B-52s / music in Norway

[Steve Schonberger <microsoft!stevesc@uunet.UU.NET>]

My brother and I and a friend of his went to the B-52s on Sunday
night, in the Seattle Center Arena.  First the bad news, then the good
news.  They had a really stupid "weapon search" on the way in, which I
probably could have snuck a rifle through if I'd really wanted to.
They were probably really looking for tapes, or maybe just trying to
scare people out of trying to haul nasty stuff in, but I don't know.
It's the last thing I'd expect to turn into a violent crowd, but maybe
they have a paranoid insurance company or something.

The next bad news was their warm-up band, Love Tractor.  They weren't
exactly bad, but they weren't all that good either.  I'm not going to
run out and buy one of their albums, and they were a disappointment;
I'd expect they'd be better running around with the B-52s.  (There
have been times when I was more interested in the warm-up band than
the main act, like when the Sugarcubes opened for New Order, and when
Dickless opens for almost anyone.)  They sounded like Pixies wannabes,
though I'm not too familiar with the Pixies.  One thing they did well
was starting exactly on time, then finishing fairly soon too.  They
started right at 8.

Now for the good news.  The B-52s rocked.  They started at 9:15.  They
played quite a mix of stuff, pretty much evenly spread across their
stuff, with only a little emphasis on their latest release, which was
maybe a third of the show.  They played a fairly short set, maybe an
hour, but then came back for like three separate encores.  I feel
sorry for the folks that didn't wait until the lights came up to
leave, because they missed about a third of the show.  I think they
finally finished up for real around 11, but I wasn't paying much
attention at that point.

What's really wild about them is the diverse crowd they brought in.
There were hippie types, black leather teens, regular student types,
yuppies, punkers, and even some people with gray hair.  They've got to
be the only band ever to appear on a best seller list that hasn't been
trashed on this list!

***

On another subject, I'm going to Norway soon.  I'll be in Oslo and
Trondheim.  Does anyone know any cool clubs or record stores I should
visit?  Replies to my home address and work address by noon Thursday,
or leave a message with Kari at 2 284289 if e-mail won't make it in
time.

-- 
	Steve Schonberger	microsoft!stevesc@uunet.uu.net
	"Who built the Space Needle?  Elvis!" -- Mojo Nixon