narten@CS-Mordred (Thomas Narten) (06/25/84)
I heard on the radio today that R.E.M. will visit Chicago on
Saturday July 7 @ the Aragone ballroom. This is the first tour information
on them that I have seen. Are they touring elsewhere or is this
an isolated show? Has anyone seen them? I am tempted to go, I think
their latest album Reckoning is quite good. However, if they are touring
I would prefer catching them at a closer location.
Thomas Narten
{ allegra, decvax, ihnp4, harpo, seismo, teklabs, ucbvax } !pur-ee!purdue!narten
{ arizona, cornell, eagle, hplabs, ittvax lanl-a, ncrday } !purdue!nartenfolta@yale-comix.UUCP (Stephen Folta) (06/26/84)
I have indeed seen REM on tour. They were at a place called the Capitol somewhere in New Jersey. The concert was taped for MTV, and instead of an opening band, they had a bunch of '60s electric folk rock types including John Sebastian, Richie Havens, some of the Band (Richard Manuel, Levon Helm, and a very drunk Rick Danko), and Roger McGuinn of the Byrds. They did their individual things and then they played a few songs together. Apparently, MTV's thesis is that REM are in some way the latest development along these lines. I don't happen to agree. In any case, after this was all over, REM came on and did their set. They were very good, far better than anyone in the first part of the show in my opinion. The sound was poor. Apparently the P.A. sound was neglected in favor of getting the best possible sound on tape. Nonetheless, REM's set (and encores) were great and I recommend that you see them if you like their music. Stephen Folta decvax!yale-comix!folta
eli@uw-june (Eli Messinger) (06/28/84)
Very quickly: R.E.M. in Seattle were terrific. Lead singer Michael Stype spent most of the show sitting on a stool--due to a foot injury, and still managed to blow away most vocalists I've seen recently. R.E.M. live encompasses all of the power and all of the ringy pop sound that they have on record, and more. Their set was over an hour long, with two four song encores. Highlights (for me): Camera; 1,000,000; Gardening At Night; Carnival of Sorts (Boxcars); >So You Want To Be A Rock 'n' Roll Star<. The last is particularly intriguing as R.E.M. has been stuck with a 'Byrds 1980' tag for so long. I talked to the them before the show and they told me that they really haven't been influenced all that much by the Byrds. I think the comparisons come mainly from the fact that guitarist Peter Buck plays a Rickenbacker, and does have a style that is similar to McGuinns. They've denied the comparisons publicly all along, but apparently they just got tired of it and decided to double-cross everyone, hence the MTV special with Roger McGuinn, and the Byrds cover (he said they also do Turn! Turn! Turn! and others). (As an aside, listen to The Rain Parade if you want to hear a really heavy Byrds inluence). Lowlights (Lowlifes): The Dream Syndicate. What has happened to this band??? They have such a heavy metal thrust to their sound--so much machismo. Their 45-minute set consisted almost entirely of tracks from their latest LP-- which I could live without. They did play 'Tell Me When It's Over' and 'Days Of Wine And Roses', but neither of them had the right feel for me. Guitarist Karl Precorda is simply an embarassment these days--striking the most ridiculous heavy metal poses. They've added a keyboard player who is quite good, but really out of place. By all mean go see R.E.M., but try to time it so you arrive at intermission. ... uw-june!eli
gumby@mit-eddie.UUCP (David Vinayak Wallace) (07/04/84)
I just saw REM last Sunday night and was quite impressed. They had quite a lot of energy, which was surprising because their singer was on crutches. I would recommend the show. The Dream Syndicate opened for them -- another band I recommend highly.another good band. Their singer suffers from the delusion that he is Jim Morrison, it appears.