When R.E.M. visited The Colbert Report a ways back, we got to see an interview, a tall stool, and Accelerate used as a codpiece, but not the band’s “Hollow Man.” Well, Stephen Colbert showed it last night, likening the extra R.E.M. serving to when you get a dozen LifeSavers candies in a roll instead of the normal 11, telling the audience, “I’d like to give you a little bonus rock to suck on.” Of course. This take is less desktop pixelated than the video. It’s also more live.
At the beginning of “Hollow Man,” Stipe talks about echoes falling on him, but Saturday night at Jones Beach, it was raindrops. After welcoming the crowd to “R.E.M. Survivor 2008,” the band kicked into a cover of “Have You Ever Seen The Rain?” followed by their own “So. Central Rain.”
Rain it did. And more. Lightning struck the structure, there was a rain/lightning delay before, a lot of people left. Scary, maybe, but lighting striking is rarer than Johnny Marr joining the band for “Fall On Me” or any other so-called rarities, so let’s call it a special night Jones Beach.
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and a collective public sighs “who cares?”
>>>and a collective public sighs “who cares?”
speak for yourself , fuckstick…
fuckstick! lol! never heard that one before!
i saw the band in Toronto. It was a great live performance. These days, Fall on me, Let me in, 7 chinese brothers and Living well is the best revenge were some of the highlights. They mix up their setlists like few other bands do and, every night, they keep digging treasures from their rich catalogue, avoiding most of the «hits».
I guess that a lot of people care about r.e.m and they have every reason to do so: 3 masterpieces in a career (Murmur, Life’s Rich Pageant, Automatic) 10 amazing albums and only a bad one. That’s not so bad…
to m.r binge, maybe if people cared about you, you wouldn’t write such stupid comments.
well…I wouldn’t go as far as only one bad album…. all the records after Automatic would all rank low on any fans top ten…
Also Reckoning is pretty flawless from beginning to end & Fables is pretty darn good given the chance… I saw them 2 weeks ago & I’d have to say they were better than they were 10 years ago but not as good as they were 20 years ago if that makes sense… which is still an achievement . The setlist was great.. they really do have a good grip on their strengths and playing to them… something they didn’t always do in their mid to late periods…
Your absolutly right about reckoning and Fables but i think most r.e.m. fans would also place New Adventures in Hi-fi in their top 4-5….and Up is, by far, their most underated album. It’s misunderstood like Fables used to be. Anyway, they always put on a great live show!
Reckoning is like the prototype for a perfect sophomore album and Fables is a prototype for the perfect 3rd album. These guys knew how to have a career…now if they had only stopped after Bill Berry left they might be the most perfect band ever. (don’t get me wrong, they’ve released some decent stuff since, but New Adventures would have been a hell of a note to go out on).
I agree that Up is seriously underrated. I thought that there might be life left in the band post-Berry when I heard Up. Can’t say I liked New Adventures all that much, though; it has its moments, but I wouldn’t put it in the top 4-5. In no particular order, my top 5 R.E.M. albums (including EPs) would be Automatic, Document, Fables, Chronic Town, and… umm… probably Life’s Rich Pageant. I really can’t say that New Adventures stands up to any of those. If I had to exclude EPs, I would swap Out of Time for Chronic Town (although I would pretend Radio Song never happened).
In other news, one of my students told me that her parents listened to R.E.M. when she was a kid. I am so old.
Great video thanks for posting…saw R.E.M. at Brown U in 1984….I’m an old teacher too Vinnie!!!
First commenter sucks.
Great song from a solid record. R.E.M. rocked the house in DC last week, they’re in stellar form and I’m glad they’re back.
An awesome moment of synchronicity happened in this week’s music press. From two (obviously) different interviews:
You’ve talked in other interviews about “revisionist history” about the band’s old albums?
Mike Mills: There’s just this theme that’s been adopted by so many lazy writers that the last three records sucked, and now [the band] doesn’t suck anymore. That’s just very lazy journalism and absolutely incorrect.
——————
Do you feel this is your best album?
David Berman: I do. And I hesitate to say it, because I?ve heard R.E.M. say it so many times and they?ve always been wrong! Flagrantly wrong. Long before I ever wrote a song, I wondered about that. I would see that over and over again. So, that?s my qualification. I think it is. But I might be under the Stipe-Buck illusion.
R.E.M. covered “Have You Ever Seen The Rain,” in Germany:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7hiKTKUa9I
It’s cool to see that they are pulling something from their 80’s setlists. I have a bootleg from the 1985 tour that has them doing “So. Central Rain” followed by “Have You Ever Seen The Rain.”
Just saw this post, wow stereogum, thanks for using my video! I read this site all the time (except) for that day I guess, and it’s so cool for you guys to use my video! Best concert ever!