Blue's Reviews: R.E.M. @ The Hollywood Bowl - 5-29-08

Yeeesh.

Okay, so I totally forgot to do my review of this until last weekend in Vegas when someone asked me how the show was. I feel bad because I really did mean to do it in the day or two that followed but my brain pulled a total swing and a miss on that one. Alas, the best laid plans of mice and men.

But better late than never, right?

Right!

I have seen a lot of bands perform in the 14 years that I have been attending concerts and as such, I have seen a lot of brilliant front men. I've seen Springsteen, I've seen Vedder, I've seen Grohl, I've seen Ozzy, and so on and so on.

Michael Stipe has the very rare ability as a front man to reach way down deep into his musical soul and touch every single person in the building. And it's not just a voice thing - although his unique voice is still tremendous after all of these years. But it's his raw emotion on stage when he performs. During every moment of every song, Stipe has the uncanny ability to make you feel like he is putting every ounce of himself into that moment. And that's really the best compliment I can give an artist, I believe.

Most reviews of this show will focus on the technical difficulties. This was my first time at the Hollywood Bowl where I really felt there were severe problems with the sound. I have seen a handful of shows at the Bowl over the years and it generally is one of the best sounding venues you will find. But not on this night. The sound was... quiet. The volume was just simply too low. It was low to the point where you could hear clearly annoying conversations going around on all sides. It's so low that on an mp3 of the show that I located, you can hear conversations going on around the taper. It was bad... pure and simple.

And yet, I still managed to enjoy the show. The National was a tremendous opening act, completely living up to all the hype they have been receiving on the Internet over the past few months. I was into their set despite not knowing a single song. In fact, going into the show, I only knew I was curious to see them because they had the good taste to do a Springsteen cover at one point. Now, I think I will buy the album in the near future.

The other opening act on the other hand was Modest Mouse - a band that provoked the wife and I to discuss amongst ourselves [and with others via text message blast] the worst opening acts we had ever been forced to suffer through. Names like Iggy Pop, like Candlebox, like Courtney Love, like Johnny Gill were tossed about. Modest Mouse would be right at the top of that list any day of the week. It was horrid - just plain horrid. Screeching, growly vocals that were grating to the ears and made me long to Van Gogh myself and not have to suffer any more.

But once R.E.M. took the stage, all seemed right with the musical world. It was our third time seeing Stipe and the gang - and each of the three seem to stand out as unique in my mind. The first time was our "first date" and I can still recall moments of that show very vividly despite it being over ten years ago. The second was a rainy night for an outdoor show - made a little unique by Stipe belting out a little "Have You Ever Seen The Rain?" during a brief cloudburst.

The Bowl show is no different with very standout moments still clear in my mind. Take a look at the setlist here and I'll point out a few winners:


Setlist
1. Pretty Persuasion
2. Living Wells The Best Revenge
3. What's The Frequency, Kenneth? - The first song of the night to bring people out of their seats. It was definitely a "KROQ crowd" that responded mostly to the big hits although there were a lot of diehards in the house as well. I haven't really enjoyed this song for years but they somehow managed to make it fresh again, really rocking the crowd hard.

4. Sitting Still
5. Ignoreland
6. Man Sized Wreath
7. Circus Envy
8. Drive - I actually have grown to hate this song over the years but once again, hearing it live really energized it for me. The crowd didn't seem to care much for it but I was really digging it.

9. Accelerate - One of the songs off the new album that I really like. It has a lot of energy behind it and even people who seemed unfamiliar with it looked like they were enjoying it.

10. Hollow Man
11. Fall On Me - Ah, yes. The wife's favorite R.E.M. song which prompted much squealing, leg pounding, and then of course, singalonging from her. I'm not sure we've ever seen them perform this live so, being as it is her favorite, a very special moment for this one.

12. Houston
13. Electrolite - Dedicated to Southern California [of course]. Another highlight of the show. Stipe told a funny little story about how the entire band wanted this on their album and he hated it and wanted it cut out. Just goes to show that even the best front men don't always get it right.

14. Final Straw - I believe this was the song he "dedicated" to George Bush while promoting his vote for Barack Obama [which obviously earns him "street cred" in my world.] Some people complain about musicians slipping politics into their music - I think that's bullshit. Music is an expression of art as much as writing is - how many writers get told to shove their political views and just write? Fuck that. Michael Stipe - you keep telling people to vote Obama in the fall.

15. I've Been High - My personal highlight of the night. He introduced the song by saying flat out that they were still trying to figure out how to play this one. Honestly, never heard the song before that night and it gave me chills. This is one of those songs that you could feel anywhere in the Bowl. They knocked it out of the park and shouldn't change a thing in the arrangement in the future. Much better than the studio version that I've now heard as well.

16. Let Me In
17. Losing My Religion - We discussed after the fact if they really enjoy playing this song anymore. I mean, don't get me wrong, they absolutely rocked the house with this one and had all the KROQers going nuts [we noticed a bunch of people leaving after this one too] but I'm always curious if bands that get superknown for one song grow to resent that song. When Soul Asylum played our college years ago, we all marveled that Runaway Train wasn't on their setlist - but really, would you want to play it either if you had years of material you liked better?

18. Horse To Water
19. Bad Day
20. Walk Unafraid
21. I'm Gonna DJ - This is actually a really weird song that I didn't like the first couple times I heard it but it's growing on me. How can you hate lyrics about wanting to DJ at the rapture? Gold, baby... gold.

Encore

22. Supernatural Superserious
23. The One I Love - One of my favs. Didn't really do much for me though after still being entranced by I've Been High. Seriously, even this far removed, that song was still sticking with me.

24. Until the Day is Done
25. Happy Birthday - Much like the Kate Nash show I reviewed a few weeks ago, this is just one of those little things that people will remember about a show to make it special to them.

26. Man On The Moon - I think I liked it better when they used to close with "It's The End Of The World..." But it'll do, donkey. It'll do.


Match the fantastic music with an amazing set backdrop and it made for one hell of a killer show. Of course, everyone wishes the sound was better but at some point, you gotta get past it and enjoy the show, ya dig?

Anyways... if you get the chance to catch R.E.M. in your town, even if you're not the biggest R.E.M. fan [and I'm not] you should do so. You will not regret it.

To wrap it up, I found a few YouTubes from the show you might enjoy.