R.E.M. puts on a show at Songwriters Hall of Fame
Iconic rock band R.E.M. reunited to perform at the Songwriters Hall of Fame. They were among the 2024 inductees along with Timbaland.
If there’s ever going to be a Michael Stipe biopic, Michael Shannon has aced the unofficial audition.
Since last year, the Oscar-, Emmy- and Tony-nominated actor has taken on an interesting new role: touring rock singer. Partnering with Superchunk guitarist Jason Narducy, Shannon has led an R.E.M. tribute band.
In a performance at the Turner Hall Ballroom in Milwaukee Thursday, Shannon, 50, showcased a talent for tribute without mimicry.
Shannon, 50, certainly wasn’t an aspiring copycat — especially when his adrenaline got the better of him as he sang the night’s most rocking numbers. But it was uncanny at times how much the deep-voiced actor echoed the sweetness of Stipe’s voice, channeled his aura and, at times, even his look.
The group is rounded out by Narducy’s Superchunk bandmate Jon Wurster on drums, Wilco bassist John Stirratt, Poi Dog Pondering’s Dag Juhlin on guitar and keyboardist Vijay Tellis-Nayak.
For the concert kickoff, Shannon performed “Feeling Gravity’s Pull,” sporting large-lens glasses and a patterned button-up shirt that could have been yanked from Stipe’s closet.
Shannon also peppered the performance with dramatic Stipe-like gestures — palms theatrically pushed outward and sideways, his body twisted as he sang.
The two-hour-and-six-minute set wasn’t a conventional tribute show — much to its benefit.
R.E.M.’s biggest hits didn’t make the cut — no “Losing My Religion,” “Stand,” “The One I Love,” or “Shiny Happy People.” Only three songs from Thursday’s 31-song setlist appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 — “Daysleeper,” “Radio Free Europe” and “So. Central Rain.” But the band made room for plenty of deep cuts.
It amounted to a show that R.E.M. diehards could truly admire. And for anyone who didn’t fit in that category, Thursday’s performance was a stirring reminder of just how rich and singular the band’s catalog really is.
When the band reached the end of the “Reconstruction” portion of the program, Shannon praised the poetic and musical depths of such a concise album and bluntly dismissed its detractors as “full of crap.”
The album presentation was just the beginning, with 20 more splendidly and lovingly played songs that followed.
Anyone who’s admired the intensity Shannon brought to his meatiest roles — in Guillermo Del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” for instance, or HBO gangster saga “Boardwalk Empire” — saw it in the crazed eyes he flashed during a cover of Wire’s “Strange,” or the way he buried his anguished face in his palms during “Crazy.”
Shannon also shared a touching beauty rarely seen in his screen work, his voice achingly pretty for a dreamy and warm “Daysleeper” and for “So Central Rain,” which he sang sitting on the stage with just Narducy on guitar for the start of a five-song encore.
We may never see an R.E.M. concert again, but for the fans at Turner Hall in Milwaukee on Thursday, this was a sweet alternative.
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