B-52's In The Borough

So I forgot to bring my camera to last night's performance by the B-52's in The Borough, thus we have a canned picture. Since we were "holding up the back" as I so often like to do - out of the crowds, it would have been hard to get a decent picture anyway.

The evening started with myself and two friends having a quick beer down in Coney at Ruby's (more on Ruby's and the demise of Coney in a future post) - heading out to sit by ocean and take in the fresh ocean breeze :-) and parking ourselves behind the crowds - hoping the rain would hold off.

The rumor that I kept hearing is that every year for the last few years it has become a torrential rain right before they go on, or during their show - well hallelujah they managed to break the curse!

Luckily not only did the rain hold off, but instead of Patty Smythe opening - the B-52's opened!!! No disrespect to Patty Smythe and Scandal, but our first reaction was "excellent, now we don't have to hear Patty Smythe".

The B-52's came on and lived up to their marketing slogan as the world's best party band - the energy was amazing - the sound was like the last 25 years hadn't happened (does Fred age?) - we danced in the sand (umm.. we were across the street in the back) and sang along - they did all of their party favorites "Mesopotamia", "Private Idaho", a personal favorite of mine "Give me back my man", along with a few new songs - "Ultraviolet" and another song about Shopping Malls..which had the same vibe and sound that defines their music - and it still sounds fresh and new. The encores were "Planet Claire" and "Rock Lobster". We were only slightly annoyed that they kept saying "great to be in NY" hello, you're in Brooklyn...just made them sound kinda uneducated about where they were.

During Rock Lobster, it started drizzling a bit, but stopped soon after....We left dry and smiling - even with the oppressive police presence.

Now I went on last time about Marty Markowitz and the self-serving marketing that went on before the last show - he managed to repeat his whole diatribe verbatim (he must stand on front of a mirror saying "Don't smoke, even if you don't care about yourself, care about the people around you" fuck head. sorry i shouldn't use profanity but in the years before he showed up - the music started on time and we ere not subjected to 45 minutes of his moralistic ramblings.

Someone needs to tell him that we'd rather hear some music before the show starts or even an explanation of why its starting late - with an apology. Marty look in the mirror and practice this " Sorry for the delay folks, we're a bit incompetent here". And once again there were 5 times as many cops as people - and more per capita than at the Puerto Rican Day parade.

My friend who was wearing a tie-dye shirt actually got trailed and harassed by the cops -I mean he's coming back from the bathroom and cops follow him across the street and ask him what's he's smoking (funny since he had his hands on his WATER bottle) - they seriously need to focus on actual crimes happening instead of harassing tax paying citizens at a concert.

I did love the show, but I repeat what I said last time - stick to Prospect Park or Summerstage.