Albums That Should Exist: US Festival '82, Glen Helen Regional Park, San Bernardino, CA, 9-3-1982

Wednesday, December 4, 2024

US Festival '82, Glen Helen Regional Park, San Bernardino, CA, 9-3-1982 - Day 1, Part 4: The B-52's

The fourth album from Day One of the 1982 US Festival is a set by the new wave band the B-52's.

A Rolling Stone Magazine article about the festival shortly after it happened had one paragraph about the B-52's set: "Onstage, the B-52's were learning the price of being popular. Their nonstop dance numbers turned the area in front of the stage into a man-made dust storm. By the time the band finished 'Hot Lava,' the white spotlight aimed at Fred Schneider looked for all the world like a car headlight cutting through heavy fog."

At the time of this festival, the band's most recent release was the E.P. "Mesopotamia." The band wanted to make that a full album, but the record company forced them to put it out as an E.P. before the album version could be finished. It was produced by none other than David Byrne, lead singer for the next act to perform on Day One of the festival, the Talking Heads. One song that was an outtake from the E.P., "Big Bird," was performed during the set. It would be included on the band's next album, "Whammy!" in 1983.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, unfortunately, many of the sets from the 1982 come from audience bootlegs. But I'm happy to say the B-52's set is an exception. That's because although no audio album of the set has ever been release, a DVD video release of the full set was in 2020, called "The B52's: Live at US Festival." So the audio here comes from that.

This album is 56 minutes long.

068 Planet Claire Intro [Instrumental] (B-52's)
069 Party Out of Bounds (B-52's)
070 Give Me Back My Man (B-52's)
071 Planet Claire (B-52's)
072 talk (B-52's)
073 Throw That Beat in the Garbage Can (B-52's)
074 talk (B-52's)
075 Lava (B-52's)
076 talk (B-52's)
077 Mesopotamia (B-52's)
078 6060-842 (B-52's)
079 talk (B-52's)
080 Big Bird (B-52's)
081 talk (B-52's)
082 52 Girls (B-52's)
083 talk (B-52's)
084 Dance This Mess Around (B-52's)
085 talk (B-52's)
086 Private Idaho (B-52's)
087 Rock Lobster (B-52's)
088 talk (B-52's)
089 Strobe Light (B-52's)