The Superbly Original, Gloriously Weird B-52's Say Farewell to the Road
When the B-52’s played “Rock Lobster” on “Saturday Night Live” in January 1980, a few months after releasing their debut album, it was a lightning-strike moment for a generation of young misfits and oddballs.
The band’s uninhibited dancing, statuesque wigs and absurdist lyrics embraced the ecstatic, and its kinetically rhythmic guitar, precise drumming and bursts of Farfisa organ ensured a good time. Many of their campy, catchy songs celebrated people who seemed to be happily dislocated or disconnected from known dimensions (“Planet Claire,” “Private Idaho”). Several of the band’s members were queer and all five considered themselves “freaks.” Over a period of decades, as they grew from a cult band to one with Top 40 hits — most notably “Love Shack” in 1989 — they discovered how many others identified the same way.
“This eccentric, downright lovable quintet,” John Rockwell of The New York Times wrote in 1978, “provides about the most amusing, danceable experience in town.” The B-52’s sustained that vigor through seven studio albums and an EP, as well as the 1985 death of Ricky Wilson, one of rock’s most inventive guitarists. Their spirit can be heard in the work of a wide range of artists who followed, including Deee-Lite, Le Tigre, LCD Soundsystem and Dua Lipa.
Culture made by and for misfits and oddballs is now a billion-dollar industry, but it wasn’t when the B-52’s played their first gig in 1977, in their Athens, Ga., hometown. Maybe that’s why, 45 years after they first played for a small number of friends, they’ve announced a farewell tour, which starts Aug. 20 in Vancouver and wraps with a three-night stand in Atlanta in November. It took a while, but the weirdos have won.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/10/arts/music/b-52s-final-tour.html
I've loved the B-52's for so long, they are like family members to me.
oops! I meant to post this in the Lounge!
If needed, I will self-delete and move.
= new reply since forum marked as read
had scarcely heard of Atlanta. 
B-52s had a member die of AIDS--one of the earliest tragic losses when the public was still trying to wrap their minds around HIV. But they honored him and never ceased to support him.
Congrats to this band on their decades of success and unique music.
I burst into tears.
The article talks about the loss of Ricky at some length.
Maybe we make a party of it.
M'lady and I just got free tix to Crash Test Dummies on Friday night ... wasn't planning to go but they dropped in our laps, figure what the hell.
Sounds like it was a great lineup 30 years ago!
Rather be going to BNL but ... again, free
Have you seen the venue before?
It's a nice space. We had front row seats, so plenty of room to dance!
If IIRC, LA is the closest show to us.
I'll have to check again.
Plus, you never know, sometimes dates are added!
Congrats on the CTD tix.
I remember the first time I heard this on the radio, back in high school...was like, "What is this?????"
Probably wore the grooves out on the album. My parents could hardly stand it when I blared it on my stereo! 
Their music was so unique, weird and ultimately cool!
I saw them early on in a small NYC club right up in front.
Then when they returned they'd become bigger. My sis and I on a very hot summer evening tried to get into CBGB's, but we had some trouble using the buses. By the time we got there it was filled to the brim, so we didn't get in.
We were lucky though, we could still here them! Stayed for much, if not all of it.
Then they opened for The Parti Smith Group at the Scahaeffer Music Festival in Central Park!
"Roam" is in my all time top 5 songs!
It is SO Joyful! Makes me think of all the bigger trips I've been blessed to have either through my own efforts in saving up for them, or the two 🥰 I was blessed to be gifted with!
Other favorites: Channel Z, Love Shack, Dance This Mess Around, Sumner of Love, Girl From Ipanena.
Here's the 1976 schedule with Patti Smith...
We used to take the subway there and just sit outside on the grass listening to the music.
I knew knew knew back in 90, when I met a woman who equally thought the world of the B-52's, I was in love......