REM - Live at MSG
R.E.M. at Madison Square Garden, November 4, 2004

So I'm not a huge R.E.M. fan. I like them, but they aren't among the top of the list of artists I like. I've actually seen them in concert three times though because they normally put on a pretty good show.

My first R.E.M. concert was in the late 90s. My cousin had a last second extra free ticket to see them. Michael Stipe was past his “I hate performing phase” and actually put on a pretty good show. I ended up borrowed a bunch of their music from my cousin after that show and listened to it for a bit.

Last year my cousin was over and somehow the subject of concerts came up. R.E.M. was touring because of their greatest hits album and we were both sort of interested in seeing them. It was like a week before the concert, but we were able to easily pick up tickets to see them at Madison Square Garden (MSG). I was kinda surprised they weren't sold out, but the face value on the tickets were pretty expensive and they aren't as popular as they use to be. Regardless, I felt like I got my money's worth because they put on a great show. Michael Stipe was all weird like one would expect him to be, but he was entertaining and they had played a lot of really good songs.

The band released a new album this year and were yet again touring. I like their new album, so I decided I'd probably be interested in seeing them again if my cousin was. They were scheduled to play at MSG. We waited a while before we actually bought tickets for the show, but like last time the show didn't sell out. We ended up picking up tickets, which were expensive ($75/each!!), but we figured based on our positive experience last year it would be worth it.

The show was last Thursday (11/4).

First, I think it's fair to tell you where my state of mind going into the show was. It was two days after election day and I wasn't very happy about the outcome. I had at the point though pretty much come to terms with the fact that it was out of my hands and I had to just move on. I was looking forward to being entertained, drinking and hanging out with my cousin.

The band came on stage and started with a classic: “It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)”. What's weird about that song is they normally play it as their last song (at least they had the previous two shows I had been at). I turned to my cousin and said to her: that's it, that's all they are going to play. After they were done with the song, Michael Stipe said: “Thank you, goodnight“. I laughed at the joke clearly targeted toward people who had seen them before. Anyways, it wasn't their last song, but it might as well have been. They went ahead and spent the right of the night playing really depressing and obscure songs. A few of them were recognizable, but most of them were really old, relatively unknown and rarely played tracks. At one point, Stipe said something to the effect that rather than speak about how he felt, he'd let the music talk. I was pretty pissed. I'd rather him have talked for 15 minutes about how stupid half of America was and how fucked we were than just play depressing songs. I too was upset about the election, but I paid pretty good money to be entertained. I shouted a few times, to the aggravation of the people around me no doubt, “Cheer us up!”. It didn't work though and I left the show feeling down, but mostly just pissed off at R.E.M..

I'm all for artists having political views or any view for that matter. I have no problem with them sharing their views with the audience either. I understand and appreciate the emotional and expressive value of music. I do have a problem when it completely, totally and unexpectedly takes over their performance. I doubt I'll go see them in concert again.

NME has a story about the show with the set list and more comments about how the band was pissed about the election. If you are able to recognize more than a quarter of the songs they played, I'd be really impressed.