R.E.M. has called it quits.
A lot of cynics would say this move is coming about fourteen years to late, and that the band never should have reneged on their handshake deal that they'd break up if any of the original members left the group. That opinion would be wrong. Of the five albums Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, and Mike Mills have recorded since Bill Berry left the band in 1997, only one (2004's Around the Sun
) was truly a stinker, and the last two (Accelerate and Collapse into Now
) have been damn good. And perhaps that's the best reason for them to throw in the towel now... it's better bow out on a creative high than to, as Nashville Scene music writer Adam Gold put it so cleverly on Twitter Wednesday, "go out with a murmur."
R.E.M. was my gateway drug into the world of college radio and alternative music. It was listening to my friends copy of Lifes Rich Pageant
, and then my own copy of Document
a year later, that probably did more than any other band to shape my current musical tastes. It was those two albums that really primed me for falling so completely head over heals with The Church's Starfish
, which lead to The Cure's Disintegration
, which then splintered into loving a million different bands, some famous and others very much not.
In honor of 31 years of making (mostly) great music, and having a more profound impact on the American indie scene than most people realize, here are my top five R.E.M. related memories.
1. The first time I heard New Adventures in Hi Fi
it was pushing midnight, and my friend Jimmy and I were on our way back to his apartment in Knoxville after having some beers with a friend of ours. A DJ on the UT college station had gotten an advance copy of the album and was playing it front to back. I'm not even sure if "E-Bow The Letter" had been released as a single yet, so it was the first we were hearing anything from it, and it was entirely awesome. We ended up driving around aimlessly for an hour so we could hear the whole thing. I remember when "Departure" kicked in, both of us were kinda of like "wow." It's still my favorite R.E.M. album.
2. When R.E.M. played the Murphy Center at MTSU in 1989, my friend Jimmy and I snuck into the band's dressing room before the show and left a note asking them to play two covers; Television's "See No Evil," which they had recently included on a b-side, and Johnny River's "Secret Agent Man," which had been included on a well circulated bootleg from their early club days. The band did play "See No Evil," though whether that was because of our note or not is debatable. And while they didn't break out the River's tune, Mike Mills did make a reference to the bootleg that it came from when during a jazzy improvised interlude he walked up to the mic and said "welcome to the Starlite Club." For two dorky teenagers who were still on a high from actually having managed to get backstage to leave the note, it was the highlight of our night.
3. When R.E.M. played at Starwood Ampitheater in 1995 on the Monster tour, I went with my Dad. We originally had lawn seats, but the day before the show he got reserved seats from a client, so I sold our lawn seats to a friend and we upgraded. And thank God we did. During the song "Undertow," with it's chorus of "I'm drowning..." the sky opened up and a torrential downpour started. All my friends who were sitting on the grass still say it was the worst rain shower any of them had ever been caught in. Even in our seats well under the confines of the roof, the wind was blowing enough moisture our way that we were still a bit wet. Fun fact - Radiohead opened this show, which makes me possibly the only person in the world who can say he saw Radiohead with his Dad.
4. When Robyn Hitchcock played the Belcourt Theater in 2007, my friends and I were really excited. Most of us had seen Hitchcock three or four times, and on this tour he was touring with the newly formed Venus 3, which consists of Peter Buck and R.E.M.'s touring rhythm section, drummer Bill Rieflin and bassist Scott McCaughey. After seeing nothing but acoustic shows, we were all excited to see him backed by an actual rock band. And then a couple of weeks before the show, the listing changed from the Venus 3 to the Nashville Crawdads. Another damn acoustic show. Once we got to the show though, it turned out to be a pretty amazing night. In addition to Buck and perennial Nashville special guests Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, the lineup also included Led Zepplin bassist John Paul Jones on mandolin. So yeah, no complaints.
5. In 2009, after seeing Hitchcock perform acoustic shows a half dozen times over a decade, I finally got to see him in front of a rock band when the Venus 3 played the Exit In. The show was everything I could have asked for. The set ran the entire gamut of his career, and had just about every song I could possibly have wanted to hear. About half way through the show, one of my friends notice Mike Mills hanging out by the bar. Forty-five minutes later he was a little harder to miss, as he took to the stage to play guitar and the rest of the band played musical instruments (Buck ended up on drums). They tore into a rambunctious and ramshackle version of "Listening To The Higsons," a fun end to one of those "only in Nashville" nights.Michael, Peter, Mike and Bill, thanks for everything.
R.E.M. - "Radio Free Europe (Live)" (mp3) from the Strange Currencies
cd single
R.E.M. - "Begin The Begin (Live)" (mp3) from the Bang & Blame
cd single
Part of the reason I'm such a huge music fan is because of my parents. While neither of them are as fanatical about it as I am, they both had pretty good taste, and we always listened to a wide variety of stuff in our house. I certainly didn't get my love of jazz from either of them, but they took me and my sister to the symphony at least once a year, and during college I saw a lot of shows at the Station Inn with them. I can also trace my love for Creedence Clearwater Revival, Johnny Cash, The Beatles, and Jim Croce back to their old record collection.
Since I graduated college, I'd guess that I've seen at least two concerts a year with my dad. So in honor of Father's Day, I thought I'd list the top five concerts I've ever seen with him. And since this post is dad-centric, I'm only including shows that were purely father-son outings (sorry Mom, and step-mom). 1. A Bluegrass Tribute to Courtney Johnson, Ryman Auditorium, 1996. After original New Grass Revival banjoist Courtney Johnson died, a benefit concert was held for his family. It might be the most incredible collection of talent I've ever seen in one night. In addition to a NGR reunion, the evening also featured performances from Ricky Skaggs, John Hartford, Jerry Douglas, The Del McCoury Band, Vassar Clements, Doc Watson, and about a dozen other performers. The performers all took turns playing with each other, and it was simply one of the most amazing nights of music I've ever heard.
2. The Rolling Stones, Gaylord Entertainment Center, 2002. When I heard the Stones were playing a show two days before my dad's 60th birthday, I thought I had won the awesome present lottery. I figured the GEC wasn't that big, so even a couple of cheap seats (which were still 80 bucks each, plus fees) would be decent. When I went onto Ticketmaster's website the morning tix went on sale, I found out the cheap seats were actually BEHIND the stage. I wasn't going to pay 160 bucks to stare at Charlie Watt's back all night, and since I had already decided that I HAD to do this for his birthday, I bit the bullet and bought mid-level seats for for $125 a pop. It's still the most I've ever paid for a concert, but it was totally worth it. Not only did they tear the roof off the joint, but seeing my dad borderline headbanging during "Satisfaction" was completely priceless.
The Rolling Stones - "You Got Me Rocking" (mp3) from No Security
3. Eric Clapton, Starwood Ampitheater, 1990. I almost left this one off the list, purely because I'd already written about it here. But if my dad were making this list, he'd probably put it at number one. 4. The Village People, Municipal Auditorium, 1996. We went because we had to. I mean, seriously, if you had the chance to see The Village People, you'd go too. They were playing as part of Summer Lights, and either a lot of other people also felt that it was a must-see event, or everyone was just trying to get out of the rain. The thing I remember most about it was the construction worker telling the crowd before "YMCA" that the correct way to make an M was with your elbows in the air, and that he didn't want to see any "dipped hands monkeyshit."
5. Bob Dylan w/ Steve Earle and the Dukes, Starwood Ampitheater, 1989. Sometimes concerts are memorable for how bad they are. Steve Earle opened with an amazing set to what was then his hometown crowd. It was the first time I'd ever seen an opening act get an encore. And then Mr. Zimmerman came out. I suppose if you were a hardcore Dylan fan, you might have appreciated the fact that his set was comprised almost entirely of really obscure material. But combine that with the fact that that he had almost zero interaction with the crowd (I don't remember him saying a single word between songs), and there wasn't a lot for a more a casual fan to grab onto. I saw Dylan again ten years later at Municipal Auditorium and it was amazing. I'm pretty sure my Dad has sworn him off completely. He says if it hadn't been for G.E. Smith, who was playing guitar with him at the time, the evening would have been a total waste.
On Tuesday, Live Nation announced that Starwood Amphitheater was being sold, and that the 2007 concert season would be cancelled. I can't really say I'm broken up about it. I quit enjoying shows at Starwood years ago. The only time I'd been there in the last five years was for the Curiosa festival. In the past few years there just weren't enough acts playing there that made dealing with the the traffic, the exorbitant parking fees, the overpriced concessions, and the overzealous security worthwhile. But once upon a time I enjoyed seeing concerts there, and there were quite a few good ones over the past twenty years. So in tribute to Nashville's soon to be departed summer shed, here are my top five most memorable shows at Starwood.
5. The Monkees, 1986 - My first concert at Starwood, and also my first rock concert (though I'm probably stretching the definition of "rock"). I went with my mom, and I remember being incredibly disappointed because they used their theme song as a prerecorded intro track instead of playing it live. Other than that I remember the sets by Gary Puckett & The Union Gap and Herman's Hermits better then I do the headliners.
The Wedding Present - "Pleasant Valley Sunday" (mp3) from Hit Parade 1
4. Eric Clapton, 1990 - One of the problems with seeing an act that has such a massive catalog to pull from is finding a song that you don't care for as much during which you can go to the bathroom. I was on the hill with my dad, and had been putting off a potty break for about half an hour when I finally decided I didn't care what the next song was and starting hiking up the hill. I had just got to the top when Clapton starting playing the opening riff to "Layla" and I turned around and raced back to our spot. He followed that up with "Crossroads" and "Sunshine Of Your Love," so it was another twenty minutes before I finally got relief.
The Dirty Mac (John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards & Mitch Mitchell) - "Yer Blues" (mp3) from The Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus
3. Spinal Tap, 1992 - In addition to being hilarious, this concert was memorable for how woefully underattended it was. My friend and I had lawn tickets, but since they didn't come anywhere close to selling out they closed the lawn and had everyone sit in the reserved seats. There couldn't have been more than 2000 people there, as the seats were only half full. The best moment of the concert took place during "Break Like The Wind" when they brought out Bela Fleck. Christopher Guest stood absolutely spellbound while Bela tore off an absolutely blistering banjo solo. Seriously.
Spinal Tap - "Back From The Dead" (mp3) internet only single
2. R.E.M. w/ Radiohead, 1995 - How many people can say they saw Radiohead with their Dad? Originally we had lawn seats, but we ended up getting reserved seats under the roof from one of my Dad's former clients at the last minute. It's a good thing we did, because halfway through R.E.M.'s set the sky opened up, ironically during "Undertow." Michael Stipe singing "I'm drowning!" during an absolute downpour was kind of a cool moment, at least if you were staying relatively dry.
R.E.M. - "Undertow (Live)" (mp3) from the Bittersweet Me single
1. Tom Petty w/ The Replacements, 1989 - One of The Mats most infamous shows. Their management thought that putting them on the road with the Heartbreakers might help them become more professional, but the plan was a spectacular failure. They came out dressed in drag, played for twenty minutes, then dared the crowd to boo them offstage. Wally Bangs posted about it in more detail last last year at Soulfish Stew. The Replacements would have been memorable enough, but Petty's set was absolutely fantastic. It was the first time I realized what a great drummer Stan Lynch was.
The Replacements - "Ought To Get Love" (mp3) from Don't Buy Or Sell, It's Crap (promo CD)More reminiscing here, and here, and here, and here.post title by Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson
