Photo: Josef Jesso
The B-52s Star Rocks Town Hall
by Steve Desroches
It was Halloween night in Provincetown a couple of years ago and Commercial Street was filled with costumed revelers under a big, bright, nearly full moon. While Provincetown is unpredictable and wild on most any given day, Halloween is a special time, as the Cape tip goes all out and surprises abound. And on this particular night, amongst all the drag queens, spooky bears, and glittery ghosts and goblins, a giant of rock and roll, dressed as a devil, maneuvered the crowd largely anonymous. Only on Halloween could Kate Pierson of The B-52s, one of the most influential and innovative rock bands of all time, blend in with the crowd. That same year, Pierson collaborated with Australian singer-songwriter Sia to record “Every Day is Halloween,” released just days before the holiday, a moving song about a haunting in which a spirit finally manifests to be seen by mortals. But the song is also a bit biographical, as Pierson, along with Fred Schneider, Keith Strickland, Cindy Wilson, and the late Ricky Wilson, created a band so fresh, creative, and original that it’s felt like they were from another planet with their imaginative sounds and aesthetic. Indeed, every day is a bit like Halloween when you’re in The B-52s.
With fire-engine red hair, a red shirt with white polka dots, a necklace with a blue sparkly starfish pendent, and gold glitter glasses, Pierson looks every bit the rock star she is as she sits in the music studio of her Truro home she shares with her wife Monica Coleman and German shepherd Loki. Home for them is Woodstock, New York, but they find themselves increasingly on the Cape, and it’s beginning to feel more and more like a place they want to spend time as they are here frequently year-round. Both locales embrace the arts, with a left-focused sense of politics and an air of inclusion. As part of becoming an increased presence on the Cape tip, Pierson is bringing some of that cosmic magic from her career to Provincetown Town Hall, with a show this Friday night in which she’ll perform some of her solo work, new material, and of course songs from The B-52s. And she’ll be in full rock regalia.
“I actually got dressed up today not just for you, but because I’m doing an Instagram live later,” says Pierson. “I don’t usually dress up when I’m going into town. I try to create this in-between person, between the real me and myself on stage. And there are times I go full glam. I’m really pulling out all the stops for Town Hall. I mean, why only go half way? I can usually dress down, though, and no one recognizes me. I get recognized here more than I do in Woodstock. Though here when people come up to me the thing I hear the most is: ‘You changed my gay life.’”
Founded in Athens, Georgia, in 1976, The B-52s came into being after the founding members all shared a Flaming Volcano, a specialty cocktail at a Chinese restaurant, and had an informal jam session afterwards. With their “Potter’s House thrift store” looks and a sound created out of improvisation where each member brought their own ideas creating a musical collage, The B-52s also resonated in gay culture pinging the antennas of the LGBTQ community from the very beginning. While Athens is now known as a musical hot spot, being home to not only The B-52s, but also R.E.M., Indigo Girls, Widespread Panic, and more, in the band’s early days the music scene was a bit smaller in the college town home to the University of Georgia. There, far away from the corporate music industry and higher-pressure big city scenes, they could experiment and had creative freedom. So much so that when they arrived in New York City in 1978 for a gig at Max’s Kansas City, they blew people’s minds in a city that thought they had seen it all.
“The audiences in New York and the record companies didn’t know what to make of us,” says Pierson. “The record companies didn’t bother us because they saw that it worked, so the left us alone. People thought Cindy and I were drag queens. And they thought we were from London. They just couldn’t believe we were from Athens, Georgia.”
Their song “Rock Lobster” became a huge hit from their debut album. But it was appearing on Saturday Night Live in 1980 that launched them into superstardom and began a multidecade musical journey that made them one of the most highly regarded bands first in American culture and then globally as they’ve influenced artists like John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and the band Nirvana, whose drummer Dave Grohl told Pierson so when they both appeared on SNL50: The Homecoming Concert, where The B-52s shared a dressing room with Devo and played “Love Shack” with Bowen Yang, Sarah Sherman, and Fred Armisen on drums this past Valentine’s Day, an auspicious day for them as they played their first gig ever on the romantic holiday. It’s times like that where Pierson finds hope and inspiration. Involved in politics and civil rights since she was in high school Pierson is highly disturbed by the current state of the country. But, she notes music can be an effective way to stand up and fight back.
“I really want it to be a night of joy and to get everyone dancing,” says Pierson of her Town Hall show. “We really need to dance right now. These are dark, tough times politically, but we need joy, now more than ever. We need to dance again.”
The Payomet Performing Arts Center Road Show presents Kate Pierson at Provincetown Town Hall, 260 Commercial St., on Friday, August 29 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets ($35-$75) are available online at payomet.org. For more information call 508.487.5400.
