Roam, if you want to
It's funny how bands can mean everything to you at one point in your life, then slowly fade out of your mind for years.
When I was in the 8th grade, The B-52's were like the second coming of Christ, as far as I was concerned. Although completely mistaken into thinking they were a "new" band when I first saw the video for "Channel Z" on MTV during the summer of 1990, I quickly discovered the band's long history and began collecting all their albums. I had the cassingle of "Love Shack" about 2 months before anyone else in my school had even heard of the B's. One of my proudest moments in all of junior high was when I "premiered" the video for Roam at a Christmas Party my parents let me have at our house for the entire 7th and 8th grade classes. Several weeks later, Roam would become inescapable.
So, it's probably no surprise that last Friday night when I got to see the B-52's live for the second time in my life at the LA County Fair, that I teared up just a little bit when I heard the familiar lines of the chorus, "Roam if you want to, Roam around the world..."
To rewind a bit, I had been keeping up with the news on the B-52's new album, which is reportedly already recorded yet a release date and record label are not yet confirmed. Being that their last studio album was 1992's "Good Stuff" - which was a let-down for me at the time - I was pretty excited to hear that there would finally be new material from this classic band. I excitedly watched low-resolution cell-phone clips on youtube of the new songs, which the band had been performing at random shows across the US and UK. When I read on their website that the band would be appearing at the L.A. County Fair, I was intrigued.
No one I talked to had ever been to the L.A. County Fair before. Growing up in Kansas, I had more than my fair share (ha ha!) of dusty carnivals surrounded by livestock and over-eager 4-H club members showing off the projects they helped their moms make. As a 4-H'er myself, the fair was usually a really big deal to me, as it was my one big paycheck of the summer. For those of you who don't know, each time a 4-H member enters a project into the fair, he or she is awarded a cash prize which varies in amount depending on whether the project is given a white, red, blue, or purple ribbon. Even better than purple, a child can be awarded "Grand Champion" which indicates his or her project was the very best out of every project in that category. One lucky runner up receives the "Reserve Grand Champion" prize, which means that if for some reason the Grand Champion winner is unable to proceed to the State Fair, this person can go. It seemed the easiest way to win a huge chunk o' change was to enter as many different cookies, cakes, and confections in the cooking division as possible. I once won Grand Champion for my Blondies (like brownies but not chocolate) which I only recently learned was actually just the recipe off the back of the chocolate chip bag.
Anyway, it is significant to me because I remember clearly that 1990 was to be the last year I was involved in the Russell County Free Fair because our family had already decided to move off the farm the following summer. I also remember that I had just seen The B-52's on MTV about a week or two before the fair, and was very surprised and delighted when I spotted a B-52's button for sale at one of the vendor's tables. "Hmm" I thought... This was probably my first clue that the B's were not a new thing.
Anyway, I drove out to Pomona, home of the "Fairplex", with my friends Marc and Angie (who had never seen the B-52's live and although she likes them, despises the song Roam), and my boyfriend Dylan met us there.
Upon entering, the lady at the ticket counter told us all the free tickets to the show were already sold out. Wha-wha-what?!?! I had poured over the fair's website. Nowhere had a I seen a warning that free tickets were limited in any way or that there was any possibility of not being able to see the band. We reluctantly decided to pay the $10 to get in anyway since we had driven all the way out there (and it had taken over 2 hours), but we were not happy. I'm sure the entrance photo they snapped of Marc and I as we walked through the fair gates was not a pretty picture.
We walked around a little, trying to enjoy the festive atmosphere, but I was not going to let go of this. I guided the rest of the crew over to the grandstand and found the ticket booth for the concert. "How much are the cheapest tickets" I asked, hoping maybe the website was wrong about the $25 asking price for the lowest tiered reserved tickets.
"FREE" exclaimed the lady in the booth.
Not wanting to get too excited, I replied, "yeah, but you're all out of those."
"NO" said the lady, and held out several tickets to me. "How many do you need?"
"Four" I said, and she immediately handed over 4 tickets. She had two free tickets left after that.
With that, the clouds cleared up and all was well! Not only did we have our free tickets, but we had about an hour to ride the rides before the concert would start.
The show itself was pretty amazing. It was very odd for me to see so many random people, families, kids, etc... all waiting to see the B-52's. Even in the height of their early 90's resurgence, it was still a little weird to be a huge B's fan - at least in Kansas. So to see all these people so excited to see a band that I had been so personally touched by was surreal.
The crowd was actually very excited and polite, clapping and cheering even for the new songs. Although some douchebags next to us started yelling for "Love Shack" before the second song even began and eventually left when they hadn't gotten their wish about 6 songs in, most of the people around us were just as excited as we were by old classics like "Private Idaho" and "Give Me Back My Man."
So, like I said, when "Roam" began, all these memories that I've been describing above - about junior high, the Russell County Fair, and that thrilling time when I got to witness my "favorite" band at the time soar to the top of the charts and magazine covers like Spin and Rolling Stone - it all came back in a single rush.
Later that night, Dylan, Angie and I rode an insane ride called the Tango which, upon being strapped securely into, proceeded to raise us about 200 feet in the air and then fling us through space at about 100 miles per hours, twisting us around and spinning us upside down at a crazy level, but nothing could outdo the high I felt from the concert.
When I was in the 8th grade, The B-52's were like the second coming of Christ, as far as I was concerned. Although completely mistaken into thinking they were a "new" band when I first saw the video for "Channel Z" on MTV during the summer of 1990, I quickly discovered the band's long history and began collecting all their albums. I had the cassingle of "Love Shack" about 2 months before anyone else in my school had even heard of the B's. One of my proudest moments in all of junior high was when I "premiered" the video for Roam at a Christmas Party my parents let me have at our house for the entire 7th and 8th grade classes. Several weeks later, Roam would become inescapable.
So, it's probably no surprise that last Friday night when I got to see the B-52's live for the second time in my life at the LA County Fair, that I teared up just a little bit when I heard the familiar lines of the chorus, "Roam if you want to, Roam around the world..."
To rewind a bit, I had been keeping up with the news on the B-52's new album, which is reportedly already recorded yet a release date and record label are not yet confirmed. Being that their last studio album was 1992's "Good Stuff" - which was a let-down for me at the time - I was pretty excited to hear that there would finally be new material from this classic band. I excitedly watched low-resolution cell-phone clips on youtube of the new songs, which the band had been performing at random shows across the US and UK. When I read on their website that the band would be appearing at the L.A. County Fair, I was intrigued.
No one I talked to had ever been to the L.A. County Fair before. Growing up in Kansas, I had more than my fair share (ha ha!) of dusty carnivals surrounded by livestock and over-eager 4-H club members showing off the projects they helped their moms make. As a 4-H'er myself, the fair was usually a really big deal to me, as it was my one big paycheck of the summer. For those of you who don't know, each time a 4-H member enters a project into the fair, he or she is awarded a cash prize which varies in amount depending on whether the project is given a white, red, blue, or purple ribbon. Even better than purple, a child can be awarded "Grand Champion" which indicates his or her project was the very best out of every project in that category. One lucky runner up receives the "Reserve Grand Champion" prize, which means that if for some reason the Grand Champion winner is unable to proceed to the State Fair, this person can go. It seemed the easiest way to win a huge chunk o' change was to enter as many different cookies, cakes, and confections in the cooking division as possible. I once won Grand Champion for my Blondies (like brownies but not chocolate) which I only recently learned was actually just the recipe off the back of the chocolate chip bag.
Anyway, it is significant to me because I remember clearly that 1990 was to be the last year I was involved in the Russell County Free Fair because our family had already decided to move off the farm the following summer. I also remember that I had just seen The B-52's on MTV about a week or two before the fair, and was very surprised and delighted when I spotted a B-52's button for sale at one of the vendor's tables. "Hmm" I thought... This was probably my first clue that the B's were not a new thing.
Anyway, I drove out to Pomona, home of the "Fairplex", with my friends Marc and Angie (who had never seen the B-52's live and although she likes them, despises the song Roam), and my boyfriend Dylan met us there.
Upon entering, the lady at the ticket counter told us all the free tickets to the show were already sold out. Wha-wha-what?!?! I had poured over the fair's website. Nowhere had a I seen a warning that free tickets were limited in any way or that there was any possibility of not being able to see the band. We reluctantly decided to pay the $10 to get in anyway since we had driven all the way out there (and it had taken over 2 hours), but we were not happy. I'm sure the entrance photo they snapped of Marc and I as we walked through the fair gates was not a pretty picture.
We walked around a little, trying to enjoy the festive atmosphere, but I was not going to let go of this. I guided the rest of the crew over to the grandstand and found the ticket booth for the concert. "How much are the cheapest tickets" I asked, hoping maybe the website was wrong about the $25 asking price for the lowest tiered reserved tickets.
"FREE" exclaimed the lady in the booth.
Not wanting to get too excited, I replied, "yeah, but you're all out of those."
"NO" said the lady, and held out several tickets to me. "How many do you need?"
"Four" I said, and she immediately handed over 4 tickets. She had two free tickets left after that.
With that, the clouds cleared up and all was well! Not only did we have our free tickets, but we had about an hour to ride the rides before the concert would start.
The show itself was pretty amazing. It was very odd for me to see so many random people, families, kids, etc... all waiting to see the B-52's. Even in the height of their early 90's resurgence, it was still a little weird to be a huge B's fan - at least in Kansas. So to see all these people so excited to see a band that I had been so personally touched by was surreal.
The crowd was actually very excited and polite, clapping and cheering even for the new songs. Although some douchebags next to us started yelling for "Love Shack" before the second song even began and eventually left when they hadn't gotten their wish about 6 songs in, most of the people around us were just as excited as we were by old classics like "Private Idaho" and "Give Me Back My Man."
So, like I said, when "Roam" began, all these memories that I've been describing above - about junior high, the Russell County Fair, and that thrilling time when I got to witness my "favorite" band at the time soar to the top of the charts and magazine covers like Spin and Rolling Stone - it all came back in a single rush.
Later that night, Dylan, Angie and I rode an insane ride called the Tango which, upon being strapped securely into, proceeded to raise us about 200 feet in the air and then fling us through space at about 100 miles per hours, twisting us around and spinning us upside down at a crazy level, but nothing could outdo the high I felt from the concert.
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