The B-52s
"Summer Dance Party"
Greek Theatre
Los Angeles, CA
June 30th, 2012

"Greeks & Freaks"


Good





Lineage / Equipment:

250' from rail 8' left of center (Sec: C / Row V) / rob -> 6.5' h -> slavesound omni's ->
custom bb - no bass roll-off -> edirol r09 (44.1/16) -> sandisk 16gb class 4 sd -> reader ->
audition 3.0 - considerable level boost (+9 dB l / +12 dB r) (no normalization) (de-clap process)
-> har-bal 2.3 - moderate eq (bass attenuate, treble boost) -> cd wave editor (track split) ->
tlh (flac 8, etc...) -> DIME -> you -> sense of enjoyment -> sharing is caring -> support the artist
(yes) -XX convert to mp3 (no!!!).


Taper: mixter_


K.I.L.L. = Keep It LossLess



01. Eyes Wide Open
02. Mesopotamia
03. Private Idaho
04. Give Me Back My Man
05. Funplex
06. Roam
07. 52 Girls
08. Love in the Year 3000
09. Too Much To Think About
10. Hot Corner
11. Whammy Kiss
12. Band Introduction
13. Love Shack
14. Encore Break
15. Planet Claire
16. Rock Lobster


01:11:40



The Band:

Kate Pierson - keyboards, vocals
Fred Schneider - vocals, cowbell, toy piano, glockenspiel, keyboards
Keith Strickland - guitar, vocals
Cindy Wilson - bongos, tambourine, vocals
Sterling Campbell - drums
Tracy Wormworth - bass
Paul Gordon - keyboards, guitar


The performance:

The Beez put on a a very solid albeit short and sweet set that covered five newer Funplex tracks, five standards and four
deeper cuts. Sadly, no "Summer Of Love" or anything else of the highly magical and underrated "BOTS". "Whammy Kiss" was
great to hear as was the more arcane "Mesopotamia". The Girls sounded great and Fred kept the party on track. Their harmonies
aren't as full as they were 20+ years ago and Cindy seems to lose some wind during the multi-layered "Roam". Still, it's great
to see them all together again (sans Ricky: R.I.P.). A very tight band, suplanted by ex-Duranie, Sterling Campbell and Gail Ann
Dorsay protege, Tracy Wormworth. Paul Gordon handled double duty on keys and rhythm guitar very well.


The recording:

I've said it before, outdoor venues are the bane of my taping existence. This show was no exception. I expected a fair amount of
cheering, clapping and singing. This is the B-52s after all. Unfortunately as with most outdoor L.A. venues the audience brings
their fucking outside voices with them. I had an incessant chatter to my right and a whistler who was trying to hail a cab between
numbers not to mention the lady that has a Tourette's outbreak during the encore break! At times I felt that the crowd would have
been quieter down the road at Dodger's Stadium. The way they've been playing over the last two weeks, I'm sure that they would have
been. Zing! Add to this the fact that said audience was louder than the venue sound system from my vantage point (the tree section).
This is due to the fact that the iconic Greek imposes some pretty stringent SPL limits due to the surrounding residents. Hand to
heart, this is the first time in my 25+ years of taping shows that the opening act, Squeeze waslouder than the supposed headliner.
On second thought NIN was louder than Janes during "NIN/JA", so scratch that.

Initially I thought that I would delete this from my card, but I thought the better and spent some time applying some liberal yet
judicious level adjusts and tweaks to the crowd noise. It's far from perfect but still pretty listenable IMHO. The vocals come
through nice and clear but at my distance the music sounds less than dynamic. So if anyone else has a better version of this, please
share it.


Regarding requests for Squeeze:

Considerable issues with the chatting levels. I will consider posting if their are enough requests. It's not very pretty but it appears
that they performed two or three songs from their new E.P. I'm hoping that someone bails me out here and posts a better version of
Squeeze's set as well.


Please support the band:

Buy the excellent referencial "With The Wild Crowd: Live In Athens, GA" on CD, DVD and BluRay (oddly the CD leaves out "Rock Lobster".
Heresy!)... http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005HWUCQ8/
See a live show.
Buy some cool merch including their new retro chic Lunch Box
Go to Red Lobster and set one free!!!




Party On!


mixter_