I went to my first concert at 16 and was instantly hooked. I’ve been a massive fan of live music ever since—and an even bigger fan of music in general. Through my high school years, I attended as many shows and festivals as I could. At that point in my life, I was really into heavy metal and hard rock. Iron Maiden was probably my favorite, but I was also a big fan of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and the other rock staples of the early to mid-80s.

When I went to college in the Pacific Northwest, I had the fortunate opportunity to become a DJ at the dawn of the “college radio” era. I ended up hosting a jangle pop show that featured R.E.M. and other bands of that genre—Let’s Active, The dB’s, Guadalcanal Diary—as well as college radio staples like Talking Heads, Hüsker Dü, and SoCal bands like Oingo Boingo.

The Soundtrack to a Turbulent Time

Between my freshman and sophomore years, R.E.M. released Fables of the Reconstruction, their third album. I had heard “Radio Free Europe” and “So. Central Rain” on the radio back home, but I hadn’t really taken the deep dive into R.E.M. until Fables came out.

That album defined my life at that point. I was living in the rainy Pacific Northwest, having a great time in college, and I loved everything about the music. I was also deep into reading Gen X authors like Bret Easton Ellis and Douglas Coupland. Tragically, my mom passed away toward the end of that first semester, and Fables is forever burned into my mind as the embodiment of that time period.

Over the next several years, Lifes Rich Pageant and Document became the anchors for working through that trauma—a period that included dropping out of school and losing my way for a bit. I eventually got back on track, but those songs, and the memories attached to them, remain a foundational part of my early adulthood.

Chasing the Music

In a previous post, I wrote about seeing the Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy project. Last year, they played Fables in its entirety, along with a ton of other R.E.M. tracks, at a very small club in San Diego. It was electric, and I was determined to see them if they toured again this year.

As fate would have it, they did—this time playing Lifes Rich Pageant. Since they weren’t stopping in San Diego, I managed to get tickets to their Los Angeles show. And then, on a whim, I also scored two tickets to their opening night in Athens, Georgia!

The Athens Bucket List

Being a massive R.E.M. fan meant that Athens always held a magical appeal for me. I’ve been to great music cities like LA, New York, SF, Chicago, and Seattle, but I had never managed to make the pilgrimage to Athens. Now, I finally had a reason to check it off the bucket list.

One of my best friends agreed to join me, driving down from Charlotte for the show. We got in the night before and set out the following morning to see the various R.E.M. fandom sites. (Mind you, Athens isn’t just an R.E.M. town; it’s also the hometown of The B-52s, Drive-By Truckers, and Pylon—all bands I’m very fond of.)

We hit the R.E.M. highlights:

• Wuxtry Records: Where Michael Stipe and Peter Buck first met and formed the band.

  

• St. Mary’s Episcopal Church: Only the steeple remains as a homage to the site of their very first concert.

  

• The Trestle Bridge: The iconic structure featured on the back cover of Murmur. Image at top.

• Weaver D’s Delicious Fine Foods: The spot that inspired the album title Automatic for the People. Coincidentally, we were there on its very last day of operation after a 40-year run.

  

Athens itself was great. It’s a seriously awesome college town that reminded me of Boulder in many ways. We also mixed in some football stops, checking out the UGA stadium and the sports museum on campus.

The Show

That evening, we headed to the venue with a ton of anticipation. The prior year, all four original members of R.E.M. had joined the Shannon/Narducy band for a song—the first time they’d played together in 17 years. We had high hopes of seeing at least some band members, and we were not disappointed.

The show was amazing, anchored by great musicians from the Bob Mould Band, Wilco, and Poi Dog Pondering. Alongside Michael Shannon’s intense, performance-art-style rendition of Michael Stipe, both Peter Buck and Bill Berry joined in for a song or two at various points. It was incredibly fun.

I’d seen a few critics on Reddit pointing out that Shannon can’t sing quite like Stipe. I wouldn’t dispute that, but he does sing well, and the band is fantastic. For those of us crowded into that 400-600 person venue, it was a tribute to a time when we were all much younger. We collectively got to celebrate a band we loved and grew up with.

No, this wasn’t R.E.M., but it was an amazing celebration of them and their music, and I was absolutely there for it. If you get a chance to catch one of the last dates on this tour, I highly recommend it. And if not, I’m pretty sure they’ll be back for Document next year!

Here are some clips from the show:

Underneath the Bunker w/ Bill Berry

Radio Free Europe w/ Peter Buck

Star 69 w/ Peter Buck

You Are the Everything