A few months ago you may recall that I spent an amusing evening camped outside a local record store in order to secure prime tickets to see R.E.M. Aside from accomplishing the actual purpose of the pilgrimage, I met many interesting people and got a great story out of it. If you missed that story, read it here first since I'll be referring to several characters from it later.
Many things have happened since that fateful morning of waiting in late January. The most important event had to be the aneurysm that Bill Berry suffered during the European leg of the R.E.M. tour. Even though all credible reports indicated that Berry was doing well, the subsequent cancellation of the remainder of the European dates had me thinking that perhaps I would never get a chance to see one of my all-time favorite bands. This fear continued even when the fan club announced that they would resume touring in May.
Another thing that happened was that I managed to trade for a couple of bootlegs from the current tour: one from Australia and the other from Taiwan. The sound quality was disappointing and the performance quality was less than what I expected. On both they performed all the songs from Monster and only reached back as far as Green for the rest of the material. Very disappointing all the way around.
With the big day set for Friday of last week (May 19), I spent the week preparing by hauling my nearly complete REM collection to work last week and cycling through it several times. I did not listen to Monster since I had pretty well burned myself out on it several months before. The commute to work featured the two previously mentioned bootlegs.
Earlier in the week they opened the U.S. leg of the tour with a three night stand at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mt. View, CA. Early reports on the Internet indicated that they were a little rough and rusty for the first couple of shows, but that the third show was excellent.
Thus it was under this momentum that Tina and I ventured off to Memorial Colliseum with our friends, Mike and Vlady . After parking and walking several blocks to the entrance, we were treated to an approximately fifteen minute wait before they opened the doors. After milling around outside in the hall (is that what you call the area "outside" the actual arena?) for several minutes dealing with the various pre-seating issues (locating our seats, buying t-shirts, bathroom breaks, etc.), we finally settled into our seats midway into Sonic Youth's second song. The seats, incidentally, were awesome. We were positioned just right of the stage about ten rows up in the bleachers. If we had been any lower, I think that the stage-right monitors would have blocked our vision. All in all, these seats were much better than the balcony seats we got for Jimmy Buffet awhile back. We could actually see everything that was happening!
Anyway, Sonic Youth was very cool and held no surprises for me. Each song started out with a distinct melody that eventually built to an intense cacophany before returning to the melody for the final verse. I liked it alot, but I'm not sure I would want to see them as anything besides an opening act. Then again, if they did a full show they would probably let Kim (the bass player) sing more which would have been really cool since I like all of her songs. They would also likely play something I recognize which did not happen at this show. Of course, I've only got three albums. They played perhaps 30 to 45 minutes of their very loud brand of noise rock which was not enough to inspire me to visit the local X-Girl store.
During the customary break while the roadies did their thing, I noted that the Punks (remember them from January?) had inexplicably landed seats two rows in front of us. Pauly had gotten his head shaved but Leader still had his customary bandana.
The lights went down briefly before the band exploded onstage with the expected "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?", the first single from Monster. I say expected because it had been the opening number for every show prior to this one. I had grown a bit tired of this song some time ago, but it was rendered with a great deal of energy as Michael Stipe set the tone for the show with alot of that lead-singer-running-around-and-dancing stuff. That energy was reciprocated by the crowd as everyone rose to their feet to greet them.
Next up was one of my favorite songs from Monster, "Crush with Eyeliner." I had wondered if Thurston Moore (of Sonic Youth) would come out for a cameo during this song since he had played on it for the album, but it did not come to pass. Evidently the two additional guitarists they added for the tour were more than enough. Given her close proximity, I half-expected to see the subject of the song, Courtney Love, make an appearance but that did not come to pass, either.
Continuing in the guitar/feedback/fuzz-tone vein, they played "Circus Envy" -- one of my least favorite songs from Monster. Because of this and because other people in the area had decided that perhaps it was time to sit down, I took my seat as did Tina, Mike and Vlady. Mike was in a car accident several years ago that resulted in a broken back that eventually healed but doesn't allow him to stand for long periods of time.
Next up, they delved into the Automatic for the People (their previous album) bag for a couple of songs. I had heard the rocked-up, over-electrified version of "Drive" prior to this night, but hearing it live convinced me that I like the album version so much better. The following song, "Try Not To Breathe", was done much better.
Right about this time, we all started to become annoyed with the people in front of us who continued to stand. There were four of them--a couple of couples, if you will. They began the show seated in the couple manner (boy-girl-boy-girl) but eventually found themselves grouped by sex with the guys standing in front of Mike and Vlady. The first guy was normal enough looking guy and danced as the concert progressed but the second guy was one of those wrestler-looking types with very broad shoulders and no sense of rhythm or grace. Most of the time he just stood there motionless. When he did attempt to dance occasionally, it was laughable at best. The two women were similar to the men in that one was pretty normal (Wrestler Boy's girl) while the other one was a study in how not to dance in public. Her body movement was minimal and not particularly ungraceful, but her big thing was arm-waving. Mostly devoted to her right arm (the one in front of me), she waved with abandon throughout the whole night. It was kind of New Age reminiscent and seemed like something you might see on Kids in the Hall or SCTV. It was kind of pitiful.
Anyway, Mike politely asked Wrestler Boy to sit down pointing out that there were a number of people in back of us that would appreciate it, too. Wrestler boy refused twice and Vlady had to jump in and explain Mike's back problem. Clearly disconcerted by her insistence, he and the other guy compromised by hopping over the railing that was directly in front of them and continuing to stand, albeit six inches lower than before. This was the way they continued for the length of the concert. After this issue was resolved, we were once again to concentrate on REM. Just in time, it turned out, as a the band launched into a moving version of "You." This was another song I didn't like much on the album, but it came across much better live. It really gave me a new appreciation for Stipe's voice. I guess that they thought they had gotten into a love song groove and followed up "You" with "Me In Honey" and "Strange Currencies". Mike Mills did an admirable job of handling Kate Pierson's part on the former but I enjoyed "Currencies" much more, especially the last verse:
You know with love come strange currencies,
But here is my appeal,
I need a chance, a second chance, a third chance, a fourth chance....
A little breath,
It's to fool myself, catch myself,
And make it real
Pulling slowly out of the mellow groove, they did "I Don't Sleep, I Dream" next. Stipe was in prime vocal form for this one. I didn't hear his voice crack once. This was not the case on either of the boots I had. Following that they did a new unreleased song that Stipe introduced as "not good enough for the last record, but good enough to play live." I'm still puzzling over that back-handed compliment, but enjoyed the song as much as anyone can enjoy a new song.
One of the peak moments of the evening came next when a disco ball was lowered until it was at head-level next to Stipe and they launched into the Prince-meets-Motown song, "Tongue." Stipe introduced it with the comment that he normally dedicates it to all the women in the audience, but tonight he was dedicating it to the men in the hope that they would learn something. Again cryptic beyond my faculties, but the mirror ball was very effective and they played the song very well.
After the mirror ball was pulled away, Stipe started into a story about two people that he saw on Saturday Night Live in '76/77. He explained that both these people were very influential to him and that he kind of merged them in to a single person in his mind. The first was Andy Kaufman and the second was Patti Smith. Then, of course, they launched into "Man on the Moon", one of my favorites.
After that, Bill Berry left the drum riser and donned a bass, Mills abandoned his bass to play keyboards and they did a mini-Out of Time set. They began with the awesome "Country Feedback", my favorite song from that era and followed up with "Half A World Away" and "Losing My Religion" after Peter Buck abandoned his guitar for his now famous (or is that infamous?) mandolin.
Tina later reported that somewhere along the way, one of the two guys sharing our row fell over backwards as he danced in the aisle. I strongly suspect this man to be the drunk stranger from my January experience.
I would have been surprised by the inclusion of "Star Me Kitten" next, but I had read in the Shoreline reviews that they had started doing it as part of the show. Following that, they did "I Took Your Name" and a new song to which I could neither distinguish a title or lyrics. I think this was probably the low point of the show.
Fortunately, everybody woke back up when they launched into "Get Up" (to which Stipe forgot some of the words) and followed with "Star 69", another favorite of mine. After that they left the stage and we were left to scream and clap until they returned for the encore... which they did after what I thought to be a longer-than-necessary period.
One thing that I had noted on the two aforementioned bootlegs was that they had been following "Let Me In" (which is about Curt Cobain) with "Everybody Hurts" (their anti-suicide song), a coupling that I'm sure is no coincidence. Throughout the entire show I looked forward to the moment when they would do these two songs and was not disappointed. While everybody screamed and yelled for the band to return I watched as a roadie carried out the green left-handed Mustang/Jaguar hybrid guitar that Courtney Love had given to Peter Buck after Cobain died. It had been his. Mills was the first to arrive back on stage and he picked up the guitar and started frantically strumming as Stipe stepped to the microphone and sang the opening verse. Later, Buck came on to add the organ part and Berry returned to play a minimal tambourine part. A short pause later and we hear the opening chords of "Everybody Hurts." Just like clockwork.
After completing the Suicide Medley, Stipe announced that they would do three more songs and then they were out of there. These three songs were "Bang and Blame" (the second single from Monster), "Finest Worksong" (a pleasant inclusion from Document) and the obligatory "It's the End of the World as We Know It". I was disappointed only because they didn't play "So. Central Rain" as they had at some of the Shoreline dates. Not too disappointed as I yelled "Right!" with 12,000 other people at the appointed time.
And that was it. Easily the best arena concert I have ever seen and a definite inspiration for future all-night ticket campouts.