284 replies to this topic

[MaddeningLoops]

As best as I can remember, it went:

Living Well Is The Best Revenge
Accelerate
Drive
Man-Sized Wreath
Electrolite
Houston
Hollow Man
Supernatural Superserious
Final Straw
Losing My Religion
The Great Beyond
I'm Gonna DJ
Horse To Water
-----------------
Imitation Of Life
Until The Day Is Done
Man On The Moon

[craigp]

£55 ticket - 16 songs.

[twistedkitemike]

You are quite right. That was it.

And when I say that was it, that was it.

I have to say, I was expecting a bit more. Just a bit.

That was as safe as wearing two condoms. Too safe.

Not impressed.





Mike.......................................................................

[craigp]

its was a radio 2 set played for a radio 2 audeince.

yawn.

shame really because the new stuff did sound good.

[craigp]

how pointless was the whole talking in the encore part.  ugh.

[MaddeningLoops]

Right, I really don't want to be negative or seem ungrateful. I know there are thousands of people across the world who would have done anything to be there, so I want to get it straight that I am thoroughly aware of that.

But I can't help feel that while it was worth going, it wasn't worth £50 and that it was a little sub-par.

The new songs, the main thing I went for of course, were phenomenal. I agreed with those who said Supernatural Superserious was poor live before, well, they've bumped it up the setlist and it's a corker now. I'm Gonna DJ has NEVER sounded better and they completely nailed Accelerate and Horse To Water. The new songs are all so wonderful live and to get 9 of them was a real treat.

The other 7...well, that says it all again I guess, because a 16-song set (unless I have missed out one or two) just seemed far too short. They came on late, left early, and padded out the encore with ramblings no one apart from Michael wanted to be a part of when they could easily have played something else. Again, don't get me wrong - I have never enjoyed LMR so much...Mike even went out into the audience with his bass, and all problems Imitation Of Life seems to have on the radio are basically non-existant in the flesh. And The Great Beyond was wonderful too. And I'm sure many here will celebrate the dropping of Walk Unafraid.

But I think this must be the first time EVER they didn't play a single IRS song. And you would usually hope for at least one total obscurity to poke its head above the water. But this was the most predictable set ever, or 3 songs short of that. So that was maybe a bit disappointing.

I can understand they have been on a long promo tour and so are probably a bit tired. I'm sure they'll get some good rest in the next few weeks and come back all fired up for the US/CAN tour.

So don't get me wrong, it was great fun and the new songs rock and the old songs continue to, but something was amiss tonight.

I've got some more corking videos which I'll put up on YouTube tonight or tomorrow - actually I think I videoed the whole thing except for Accelerate, Drive, Electrolite and The Great Beyond.

[craigp]

it is not a venue that is ever going to get the crowd going and most of them were in their 40's anyway, i think that partly contributed.

i was in a box on the second tier it did sound great from where i was.

and please you cant put the shortness and predictability of the set down to tiredness.

[Sam]

MaddeningLoops said:

As best as I can remember, it went:


Drive
Electrolite
Final Straw
Losing My Religion
The Great Beyond
Imitation Of Life
Man On The Moon

again?!?!?!

I know, I know.  Promo shows.  Need to play the hits for the non-standard crowd.  But between Langerado, SXSW and now this, its getting quite repetitive.  I accept that LMR and MOTM are mainstays . . . but there could be a bit more variety.

Oh well, from what I can tell the new songs sound fantastic, so that has me excited for the tour.  Can't bitch about setlists before the official tour even kicks off, but this does give me a bit of pause.

I didn't hear the encore, but I take it Stipe did another rambling monologue, huh?  That killed the flow of the SXSW show.  Let's hope it doesn't become a habit.

[Soozy]

I pretty much agree with what's been said already. What they played was amazing, lots of energy, the new songs sounded excellent as did the old ones. I know the first hour was for Radio 2, and they did start 10 minutes late (which I think was mainly due to the Duke Spirit getting behind and no-one catching up), but I think the encore time was mostly wasted. They had half an hour - that's enough for a little chat and then 4 or 5 songs. They didn't even play until 11 - they could have slotted in another song quite easily.  I was also very disappointed by not having a single song from before Out of Time  :(

[MaddeningLoops]

craigp said:

it is not a venue that is ever going to get the crowd going and most of them were in their 40's anyway, i think that partly contributed.

i was in a box on the second tier it did sound great from where i was.

and please you cant put the shortness and predictability of the set down to tiredness.

I'm just trying not to be too negative because I was fortunate enough to have been there where others weren't.

But truth is yes, tiredness is not an excuse, because if that's the case they shouldn't play at all.

The encore ramble was about their experiences of the Albert Hall. Peter, Bill and Scott seriously weren't interested and Mike dozed off while Michael was banging on about some fashion thing he'd done there *yawn* coulda played So. Central Rain etc. in that time

[kizmatica]

The good: Bill Rieflin was amazing. I haven't such a performance by anyone before! He seemed to be really enjoying himself. Michael was great (voice as good as i can remember), Mike was a completely different character to the one i saw bored in Hyde Park. Great mood!  Peter + Scott were the same as usual! :)


The bad: The sound was awful. Was this really the Royal Albert Hall? :S

The setlist- Ok I realise it was for radio, but when they came back on (after the broadcast) he said something along the lines of "we can do whatever we want now". Was I Excited? Hell yeah! Bring on the rarities! Oh wait, IOL? MOTM? ..... show over.


The band were great, seemed to be really enjoying themselves and are sounding tighter each time i see them. The show itself though- just left me feeling 'meh'.

I just have this empty feeling about the whole night. Sorry.

[Catalpa tree]

Well I've just got home and have been thinking exactly what MaddeningLoops has just said.

I am so, so, so grateful that I was there and it pains me to say this but something was definitely missing tonight. It was either new songs (all sounded great though) or obvious classics. A good 20 songs with a few surprises / IRS songs (even one surprise / IRS song) would have been so much better.

I think even the band knew that it hadn't been the best show - Michael said at the end that he hadn't got his tour legs yet.

I also wish they'd drop Final Straw. I think it’s got the same feel as Until the Day is Done which is a much better song. But that’s just my very humble opinion and I’ll still look forward to next time...

[craigp]

fair enough other people wernt there - i was lucky to go, my friends paid almost £200 for the ticket for me as a birthday present, so I am more than grateful for their generosity, if I had paid that myself (and i might have done) I would have been furious with only seeing 16 songs.

[MaddeningLoops]

kizmatica said:

The setlist- Ok I realise it was for radio

If they went in with that attitude that it was for radio listeners not the fans that forked out £50 for tickets then that, frankly, is disgusting. Fair play they played most of the new songs in the main set to get them radio exposure, but bad bad call if their main motive was to appease Radio 2 listeners.

What's the best way to deflate an audience?...

"We released that song [Final Straw] over the internet the day the US invaded Iraq, which was five years ago. I heard on the news the other day that 4000 men had died. Dick Cheney, our Vice President, said 'they volunteered' - good one. Here's a beautiful song called Losing My Religion"

[lurex]

I recorded the bbc2 streaming... I put the mp3s on rapidshare:
http://rapidshare.co...t_Hall.rar.html

[remthebest]

quite amusing that neither the support acts, or REM, thanked the ICA!

[MMR253]

Just home from RAH.

I'd agree with a lot of what's been said so far in this thread, as soon as I heard the show was being broadcast live on R2 I had a feeling it'd be a pretty safe setlist. The new songs sounded great though Best Revenge, Accelerate and Man Size Wreath especially.

kizmatica is spot one about the encore, the "we can do what we want" comment raised hopes for some unexpected stuff but sadly it never materialised partly thanks to far too much yapping.

Glad I went because I ended up with fantastic seats 2nd row seats but it, or at least the encore, could have been better.

Thanks for the rapidshare up lurex.

[chortle]

Tom, I'm going to agree basically whole heartedly with what you've said!

I can safely say that of all the REM shows I've been to, this was the one I'll remember least. The setting was fantastic. I had phenomenal seats. The support groups were good (from what I saw- I skipped the Duke Sprit for 2 over priced beers). REM however, weren't great. The setlist, in my opinion, was dire. The new songs were fantastic- except having Unitil the Day as the penultimate song (especially after Michael's ramblings about stories). As was pointed out to me by a muchly learned friend (Tom, i nod in your direction) there were no IRS songs. And what made Dublin, argueably the birthplace of many of these new songs, sound so fantastic was the way that older songs seemed to fit so well with album 14s offerings.

I don't know whether it was the fact they were aware of the history of the RAH or if it was because it was going out to radio 2 or a mix of both, but the show suffered. Considering it was in aid of the ICA, I was a little surprised that there wasn't any mention of this made at all.

As for Michael excusing it for not having his tour legs, I find that hard to take in. I don't care that he was running around the stage like a possessed whirlwind circa 1988, but what I think we ALL missed was the banter. A sense of humanity rather than 'Hi we're REM, these are our songs, see you in the summer.'

I think this has come out as more of a rant than anything else, and perhaps it is. I was trying to structure it in my head on the way home, attemping to explain it to my friend but essentially I said I was frustrated. The scene was set for something special. And what we got was certainly not. Yes I do appreciate that I was incredibly lucky to go but I'm not going to pretend I was thrilled at what I saw. I don't think we should hide our disappointment at the show- we each shelled out quite a bit of money to be there!

Ahh well. The main positive is that the new songs are great live. I love DJ and LWITBR. I still love REM but I hope Michael finds his legs and that Peter and Mike find their setlist writing skills. And fast.

[-kawada-]

I listened on the radio. An REM show instead of Mark Radcliffe seems a fair trade :p

All I have to say is that I haven't followed the Accelerate build-up at all so far, except for hearing and enjoying Supernatural Superserious on the radio very regularly. Hearing this has got me quite excited about the record, as the new songs sounded great, I think I'm going to have to buy it on release day after all.

Oh and £50... Ouch.

[NewToREM]

Just got back from this.  Good performance but poor setlist.  I "sat" there hoping for a song I just loved... No IRS, No Rock from Hi-Fi, no Monster and too many from Accelerate!

I don't want to sound ungrateful but I couldn't help feel underwhelmed.