For the Fans

October 30, 2003

I wrote a long enough entry about R.E.M. last time I saw them, so I’ll keep this one short.

Celebrating the release of their new best-of compilation, “In Time,” R.E.M. performed a rare club gig on Wednesday, at the 1300 person capacity Avalon in Hollywood, California. The show was publicly available for a short time through the R.E.M. website, handled completely by the wonderful people at the R.E.M. fanclub. The rest of the tickets were industry and a handful of radio contest winners (the show was broadcast on a few Clear Channel networks).

The show started promptly at 9:00pm, with no opening act or warmup whatsoever. I had a spot in the second row inbetween Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey. The crowd was virtually all fanclub, so it was hot from the start. The band blasted through “Finest Worksong” and went right into “These Days,” setting the tone early. “We are young despite the years, we are concerned, we are hope despite the times,” Stipe yelled during “These Days.” They played a lot of older material, including Document‘s “Exhuming McCarthy” and “Welcome To The Occupation,” and almost all of it seemed eerily prescient now that history has cycled.

The show was loose and casual, and it lacked the purposeful intensity of the Hollywood Bowl show last month. I didn’t really mind so much, because the band seemed to be going out of their way to put together a varied setlist. Except for “Losing My Religion” and “Man on the Moon,” the setlist was pretty much surprise after surprise. Getting to hear the moody dirge of “Sweetness Follows” and the orchestrated vocals of “At My Most Beautiful” was great enough, but the greatest pick of the night had to be phenomenal “Life and How to Live It,” my absolute favorite track from the magnificent Fables of the Reconstruction.

Getting to see R.E.M. on a small stage was really special, but I think my expectations were a bit off. I wanted something with a charge, manic energy, something that would make me feel like I was at the 40-Watt in Athens in 1985. Instead, the band drank a little champagne, relaxed and touched on a lot of the beauty and grace of their music that defined their later years, mixing in just a little bit of the power and personal protest of their earlier ones.

Setlist
Finest Worksong
These Days
Wake-Up Bomb
So Fast So Numb
Exhuming McCarthy
Animal
Sweetness Follows
Bad Day
World Leader Pretend
Strange Currencies
Losing My Religion
At My Most Beautiful
She Just Wants To Be
Walk Unafraid
Man On The Moon

Encore
Life And How To Live It
Welcome To The Occupation
Nightswimming
Final Straw
Permanent Vacation
Imitation of Life

Posted in From Blown Speakers