R.E.M.
20 August 1999 -- The World, Tinley Park
Setlist: Airport Man (Intro), Lotus, Kenneth, Wake-Up Bomb, Electrolite, Suspicion, Pilgrimage, Daysleeper, The One I Love, Low Desert, The Apologist, Sweetness Follows, The Great Beyond Losing My Religion, Find the River, At My Most Beautiful, Pop Song 89, Walk Unafraid
Man on the Moon
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Falls to Climb/Hope, Why Not Smile, Big Spender (almost), Tongue, Crush With Eyeliner, Cuyahoga, I FEEL FINE
It took a while to get there; I-80's construction filled lanes were not enough to carry all of its contents at a reasonable rate. But we did arrive eventually, and right on time. Being right on time allowed us the luxury of getting the best possible seats our lawn tickets could give us, right in the middle and very close.
Wilco came on unannounced and without fanfare, breaking into a song called "California Stars" which was good, I hadn't heard it before. The songs they did off of Summer Teeth -- the only Wilco album I have -- were great. Especially "A Shot In the Arm." The Hammond and the synths were blazing throughout the entire set, a sure-fire way to rock the house. After Wilco finished their impressive set, the massive task of preparing the stage for the headliner began -- complete with Steve-Vai-wannabe roadies sound-checking Peter's Rickenbacker, a massive curtain backdrop being hoisted, and two brave men climbing a rope ladder to check on some of the incredible rope light shapes at the top of the stage.
After there was no roadie activity for several minutes, the lights were doused save for some red runway light stripes on the stage which fit perfectly with Airportman playing at the same time. And there was a rope light security camera panning through the audience. Michael said "Hi there" and then they burst into "Lotus." It was sensory overload at the beginning -- which was great. The rope lights were all ablaze and lowering to various heights on the stage from their storage position at the top. Plus, the strobes were all going green, not to mention REM on the stage tearing up an excellent version of "Lotus." (Whenever I go to a concert and they begin playing, It takes me a few minutes to furiously survey the whole stage and everyone on it, and everything that's going on at once). When I finally regained my senses, they were about halfway through the song. The first part of the show was probably my favorite, they rocked it hard with "Lotus," "Kenneth," and "The Wake-Up Bomb" all back to back. I loved the sound of these rockers live, especially the way Michael sung the UH-HUUUUUUUGH at the end of the lines in "Kenneth" and the High e Esteeeeeeeeem at the end of the lines in Wake-Up Bomb. I always love the subtle changes in the live songs, and it's what I usually remember. And the band just totally thrashed (in a very good way) "The Wake-Up Bomb," the live version of the song was much faster and incredible. Electrolite followed the rocker suite, with Michael doing a dandy Irish jig.
During the first several songs, the stage banter in-between was limited. With "hi there" and "well, here we are" and "do you feel beautiful?" I was wondering if we would get anything other than these standard rock fare sayings. And of course we did; Michael would never leave the audience out of it. He had an anecdote about being barefoot in the lobby of his Chicago hotel due to a malfunctioning key, and being surrounded by briefcase-toting businessmen, which led into the description of his vision (which inspired Daysleeper) of a giant bull and bear plodding around the earth (the market), "blump, blump, blump" and occasionally "lifting their legs and pissing on certain countries, kind of like Mexico after NAFTA." I'm not familiar with NAFTA and what it did to Mexico, but the anecdote was quite amusing.
Of the older tunes played, Pilgrimage was definitely tops -- it was just amazing. The crowd really reacted to "The One I Love, " with the lights blaring during the FIRE chorus. Low Desert was really great, introduced by Stipe as "one of my favorite songs, off of one of my favorite albums." Pop Song 89 was also sort of a surprise, but really great.
The Great Beyond was introduced as being one of the new songs they had done for the movie "Man on the Moon. And since they used a title of one of our songs, which we'll be getting around to later..." The great Beyond proved to be a great song, I remember the line "Like Pushing an elephant upstairs" and Michael running around the stage, doing some shadow boxing too.
Throughout the show, the whole band was animated. Michael was all over the stage, doing all of his dances. Peter was doing spins and jumps, and Mike was also moving around a lot -- frequently going over to the audience on the extreme left side, once totally disappearing. Touring instrumentalist Scott Mcaughey was always hopping around, with a tall hat on. (I kept thinking of him as looking like Kid Rock for some ungodly reason, with the top hat and long hair).
The lights were always fun to watch, the various shapes going off at times -- PRAHA, a plane, the can of milk, the bathroom signs, REM puzzle pieces, bombs, the flower, security camera, roast turkey, corrosive warning label with hand and 30, DNA helix, and Alto with arrows pointing up. Man on the moon closed the main part of the show, with the Thank You! light lit up at the end as the band walked out.
The encore was great, with a fire version of End of The world that seems to continue on forever. Michael passed the mike to someone in the front row, who screamed the chorus surprisingly well. It was passed on to other people; the rest were not good. Michael yelling "AND I FEEL FIIINE!" with his hands out was great. After they had left the stage with many waves and good-byes, a roadie rushed out to unplug Peter's Rickenbacker which was dishing out crazy feedback. I was alarmed how quickly the lights went up and the music started playing on the PA. It was sinking in already though, that I had just witnessed a spectacular concert by my favorite band of all time.
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