Michael Shannon and Jason Narducy’s R.E.M. covers show returned to New York City’s Brooklyn Steel tonight and Michael Stipe joined them on two songs he hadn’t performed in 18 years: “These Days” (from 1986’s Lifes Rich Pageant) and “The Great Beyond” (from 1999’s Man On The Moon soundtrack).
Stipe (and Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Bill Berry) first joined Shannon and Narducy at their Athens, Georgia hometown’s 40 Watt Club in February 2024. Stipe did not sing then, but it was the first time all four R.E.M. bandmates were onstage together in 17 years. (The group’s actual reunion performance came at their Songwriters Hall Of Fame induction that summer.) Stipe then joined Shannon and Narducy last year for “Pretty Persuasion” in Athens and Brooklyn.
Shannon and Narducy’s bandmates on this Lifes Rich Pageant 40th anniversary tribute tour are guitarist Dag Juhlin, keyboardist Vijay Tellis-Nayak, bassist John Stirratt, and drummer Jon Wurster. It concludes in Narducy’s Evanston, Illinois hometown next week, but they’ll be back for a few shows in the US and UK in September. When the tour rolled through Athens last week, Berry, Buck, and auxiliary member Scott McCaughey made surprise appearances too.
You can check out the Brooklyn Steel video and setlist (they didn’t do “Everybody Kirks” for some reason) below, and read our We’ve Got A File On You interview with Michael Shannon here.
SETLIST
“Life’s Rich Pageant
“Begin The Begin”
“These Days”
“Fall On Me”
“Cuyahoga”
“Hyena”
“Underneath The Bunker”
“The Flowers Of Guatemala”
“I Believe”
“What If We Give It Away?”
“Just A Touch”
“Swan Swan H”
“Superman”
“Lotus”
“Gardening At Night”
“Fretless”
“Carnival Of Sorts (Boxcars)”
“How The West Was Won And Where It Got Us”
“Burning Down”
“Fireplace”
“E-Bow The Letter”
“Crush With Eyeliner”
“The Lifting”
“You Are The Everything”
“These Days” (with Michael Stipe)
“The Great Beyond” (with Michael Stipe)
Encore:
“Pilgrimage”
“Me In Honey”
“Try Not To Breathe”
“Sitting Still”
“Radio Free Europe”
“Star 69”
