At last, R.E.M.
It's taken ten years, but on Saturday I finally got around to seeing R.E.M. live, at the rescheduled Hyde Park date that was originally meant to be last weekend. It was an awesome gig (thanks also to wetsleeve's company), and served to reinforce the fact that R.E.M. are still my favourite band. The only real downside was the wait for a coach home afterwards - I think it was over an hour and a half before we were finally able to get on an Oxford Tube.
Setlist:
- Bad Day
- What's The Frequency, Kenneth?
- The One I Love
- Drive
- Outsiders
- Sitting Still
- Wanderlust
- Animal
- Leaving New York
- Everybody Hurts
- Electron Blue
- Me In Honey
- Electrolite
- So Fast So Numb
- E-bow The Letter (with Patti Smith - woohoo!)
- Final Straw
- Orange Crush
- Walk Unafraid
- Losing My Religion
- Imitation Of Life
- Great Beyond
- Nightswimming
- It's The End Of The World As We Know It
- I'm Gonna DJ
- Man On The Moon
Support was from Johnathon Rice (alright, nothing special), Idlewild (good), and Feeder (very good, possibly enough for me to finally get into them). Sadly the Zutons, who were originally going to support, couldn't make the rescheduled date - a shame since I was looking forward to seeing them.
On Sunday I went to the Zodiac to see Josh Rouse, supported by Truman Falls. It was packed - I'm not sure if it was full, but if not it was certainly close. Great atmosphere - the audience were very into it. I nearly bought one of Josh's albums, but in the end decided that I'm going to be spending more than enough next weekend at Truck Festival, so held off and merely added it to the mental to-buy list.