B-52s endure rain, chilly weather to heat up Meijer Gardens dance party on opening night

Quirky doesn’t begin to describe the opening night of Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park’s 10th summer concert series.

How about abnormally wet and extra-terrestrially weird?

Not only was Friday evening’s outdoor amphitheater show easily the worst-weather opener in the 10-year history of Meijer Gardens (the Doobie Brothers show delayed by storms a couple years ago ended up being a fine night), but I’m not sure the venue has ever come close to enduring the 50-degree chill and dampness that permeated its lawn seats.

Put it this way: It’s the first time I’ve ever had to wear my winter coat and gloves to a Meijer Gardens show, not to mention two pairs of socks. And I was still cold.

(It led to a fair number of no-shows for the sold-out concert, because the crowd clearly fell short of the amphitheater’s 1,900 capacity.)

Maybe that just made the deliciously goofy and revelry-friendly mix of music – The B-52s and Grand Rapids’ own Alexis – that much more entertaining, or as The B-52s might say: a “Party Out of Bounds” straight from the “Planet Claire.”

Shoot, at various times on Friday, I felt like I had landed on another planet, albeit a cold and wet one, you know, like Pluto, only with beer.

If the weather alone was unusual (30 degrees cooler than it was in March), then the appearance of opening act Matt Forbush and Dan Hurst of Grand Rapids electro-pop phenomenon Alexis likely had some Meijer Gardens concertgoers even more befuddled, especially older visitors who’ve never seen the dance-infused duo at work.

Still, Forbush, with his grin-inducing but strangely hypnotic stage presence and aerobic frolicking, and Hurst, the keyboard mastermind behind the duo’s pop-powered electronica beats, eventually converted much of the crowd with their cheerful energy. It also helped their cause that Forbush confessed publicly to being a huge B-52s fan: “I have ‘Cosmic Thing’ on cassette,” he gushed at one point.

Despite rain that rolled in again after the opening set, sparking waves of multi-colored umbrellas to pop up everywhere, The B-52s had folks standing, bopping and swaying from the opening notes of their first song, “Eyes Wide Open.”

I’m not sure if fans were just trying to warm up their frozen toes, but many of them didn’t sit down for the remainder of the 1-hour-and-15-minute show which spotlighted the band’s most familiar hits – “Private Idaho,” “Roam,” “Love Shack” – while Fred Schneider stalked the stage in his fluorescent orange sportcoat with fellow singers Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson.

That’s probably because The B-52s are the sort of band everybody would love to hire for a private party: They churn out rhythmic, danceable party rock, punctuated by Schneider’s goofy, tongue-in-cheek, spoken-word pronouncements and driven by top-notch veteran drummer Sterling Campbell and guitarist Keith Strickland.

Even if some vocals might have been strained at times by the frigid, inclement weather, credit The B-52s for igniting an opening-night bash and keeping it going amid adverse and uninviting conditions.

I’m guessing, in fact, that had this party been held on a hot summer night, Meijer Gardens probably would have set a record for beer sales. Cheers. Now, where’s my long underwear and some hot tea?

Read more about the upcoming Meijer Gardens season in the current issue of REVUE Magazine and in a piece Thursday at rapidgrowthmedia.com, when I’ll round up the Top 10 best concerts in the history of the outdoor amphitheater.

Email: jsinkevics@gmail.com