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I love festivals and this was kind of early on in our career. We had really just started
in 1979 you know, officially our first record, so this was still early and it was very exciting
to do a festival with other bands.
Well, I thought that it was amazing, I happened to be pretty good friends with all of Talking
Heads and also knew the Ramones quite well and had been already to numerous concerts
for both of those bands and I used to go see the Ramones and just, you know, dance dance
dance. I loved Talking Heads and we opened for Talking Heads when we first started.
My most vivid memory of it was that we started to call it the dust festival because there
was just so much dust and it was so so hot and I remember we had this dressing room area
and we had a water cooler and I was so hot and there was just, I don't think there was
any running water and I took the water cooler and just poured it over me! I just got naked
and poured this thing over me and it was just so so incredibly hot, I don't think I've ever
been so hot.
I do think that the US Festival, the "dust festival" was very organized, the coming in
on the helicopters, everyone had a little dressing room, the stage and the people, it
was quite, you know, an exciting event. Bigger than...we had ever done. The sound was great,
so it really laid the groundwork for the kind of high mark of festivals so I remember it
being a very special performance. We were probably nervous too and it added to the,
you know intensity.
They burned down the...it was their day. It has to be said that the B52's owned that day
of the US Festival.
I heard later that we really just rocked the house. I mean our set was just super charged.
We never stopped and the beats were really fast and I think for that...time, that kind
of new wave, punk music that was relentless this was like a really special event so it
was amazing.