The R.E.M. Thread (For the People)

[HandBanana]

This is their best record since New Adventures and maybe since Automatic.

[HandBanana]

Ok probably since Automatic.

[zircona1]

R.E.M. is one of my favorite bands ever. Really looking forward to hearing the new album (not now, can't listen at work).

I've seen them seven times, starting with the Monster tour. They're a consistently good live band.

Have you all seen the Perfect Square DVD? It's excellent.

[TomAz]

REM live in 1985: awesome
REM live in 2003: pretty dull and tired

[TallGuyCM]

Tom, I assume you saw Radio Free Europe live back in the day? Jealous.

[Neutral Milk Hotel]

I've never understood why they don't play that anymore. Not even occasionally.

[TomAz]

I saw them on their Fables tour. No "Radio Free Europe" in this setlist though. But look at the two cool covers.

2 August 1985 - Cullen Auditorium, Houston, TX
support: True West

set: Feeling Gravitys Pull / Second Guessing / Letter Never Sent / Green Grow The Rushes / Hyena / Maps And Legends / Talk About The Passion / So. Central Rain / Have You Ever Seen The Rain? / Fall On Me / Driver 8 / Seven Chinese Brothers / Can't Get There From Here / Auctioneer (Another Engine) / Old Man Kensey / Pretty Persuasion / 1,000,000 / Life And How To Live It

encore 1: Harborcoat / (Don't Go Back To) Rockville / Little America
encore 2: Theme From Two Steps Onward / Gardening At Night / 9-9 / Windout / Boy (Go) / Femme Fatale

notes: Stipe announced this is second time they have played Fall On Me (untitled at the time)

[HandBanana]

My first time seeing them was in 1989 on the Green tour and it literally changed my life.
I would have loved to see them in 85.

[bballarl]

They were great in 2008. BMack and I saw an awesome show at the Greek in Berkeley. They seemed revitalized. That stretch from Up to Around the Sun was not their best.

[HandBanana]

Those Berkeley shows were awesome. Very revitalized.

[bmack86]

Yeah, I wish we could have gone both nights, but alas. We saw the first night and the set list was fantastic, plus the fact that Modest Mouse and the National opened.

Tom, those covers are pretty cool, but I'd have killed to have caught the shows where they covered See No Evil by Television and Ghost Rider by Suicide.

[roberto73]

My first time seeing them was in 1989 on the Green tour and it literally changed my life.

Hey, me too. Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati. Indigo Girls opened. I wore that shirt to tatters.

[HandBanana]

We got Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians (who I wish I had known at the time because that is a hell of an opener) and it was pretty incredible.

Pop Song 89
Exhuming McCarthy
Welcome To The Occupation
Pilgrimage
Turn You Inside-Out
Orange Crush
Maps And Legends
Feeling Gravitys Pull
Perfect Circle
World Leader Pretend
Begin The Begin
Cuyahoga
Dark Globe
(Syd Barrett cover)
Tired Of Singing Trouble
I Believe
Pretty Persuasion
Get Up
Auctioneer (Another Engine)
It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

Encore:
Stand
We Walk
Crazy
(Pylon cover)
You Are The Everything

Encore 2:
Finest Worksong
King Of Birds
Academy Fight Song
(Mission of Burma cover)

Encore 3:
Summertime
Strange
(Wire cover)
So. Central Rain

[bballarl]

I'm sorrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

[bmack86]

And your not not not not not not not not!
My A Cademy!

[faxman75]

They were great in 2008. BMack and I saw an awesome show at the Greek in Berkeley. They seemed revitalized. That stretch from Up to Around the Sun was not their best.

I was expecting tired and dull at Sasquatch 2008 but instead saw this revitalized band you all speak of.

I need to revisit New Adventures....I remember writing that off as their downfall. Probably a mistake at the time.

I've seen
Monster
Reveal
and
Accelerate tours.

Surpisingly Accelerate was my favorite.

[bballarl]

New Adventures is pretty good. I remember being surprised by that fact the last time I listened to it.

[tubescape]

Those Berkeley shows were awesome.

I'm going to throw R.E.M. lots of love here too. Those shows were great. It was like a mini-festival... the National -> Modest Mouse -> R.E.M.

*looking forward to giving the new album a listen, just not now because of work.

[zircona1]

Best R.E.M. show I saw was in St. Louis when they toured for Up in 1999. Wilco was the opener.

1.Lotus
2.What's The Frequency, Kenneth?
3.So Fast, So Numb
4.Jesus (The Velvet Underground cover) (Snippet, Stipe solo)
5.New Test Leper
6.Fall On Me
7.Suspicion
8.The Apologist
9.Half A World Away
10.Daysleeper
11.The One I Love
12.Sweetness Follows
13.The Great Beyond
14.Losing My Religion
15.E-Bow The Letter
16.At My Most Beautiful
17.Finest Worksong
18.Walk Unafraid
19.Man On The Moon

Encore:
20.Hope (Stipe solo)
21.Why Not Smile
22.Crush With Eyeliner
23.The Wake-Up Bomb
24.Tongue
25.It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

[HandBanana]

The Monster shows in summer 95 were incredible too.
Between them becoming huge in 89 and a household name by 94, REM hadnt done any touring. Plus everything "Alt" had blown up huge during that time as well.
So by the time they planned a mammoth arena/amphitheater outing in 95, everyone was primed for a "Victory Lap" kind of tour.
Plus, no matter what you think of Monster as an album, those songs were pretty much designed to sound amazing coming out of a shed in the summertime.
One of my favorite live memories is them playing "Tongue" on that tour. The disco ball. The echo'd guitar riff. Perfect.

R.E.M.

1. What's The Frequency, Kenneth?
2. Crush With Eyeliner
3. Disturbance At The Heron House
4. Try Not To Breathe
5. You
6. Undertow
7. Strange Currencies
8. Me In Honey
9. I Don't Sleep, I Dream
10. Revolution
11. Tongue
12. Man On The Moon
13. Country Feedback
14. Bang And Blame
15. Losing My Religion
16. Star Me Kitten
17. I Took Your Name
18. Finest Worksong
19. Get Up
20. Star 69

ENCORE

1. Let Me In
2. Everybody Hurts
3. Departure
4. Fall On Me
5. It's The End Of The World As We Know It

AND the opener was

Sonic Youth


1. Cotton Crown
2. Bull in the Heather
3. Starfield Road
4. Washing Machine
5. No Queen Blues
6. Skip Tracer
7. The Diamond Sea

[roberto73]

Ha. Found the setlist from '89. I never knew I had it so good.

Pop Song 89
Exhuming McCarthy
Welcome To The Occupation
Turn You Inside-Out
Cuyahoga
Orange Crush
Sitting Still
Feeling Gravitys Pull
Time After Time (AnnElise)
World Leader Pretend
Begin The Begin
Pretty Persuasion
I Believe
Strange (Wire cover)
Get Up
Auctioneer (Another Engine)
It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

Encore 1:
Stand
Wolves, Lower
Fall On Me
You Are The Everything

Encore 2:
Finest Worksong
King Of Birds
See No Evil (Television cover)

Encore 3:
These Days
Crazy (Pylon cover)
Perfect Circle

[zircona1]

The Monster One of my favorite live memories is them playing "Tongue" on that tour. The disco ball. The echo'd guitar riff. Perfect.

Oh yeah. Plus, Stipe singing Country Feedback with his back to this audience (did he do this for all the shows on that tour?), the "funk" version of Drive, and the new songs that they played - Revolution, Departure, etc.

I had really gotten into Monster and the rest of the R.E.M. catalog, I was so excited for the show in Kansas City. I remember being scared when I heard that Bill Berry suffered that aneurysm and that they might cancel the tour. Also, when that false info about him dying came out I actually called a radio station to find out if it was true (the dj said it was not).

[HandBanana]

Ha!
We were at the same show(s)
That set list up there I posted is from the Sandstone show.

[bmack86]

Rob, that set has a really good bootleg if I remember correctly. I'll have to look through my REM bootlegs to make sure, but that set list looks entirely too familiar.

[zircona1]

Ha!
We were at the same show(s)
That set list up there I posted is from the Sandstone show.

I think that set list is from the second night. There were two shows at Sandstone, and I only went the first night. I remember they did Pop Song 89 and So. Central Rain in the encore at the show I went to. Oh well, close enough!

[TallGuyCM]

I'd flip the fuck out if they ever brought back Fireplace.

[roberto73]

Rob, that set has a really good bootleg if I remember correctly. I'll have to look through my REM bootlegs to make sure, but that set list looks entirely too familiar.

That would be terrific to hear if you can find it, Bryan.

I'll echo all the previously-expressed love for Collapse Into Now. I'll hold off naming it the best thing since Automatic for the People until I've given it a couple more listens, but it's undoubtedly a solid extension of what they started on Accelerate.

[Neutral Milk Hotel]

Yeah, I don't want to go there quite yet. I would say without reservation that it's their best since Up (an album that most people hate but I'll always love), and maybe their best since Hi-Fi. The point is, this is the first time in a long time that R.E.M. have made a really good R.E.M., and not an album in which Michael, Mike and Peter try to awkwardly change what an R.E.M. album can or should be. It's back to basics in the best way.

[TallGuyCM]

lol, Uberlin sounds just like Drive in the verses.

[HighViolet]

all apologies if this is old news already:
http://www.npr.org/series/98679384/first-listen