This is the same exact thing I posted on xanga, just to warn you..
Yesterday was the best day of my life. The only thing that went wrong was my dad forgetting to tape the beginning of SNL, so I missed Bono singing "Vertigo". Damnit. On the bright side, I did get to see a new song of theirs, that I haven't looked up the name of, and "I Will Follow", which was beautiful. Anyway, there's more than enough positive happenings of last night to focus on!!
Oh. My. God. R.E.M. was so incredible live. They were better than The Presidents and The Pixies combined. They were better than I'd ever imagined them being. I can't believe people say they're "old and tired" or some shit. They had a wild amount of energy throughout the whole show. Not to mention that Michael Stipe was utterly delicious.
They opened with "Around The Sun" from their new album, and Michael was wearing tight black jeans and a black suit jacket over a black button-up shirt. He also had a streak of crazy black make-up across his eyes, so it looked like he was wearing the mask that Thora Birch wears in Ghost World. It was extremely cool on him. After "Around The Sun", they played "Finest Worksong" which ROCKED, and is one of my favorite 80's R.E.M. songs.
Eh, paragraph form is boring now. Here's a list of some of my favorite parts:
-"Losing My Religion", which is Leslie's favorite song, so she was losing her religion right about then.
-When Michael was talking about his process of lyric-writing and someone shouted out, "DON'T STOP!", so Michael yelled back, "I'M NOT GOING TO STOP!"
-When Michael took the buckle off of his pants and.. erm.. READJUSTED facing the audience! Also, when he untucked his black shirt and was basically grinding the mike stand.. Yes.
-"The One I Love"
-The extra-long encore, which began with "What's The Frequency, Kenneth?"
-During the encore when Michael lifted up his shirt ALL the way, and Leslie screamed, "SOMEONE'S BEEN DOING THEIR CRUNCHES!"
-Pretty much anything that has to do with Michael dancing. I need to take a few lessons from that man. He had the fucking moves.
-When Michael announced that they were going to play a couple more songs, an unreleased one from 1980, and another unreleased one from this year, and he said, "So, it's up to you to figure out what the fuck happened between 1980 and 2004," Muuuahahahhaha. He said fuck. The songs were great, though, especially the one from this year, because there's a lyric from it on the tour '04 shirt I bought before the concert. It's "Music will provide the light you cannot resist".
After those two unreleased songs, Leslie and I were panicking, thinking that they might not play anything else. How dumb of us. Why would they close with unreleased songs, anyway? That's when I heard the opening to "Man on The Moon", my favorite R.E.M. song of all time!! I was singing along the whole time, completely lost in "the light" I couldn't resist. It was hypnotic when everyone began singing the "yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah"(s) in unison, Michael holding the microphone out to us. It was the best series of moments, and the best song of my life. Coincidental that I've had that song as the theme to this site for the past few days, isn't it? Coincidence, maybe.
I once heard that there's a fine line between coincidence and fate.
Anyway, that was the best night of my life. There's probably a plethora of details that I have unknowingly omitted. My apologies. It's sad that it's over, though. Kind of like the day or two after Christmas, when you know it's not coming for another year.. Except that I haven't the slightest idea when R.E.M. will come back to town. I am definitely seeing them again, though! Who's coming with me?!!?!
Oh. My. God. R.E.M. was so incredible live. They were better than The Presidents and The Pixies combined. They were better than I'd ever imagined them being. I can't believe people say they're "old and tired" or some shit. They had a wild amount of energy throughout the whole show. Not to mention that Michael Stipe was utterly delicious.
They opened with "Around The Sun" from their new album, and Michael was wearing tight black jeans and a black suit jacket over a black button-up shirt. He also had a streak of crazy black make-up across his eyes, so it looked like he was wearing the mask that Thora Birch wears in Ghost World. It was extremely cool on him. After "Around The Sun", they played "Finest Worksong" which ROCKED, and is one of my favorite 80's R.E.M. songs.
Eh, paragraph form is boring now. Here's a list of some of my favorite parts:
-"Losing My Religion", which is Leslie's favorite song, so she was losing her religion right about then.
-When Michael was talking about his process of lyric-writing and someone shouted out, "DON'T STOP!", so Michael yelled back, "I'M NOT GOING TO STOP!"
-When Michael took the buckle off of his pants and.. erm.. READJUSTED facing the audience! Also, when he untucked his black shirt and was basically grinding the mike stand.. Yes.
-"The One I Love"
-The extra-long encore, which began with "What's The Frequency, Kenneth?"
-During the encore when Michael lifted up his shirt ALL the way, and Leslie screamed, "SOMEONE'S BEEN DOING THEIR CRUNCHES!"
-Pretty much anything that has to do with Michael dancing. I need to take a few lessons from that man. He had the fucking moves.
-When Michael announced that they were going to play a couple more songs, an unreleased one from 1980, and another unreleased one from this year, and he said, "So, it's up to you to figure out what the fuck happened between 1980 and 2004," Muuuahahahhaha. He said fuck. The songs were great, though, especially the one from this year, because there's a lyric from it on the tour '04 shirt I bought before the concert. It's "Music will provide the light you cannot resist".
After those two unreleased songs, Leslie and I were panicking, thinking that they might not play anything else. How dumb of us. Why would they close with unreleased songs, anyway? That's when I heard the opening to "Man on The Moon", my favorite R.E.M. song of all time!! I was singing along the whole time, completely lost in "the light" I couldn't resist. It was hypnotic when everyone began singing the "yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah"(s) in unison, Michael holding the microphone out to us. It was the best series of moments, and the best song of my life. Coincidental that I've had that song as the theme to this site for the past few days, isn't it? Coincidence, maybe.
I once heard that there's a fine line between coincidence and fate.
Anyway, that was the best night of my life. There's probably a plethora of details that I have unknowingly omitted. My apologies. It's sad that it's over, though. Kind of like the day or two after Christmas, when you know it's not coming for another year.. Except that I haven't the slightest idea when R.E.M. will come back to town. I am definitely seeing them again, though! Who's coming with me?!!?!