and was considered to be one of the best of the entire festival.

“It was hot as hell in the desert but as soon as we got going we had the audience dancing up a dust storm,” says Fred Schneider.

This rare footage shows off the joyous energy and unique spirit that has been a hallmark of their music and live performances for over 40 years.
Packed with 13 hits and favorites from the group’s early years, including “Rock Lobster,” “Planet Claire,” Private Idaho,” and others, Live At US Festival is the first-ever live concert DVD release from The B-52s’ classic era, and a tasty slice of rock history that’s an absolute must-see for anyone who likes to party out of bounds!

The B-52s: Live At The US Festival is available for pre-order now at Shoutfactory.com and amazon.com.

The B-52s: Live At The US Festival Performances:

Party Out Of Bounds

Give Me Back My Man

Planet Claire

Throw That Beat In The Garbage Can

Lava

Mesopotamia

6060-842

Big Bird

52 GirlsDance

This Mess Around

Private Idaho

Rock Lobster

Strobe Light

About Shout! Factory: Shout! Factory, LLC is a diversified multi-platform media company devoted to producing, uncovering, preserving and revitalizing the very best of pop culture. Founders Richard Foos, Bob Emmer and Garson Foos have spent their entire careers sharing their music, television and film favorites with discerning consumers the world over. Shout! Factory’s entertainment offerings serve up feature films, classic and contemporary TV series, animation, live music and comedy specials. In addition, Shout! Factory maintains a vast entertainment distribution network which delivers culturally relevant programming, movie and audio content to all the leading digital service providers in North America and across multiple platforms. Shout! Factory owns and operates Shout! Studios, Scream Factory, Shout! Factory Kids, Shout! Factory Films, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Timeless Media Group and Shout! Factory TV. These riches are the result of a creative acquisition mandate that has established the company as a hotbed of cultural preservation and commercial reinvention. Shout! Factory is based in Los Angeles, California. For more on Shout! Factory, visit shoutfactory.com.

About The B-52s: Selling over 20 million albums worldwide, The B-52s—Fred Schneider [vocals], Kate Pierson [vocals], Cindy Wilson [vocals], — have quietly impacted alternative music, fashion, and culture over the course of four-plus decades. They count John Lennon, Madonna, James Murphy, and Michael Stipe among their disciples. Panic! At The Disco, Blood Orange, The Offspring, Pitbull, Roger Sanchez, and DJ Shadow have sampled classics from the band’s discography as Seth MacFarlane’s FamilyGuy, The Simpsons, Sugarland, and more offered up covers of their own. They inched towards the forefront of the post-punk movement in America codified by 1979’s self-titled The B-52s. Not only did the record go gold, but it also placed at #152 on Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” and #99 on VH1’s “Greatest Albums of All Time.” The gold-selling Wild Planet arrived hot on its heels in 1980. With Keith Strickland brilliantly filling the void in with music composition and live show guitar duties, 1989’s watershed Cosmic Thing elevated the B-52s to another galaxy altogether. It moved 5 million-plus units and spawned a string of Top 10 smashes in the form of the GRAMMY®-nominated “Roam” and “Love Shack”—which Rolling Stone lauded on the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time.”

Read Complete Article

Starring: The B-52’s
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Eagle Rock Entertainment
Run Time: 131 minutes (including extras)

Our Score: 3 out of 5 stars

I doubt I’ll ever forget watching Saturday Night Live with my dad the evening of January 26th, 1980. He and I were huge fans of the show and tuned in weekly to check out the latest hysterical skits performed by Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, Jane Curtin and other classic-era cast members. But when host Teri Garr introduced musical guests the B-52’s, an interesting thing happened: my dad’s face became one that fully epitomized “WTF?” and mine expressed unbridled awe of the band’s whacked fashion and spasmodic party vibe. Yep…on that night, the generation gap was in full effect. The baton had been passed. Along with the tanning butter.

As the members of the B-52’s state in an interview that is included on their new DVD/Blu-ray “The B-52’s with the Wild Crowd! Live in Athens, GA”, that SNL gig was the career-changer that catapulted them from being a quirky band with something of a cult following to one that suddenly was moving truckloads of their self-titled debut album. The interview is a fascinating one that allows all four band members – Fred Schneider, Kate Pierson, Cindy Wilson and Keith Strickland – to tell the story of how the four musicians got together and eventually became one of the most well-known – and arguably the best – party band that rock and roll has ever seen. Throughout the half-hour bonus feature, we’re treated to so many pictures from the B-52’s scrapbook that “interview” is something of a misnomer: it’s an exceptionally well-produced and edited short-form documentary that leaves very few stones unturned, including the life and death of original guitarist and band cornerstone, Ricky Wilson.

The main event of the Blu-ray, though, is the 34th anniversary concert filmed in their hometown of Athens, GA. As the disc’s case states, they have managed to assemble a wild crowd that is all costumed up and ready to party out of bounds. When the 52’s hit the stage, they launch into the energetic “Pump” from their 2008 release “Funplex”. It gets the party started quickly and proves that, even after more than 30 years of dancing their mess around, they still can create music that’s just as fun as that on their first LP, which hit stores in 1979. By the time the 90-minute show concludes, they have delivered 20 of their most popular songs (“Roam”, “Rock Lobster” and – of course – “Love Shack”) as well as fan-fave classics (“Planet Claire”, “Mesopotamia”, “52 Girls” and even “Strobe Light”). The tunes are still jumpin’ and are delivered with all of the energy and vitality of the original album tracks. On a sonic level, the Blu-ray is immaculate regardless of which of the three audio options is selected by the viewer: DTS HD Master Audio, Dolby Digital 5.1 or LPCM Stereo. The 1080i high-definition video is crisp and clean throughout.

Where “Wild Crowd!” falls short, though, is that said wildness is…well…pretty much exclusive to the crowd. Even though the B-52’s still seem to enjoy what they do, the performers themselves are fairly static and don’t move around the stage much. Throughout the entire show, Fred is in the dead center flanked by Kate and Cindy. And that’s about it. There’s some banter between songs, but it’s so generic that most of it could conceivably be used at any stop of any tour. Given that the show this Blu-ray documents is a momentous anniversary show – and that this is a band whose outlandish costumes and eccentric showmanship used to rival those of Devo and other avant garde weirdies – it’s a shame that the disc’s visual content winds up being its most uninteresting component. The crowd does their cosmic thing and shakes their honey buns non-stop. The band should oblige their enthusiasm but unfortunately becomes a bit of a deadbeat club.

Tag: b52s

THE B-52s: LIVE AT US FESTIVAL TO ARRIVE ON DVD AND DIGITAL ON SEPTEMBER 4, 2020 FROM SHOUT! FACTORY

Blu-ray Review “The B-52’s with the Wild Crowd! Live in Athens, GA”

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