Death Rumours Greatly Exaggerated
Went to see REM at Old Trafford last night. Have to say I wasn't expecting a great deal - I've been able to take or leave most of their output since Bill Berry left and there have been dark rumours (blogged on this very site) regarding the level of ticket sales.
Indeed, walking up to the ground, there did seem to be far fewer people than the last two OT gigs I've been to (Foo Fighters and Arctic Monkeys). However all the touts seemed to want to buy, rather than sell, which I took as a good sign.
Two support bands - Guillemots and Editors. Guillemots ace, sadly ignored by the bulk of the crowd as is often the way at these open air gigs. Finished with a storming 'Sao Paolo' that was well appreciated. Editors - much like Interpol at Latitude the other week - have one great song, which they then continue to play over and over BECAUSE THEY ALL SOUND THE PIGGING SAME! Still, the crowd was getting steadily more engaged.
And so to REM. Well, the old buggers have still got it - Stipe remains a remarkable stage presence, and Mills and Buck looked like they were also up for (and enjoying) it. Stunning light/projection show as well, and a well-judged setlist.
Can they still cut it in the studio? Debatable - Accelerate is not quite the 'RTF' everyone wanted it to be and their recent track record is pretty patchy.
Can they still cut it live? Without a doubt.
Set list for those interested:
1. Living Well Is The Best Revenge
2. These Days
3. What's The Frequency, Kenneth?
4. Drive
5. Man-Sized Wreath
6. Fall On Me
7. Ignoreland
8. Walk Unafraid
9. Hollow Man
10. I’m Gonna DJ
11. Electrolite
12. Pretty Persuasion
13. The Great Beyond
14. So Fast, So Numb
15. 7 Chinese Bros.
16. The One I Love
17. I’ve Been High
18 Let Me In
19. Horse To Water
20. Bad Day
21. Orange Crush
22. Imitation Of Life
23. Supernatural Superserious
24. Losing My Religion
25. Mr. Richards
26. It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
27. Man On The Moon
- More from Paul Waring.
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That's good to know.
We are going to Twickenham next weekend. It looks promising from what you say. I am pretty happy with that setlist. Pleased to see early stuff such as the likes of 'Fall On Me' and '7 Chinese Brothers' in there.
The setlist varies.......
The setlist varies considerably every night, I think they rehearsed around 75 different songs (info from this months Mojo magazine) and play around with the set.
Selist info:-
http://members.iinet.net.au/~darryl74/2006.html
True
But still seems to be good balance for each gig - enough old and enough not so obvious shall we say?
I agree
I went along to see them for the first time last night. I was an REM enthusiast up until mid 90's and lost touch with most of their music since, until I bought Accelerate. I went along last night hoping not to feel let down. I wasn't. A great show, good choice of numbers, and a great performance from Stipe. It even made listening to the utter dross cranked out by Editors worthwhile.
I like REM
but I've yet to see a live set by them that I don't find boring.
Guillemots live, however - as you might guess given my enthusing about them in The Word passim - I find endlessly thrilling; I think Fife has one of the best sets of pipes in pop at the moment, they've dropped any of the shambolic bits that could make their early gigs patchy, and I heartily recommend to anyone and everyone.
Guillemots were great...
...I just need to see them now in front of an appreciative crowd, not one that was more interested in discussing their on-off relationship with 'Mick' and the rights and wrongs of eating the worm in a bottle of tequila...
Mr Richards
Glad to see they put Mr Richards into the encores. It's the best track on the LP - I can't understand why it's not the single.
Was quite intriguing
apparently it was there as a 'special request' from a 'friend' (who remained nameless).
Stipe apologised in advance - never played it, hardly rehearsed it - although it sounded just fine to me.
Don't expect it to become a regular part of the set though.
Phew
I've got tickets to see them at Twickenham on Saurday. Based on other blog comments here I was getting a bit worried. But this has cheered me up no end!
Just once, just once....
Do Shiny Happy People....
I was there too...
I was there on Sunday too, great show. Although I could have done with a couple of the tunes they did the following night (Disturbance At The Heron House, Harbourcoat) I was more than happy with the set overall. I also agree on the above comment, Mr Richards is probably my favourite on Accelerate. In fact, I think the Accelerate stuff is great and was happy to get 7 songs from it. I do think Hollowman is perhaps the least interesting song on it though and would personally have swapped it for Houston or the title track, but these are minor quibles and with so much material you'll never hear everything you want.
I enjoyed Editors, but it does feel like their live show doesn't vary much. I skipped them at Glastonbury in favour of Fun Lovin' Criminals, but having seen the BBC broadcast it was pretty identical. Still, they've only done 2 albums so it's hard to avoid. Guillemots were a bit dissapointing, their new material doesn't seem as good as the first album and I felt they suffered from poor sound. The first few songs were all drums and the guitar was almost inaudible.