#remgorge

David Wu Reviews

It was "hat time" for Mike Mills all throughout the show, wearing a white cowboy hat. And instead of Mike saying "f---," like he did in 90nights/6days, it was one of Mike's quotes that resulted in Stipe saying that word instead.

"Rain is good..." began Mills, "because it makes the grass grow."

After a pause, Michael incredulously glanced over at Mike. "Mike, did you just make a pot reference??? What the f---!!!" Then after a few seconds, Michael said something like "I'll take it."

So anyway, The Gorge presents huge TV-dimension monitors to both the left and right of the mainstage, both playing identical feeds. Instead of just a regular sequence of shots of the band taken at different angles, R.E.M. took this a dozen steps further to capture the spirit of the album and the Vincent Moon tendencies: lots of high-contrast black and white. lots of saturated color. lots of multiple feeds shown in various-sized bars. "hollow man" video showing lyrics as "hollow man" was played, fading into the band again. "final straw" lyrics transparently showing through while the song was played.

And yes, they did Harborcoat. They also did Ignoreland. For that song, they performed it at a slightly lower key than what is on Automatic. One minor difference... "1980-84-88-92 too" and he didn't repeat the word "too" a second time.

On the first chord of the bridge of Ignoreland, Peter gave a nod of a approval to Scott, and Peter seemed to mouth the words "this is great!"

And yes it was soaking wet. But not for me. The entire band as well as 99% of the audience had to succumb to taking the rain, which was coming down at an angle because of the wind. I was in a dry sweet spot at the front of the stage, haha. I was actually surprised that they kept the show going because of all the electrical devices onstage. Poor Bill Rieflin was probably soaked the most.

As mentioned in a previous post, "Let Me In" involved Peter on the organ and all other members of the performing band surrounding it at the far left (to the audience) of the stage. Bill Rieflin was on guitar.

I would have twittered, I would have typed in the setlist, but I was in front of the stage, and Michael (who by the way made contact with me numerous times during the show) would clearly have seen me working the phone - and I didn't want to seem impolite or distracted.

In all the other concerts I was at, someone usually had posted a setlist by the time I got home. In any case, for those who were there, please post the setlist.

For now, I'll do my best to recap some of the songs that were indeed performed, not listed in order yet:

More after the break

NOTE: NOT YET IN ORDER, AND NOT COMPLETE...
Living Well
WTFK
Drive
Auctioneer
LAHTLI
Harborcoat
Hollow Man
MSW
Ignoreland
LMR
Let Me In
Walk Unafraid
These Days
Final Straw (the audience actually got into this song, and so did Buck)
The One I Love
Accelerate
Houston
I'm Gonna DJ
----------
Orange Crush
Supernatural Superserious
Man on the Moon

The order, again, isn't correct. But we'll see how close I came to naming all the songs.

By far, it was the youngest crowd that I have seen watching an R.E.M. concert. As in the Vancouver show, it was probably due to the fact that MM and The National drew a younger crowd to begin with. But lots of young fans (much younger than me) were calling out for Orange Crush and E-Bow (they only played the former). Losing My Religion became a sing-along fest.

At the end of the show, all the bandmembers applauded the audience as well.

What made it my favorite live show of all time? It was the interaction between the band and the audience. Michael was posing for the cameras mid-song. Peter was frequently acknowledging the audience (he nodded his head in approval as he saw me mouthing the words to "Hollow man"). Mike was thoroughly enjoying himself, and even when he was testing the stage around him to test the traction because of the rain, it didn't seem like work for him.

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