An exciting early glimpse into The B-52s and how they sounded around the time Rock Lobster was first released on a local Georgia independent record label, before they got signed to a major and worldwide success.
This recording was originally recorded by a legend of the gig taping world, the Grape, using a Uher 134 cassette deck with an AKG A200D microphone. while in the audience - he actually recorded both shows the band played that night. The grape recorded many shows through the 70s and without these people, this site ultimately wouldn't exist, so big thanks to him and others who took the time to do it.
The recording needed a fair bit of tweaking - someone, once upon a time had put a brickwall limiter on it (in layman's terms, boosted loudness as high as it could go on every part of the recording to make it sound "better") which made it boomy and tiring to listen to all the way through. And still muffled. However, with a few studio tricks and EQ, it now sounds much clearer and far more listenable. Bear in mind it is still a cassette recording made from the audience over 40 years ago, but even so, it's a fascinating clip of how the band were early on.
The songs here comprise the first of 2 sets they played that night; the 2nd set replaces Hot Lava with Strobe Light and adds Running Around but is otherwise the same set. If you're interested in me reworking and putting that up as well, then let me know in the comments.
You can download all of this improved recording for free HERE as one 320 kbps MP3 file.
Or, if you would like to support the site with a small donation towards storage subscription and internet costs, in return you can have the remastered show as separate, properly tagged MP3s or even lossless files in FLAC format; head on over to the Donations tab to see how you can do this.
Either way - enjoy the show!
Setlist
Planet Claire
Hero Worship
52 Girls
The Devil's In My Car
Downtown
Hot Lava
Rock Lobster