Las Vegas Mixtape v51: Culinary Speed Dating, Arthouse Cinema Escape, Life on Planet Claire — Track #4 (of 5): The B-52’s @Venetian Theatre

Track #4 (of 5): The B-52’s @Venetian Theatre

Step into a “love shack” where mean people are forbidden. L-R: Cindy Wilson, Fred Schneider, and Kate Pierson.  (Image: Vegas 411)

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The B-52s may have concluded their official “farewell tour” in January 2023, but this hasn’t stopped the fun-loving Georgia-originated New Wave band from performing select shows ever since. That’s been good news for anyone who’s enamored of a band whose music joyfully represents, and delivers, freedom from the mundane.

On the third and final night of their “Love Shack” residency at The Venetian Theatre last month, original members and singers Fred Schneider, Kate Pierson, and Cindy Wilson triumphantly lit up all their big hits including “Rock Lobster,” “Roam,” and “Dance This Mess Around,” transporting the colorfully dressed audience to a time when rock was unapologetically fun and danceable yet smart and meaningful too.

Cindy Wilson (left) and Kate Pierson harmonized, and dressed, as only they can. (Image: Vegas 411)

“The love shack is a little old place where we can get together,” they proudly sang, providing a sanctuary for an all-inclusive audience who know the mainstream can be a dull—and at times oppressive—place to reside.  At the Venetian, the great B-52s lifted us to a place where there is only beauty and no judgement, singing lines like, “Planet Claire has pink air/All the trees are red/No one ever dies there/No one has a head,” which sounded fresh and new. Released in 1979, “Planet Claire” is exactly the kind of musical medicine that the world needs right now.

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